I had another pleasant surprise this afternoon (in addition to Gabriella's good news). An editor I haven't worked with in over a year e-mailed to say she finally has a freelance budget again, and she was checking to see if I'm open to assignments. Let's see….the pay about the same as the late-payer, but pay like clockwork. Of course I'm interested.

Devon, what you said – working harder instead of smarter. Wow. That resonates. Did the same here. We do get out of balance sometimes, don't we? Good luck on sorting the two books at once (you amaze me!).

Nikki, that note you got would frustrate me no end. That client is making your job twice as hard by staring over your shoulder. Market hard, girl. Time to drop that one.

Sounds like a decent enough month, Paula. Lots in the works, eh? I hear you on converting all that to dollars!

Gabriella, that's FANTASTIC news! Oh, I'm so glad to hear things are going well again. Amen!! How are you feeling? And that client – a keeper. What a thoughtful, understanding person!

Denene, it could be the time of year, could be the clients you're reaching out to… could be anything. Try to find the source, but keep digging for work elsewhere.

And you're right – that's the attitude to have regarding job listings!

I did send out quite a few LOIs and got several responses and requests for clips. So I added some new prospects to the list. 🙂

PS. I love your attitude on job listings. LOL!

"Job listings:
Didn't even look. Those aren't my clients." Ditto!

What surprised me? That I had a pretty decent month considering the fact that I had surgery.

Earnings are solid, but not great. But I'll take it considering how much time I lost this month. I did very little work for about two weeks, and I'm still not yet working full days. Still very tired!

The stunner is that I landed a new client–and a big one to boot! Right before surgery, I talked to a potential client who needs someone to manage and write for her org's online publication.

I was totally frank with her: I'm having pretty serious surgery this month and I have no idea how future treatments might muck up my schedule. She said, that's fine. We're a bi-monthly, so I think you'll have plenty of time to plan around treatment. Whah?! Anyway, wonderful news!

November is looking fairly average, but that's fine with me, too. My goal is to not lose money while I'm recuperating. So far, I haven't.

And since I'm sure you're all dying to hear, I'm doing great. I was released from the hospital the day after my mastectomy/reconstruction, and I had no lymph node spread. All the other pathology unknowns fell in my favor, too.

I'm currently awaiting lab results that will tell me whether I even need chemo. Odds are I won't, but that's not a definite, and I'm just hanging around with a hopeful attitude. Life is good, so I won't worry about money!

Nutshell: Bad, but slightly better than last month's dreadful.

Here we go…

Queries & LOIs – I sent about a dozen queries to Favorite Editor, who will probably be assigning within a week or so. I sent four LOIs, heard back from two. One has no freelance budget, the other said my timing was perfect and my background was a great match for their magazine. I followed up on a couple of last month's LOIs, to no avail.

Listings – replied to one, just as about a thousand other people probably did. Yet another reason to seek out your own opportunities.

Existing Clients – sent in two columns and two articles to two different clients, one a long-time one and the other was to the new knitting publication. Over the weekend, another long-time client assigned me a rush job – two short articles due by Thursday. I should be able to write one today and if all of the sources come through I can get the second one in tomorrow. I'm also wrapping up an article for the slow-payer…and they won't see this article until they pay for my 2,500-word article and sidebar that ran in their September issue.

New Clients – as noted above, one of my LOIs resulted in an immediate response. The trade mag's editor and I discussed rates, expectations, etc… and she asked if I'd like to do a specific story. I know from experience that the place she wanted to feature doesn't do trade press, so we've been batting around alternate approaches and ideas. Feels like an assignment may be coming soon.

Earnings – only about half of my modest monthly goal. After last month's near-record low, any "cushion" is pretty much gone, and heating season is here, so my last couple months of marketing really need to start paying off – in dollars.

What does this mean? I'm taking it as a positive to really get my butt in gear this month and actively market. This means getting over that fear of querying and putting myself out there… REALLY OUT THERE.

As for NaNo… I really want to do it but I don't know if I can squeeze out 2500 words today. But I'll try!

October was a month where I worked hard instead of smart, so I have to get that back in balance. I realized I'm outgrowing a particular work situation, but I want to line up a few things and ease out instead of leaping, so the groundwork for that must be set this month.

I'm happy with the new book's progress, and still struggling to finish another book, so I have to get that sorted out.

I'll be gone 10 days and while I'll get some work done before I start the Walk, I know it's going to be a slow month with my trip and Thanksgiving.

Can you believe we are talking about November and Thanksgiving? Where does the time go?

What surprised me? It wasn't a total surprise, but worked out even better than I thought – my favorite client left her health care management company and went to a logistics management firm (international exporting and importing transportation). She hired me to help with marketing efforts. I knew exactly a huge big zero about the industry. You think healthcare has acronyms? They've got nothing on the logistics industry. Anyway, a marketing piece, and a few blog posts later, I'm working in the logistics industry – and loving it.

We really can step outside our comfort zone and succeed. 🙂