Na, Nooooooo!

It's October! The morning air is actually crispy and nice feeling for an hour or two before we go back to the Texas usual. The first cool mornings of autumn always make me happy. Then sad when the heat comes back for another 6-8 weeks, lol.

More importantly, October means that www.nanowrimo.org is open for the business for the new year in preparation for November which, as we should all know by now since this is my 4th year to blog it, is National Novel Writing Month. I'm signed up again this year, and, since the icon off to the right over there is a live update, it has even already reset for 2008.

Wish me luck? I've never tried NaNo while freelancing and holding down a full-time job; this, like the Chinese curse, is going to be interesting. This year I'm doing what I can only call literary fiction. It might be popular fiction, I'm a little unclear (as are many people, I think) on the line between the two. Guess I'll know in 2 months, right?

Oh, yes, and, speaking of freelancing... I am taking new projects again--strictly project work, mostly small stuff and no long-term commitments... After 6 weeks to adjust, mama is back in the writer's seat again - yee haw!

Capital "I"

Pet peeve alert! I've been reading a lot of websites lately in preparation for some interviews I'll be doing, and most of them are for virtual professionals. People who work primarily or exclusively on the Internet.

Yes, "I"nternet. It is a proper noun, folks, and begins with a capital letter. It boggles me that people are making the Internet the main source of their income and livelihood, yet they can't be bothered to learn the correct capitalization? Urgh.

Yes, it's petty of me be bugged by this, but I am. Maybe I'm just a spelling snob, but when I read the word 'internet' on a web professional's site, especially if they are a web copywriter or designer-the folks who really ought to know better, it just bugs me.

Oh, and for the record, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing though they are frequently used interchangeably. For more info on the difference, check out this tidbit on the I-nternet at Wikipedia.com.

Starving Artists

Writers qualify as starving artists. It's true!

And all thanks to people who think like the one who wrote this Craigslist ad:

Looking for freelance writers to write some articles.
If you require pay, what is your rate?

Are they serious? "If you require pay"?!?! I am easy-going, and, frankly undercharge for my services, but not quite THAT much.


If you do need a writer, and really, truly, cannot afford one, try to make it a little more appealing than the above.

And more honest than the one who emailed asking me to write for free because they cannot afford professional writing. I visited the site they wanted re-written. Their hourly rate is over 3x mine, yet they cannot afford professional services. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to work for free, a point that seems to be overlooked far too often.

Clips are nice, sure, but they don't pay the bills.

Shameless Self Promotion

Ah, my first blog. I am actually a little ashamed to say I am not an avid blog fan. The only ones I've ever read were linked to from someone's email or website. I've never sought them out. I don't have any bookmarked to see what new wit, wisdom, or gobbledygook some stranger is pounding out on the keyboard that day. In short, WTH do I have my own.

Truthfully? I *don't* know. I just don't. I just joined a new (to me) writing group, MomWriters (www.momwriters.com) and a number of the messages from other members included blog links this weekend. I was intrigued. I followed the link. I read their blogs...

In a way, blogging is a bit weird to me. So many of them are essentially personal journals published on the internet. How brave is that? I'd be terribly afraid I'd rant on about a neighbor driving me nuts, the 'evil' kid who teased my daughter at school, the moron teaching my new writing class, whatever, and a few days later the person in question would come up to me with a printout of my blog and want to know WTH my problem is. Trust me, with my luck & karma, this is EXACTLY how it would go.

So, I'm planning this blog to be a bit more professional, a bit of blatant self-promotion. I have recently hung out my shingle as a freelance business writer and virtual assistant. If you want to know what a VA is, check out www.ivaa.org; they have a great definition that I don't want to re-type. Obviously, if you write, people want to know what you've written. Well, now I can add blogging to my currently painfully thin list of credits and move on, and send them somewhere to get an idea of my style. Maybe. Still not sure I want to actually tell anyone I'm doing this!

That ought to be enough to get me started. Since this is only semi-professional, I can now admit I'm going to post this and go indulge in another guilty online pleasure, a rousing hour or so of 'City of Heroes'.

G'Night World - Wish me Luck (or at least a minimum of typos)
Dy