More On Body PartsThe flak over the Newbery-winning book that has the word “scrotum” on the first page is probably yesterday’s news (thanks to our country’s collective attention deficit disorder), but dontcha just want to revisit this topic? No? Too bad. Here’s a link sent to me by my friend Anne that describes how the…
The Folly of Industry It amazes me every time I go about the task of creating mailers and contact lists. First, let me say I hate Microsoft because it has yet to explain to me how to merge a document into labels without an hour’s worth of hair-ripping failures. Mail Merge Wizard, you say? Ha!…
Death to Paper Queries! I can’t believe it took me an hour to “dash off” a query to a major publication! It’s not the conceptualizing, nor is it the writing of the query. It’s the printing of the letter, the envelope, the sample clips and the stamping and mailing. I’m sorry – what century are…
Body Parts and Censorship If you were to read a book to a child that contained the word “scrotum”, would you be offended? Or would you see it as a no-nonsense description of a body part? That’s the controversy boiling right now over a Newbery-winning book The Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. The story,…
Breathe! Oy! (she said with her fake Irish lilt) What a week! I’ve been busy before, but this week topped it. How busy? I went through most of yesterday thinking it was Thursday! So I spent the day conducting three interviews, sitting in on a web demo of software, and writing three articles – all…
Why I Blog Another day, another meme. Today I’ve been tagged by both Kathy Kehrli and Kristen King and asked to list five reasons why I blog. So here goes: 1. I blog because I have to get it all out.The problem is there aren’t enough hours in the day or ears available when you…
Steady Work I’ll admit it – since my dry spell this past year (read that my “severe drought”) I’m much more concerned about sitting idle for more than a day. That started me on a search for regular work. And lo and behold! Didn’t I find two regular gigs? I’m here to share my hard-found…
The Phrase That Pays It worked again! For the second time in three months, I advised a colleague to use the following line at the end of a long-past-due invoice: “Please pay within 15 days to avoid litigation.” This time, my colleague and chum Kevin Prutzman applied it to a very late bill. Nearly instantly,…
I’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling Here’s to my second official bitch-and-moan day! My chum Kathy Kerhli (who taught me the fine art of bitching with style) wrote an interesting post the other day about a client who kept expecting more and more out of her long after he’d stopped paying. I thought to myself “Wow,…
Run Forrest, Run! The temptation as you’re first starting out is to take anything that pays even a penny a word. However, there comes a point in every writer’s life where the job description makes a person want to flee for the exit. Trust that feeling and read on. I had this feeling a few…