Making good on a promise

I knew as soon as I came home from the magazine conference I should have organized my notes and thoughts. But I was so crazy busy with school and freelancing. I just didn't have the time to stop for a minute. Until now. Truth be told, I really don't have the time now either. But I'm doing it anyway.

Here are the great things I learned at the conference in no particular order:

Photo editor from Backpacker says: Blogs are becoming more important and a Web site is definitely worth spending some money on.

Did you know that when you put your photos on Flickr you have signed away some of your rights to them?

And if you put them on Facebook, you have signed away ALL of the rights to them, and they can use them however they please.

The last two are important if say you go on a vacation and then want to write an article about it and supply photos. Sorry, you just lost the byline because they can't use your photos now.

When you are doing interviews for articles, always be thinking beyond just the article you are working on. All the editors and freelancers talked about repackaging. You might write about your summer abroad in Italy for one pub. Then later you might write about an Italian cooking class you took while you were there. Okay, that might be a lame example, but you get the idea. Get more bang for your buck whenever you can.

This is totally off-topic, but if anyone is considering a life as a photographer, I heard a really inspiring story. This woman whose work is sometimes in The New York Times, sold photos to one of those stock photo places....maybe Corbis or Getty... anyway, Disney liked her work and got in touch with her through the photo place. So she shoots their promotional stuff and their per day rate is $10,000. Yes, $10,000 per day she makes for taking pictures of kids and Disney characters. Not a bad gig.

Really important stuff about being a writer if you choose the freelance route per Michelle Theall (and embellished a bit by me), Founder and Publisher of Women's Adventure magazine, and author, writer, etc. Some of this stuff you've heard before, but a reminder never hurts:

• First, when someone asks you what you do, say "I am a writer." Don't hesitate or in some way try to qualify the statement. Own it. You are a writer.
  
• Make yourself learn to use Quickbooks.
• Set up a company. See an attorney and decide what is best for you—LLC, S-Corp, sole proprietorship?
• Track your queries, submissions, jobs and deadlines. Many days it may seem that you do more "business" than writing, but if you don't you will lose more business that you maintain from not managing your business
• Maintain a database of industry contacts. Create a spreadsheet or whatever will work best for you, but when you meet someone new, make a note to yourself about them so you'll have a potential talking point when you see them again.
• Build a portfolio. And do it online so it can be accessed by editors anywhere and everywhere.
• Market yourself. This goes along with owning what you do. Now, tell everyone and show them how good you are at doing it.
• As your business grows, keep tabs on what kinds of queries are working for you and what's not. Look for patterns.
• Master the art of networking. (Insert groan here.) Yes, I know you hate it, but if you want to work, you have to do it. So put on your big girl panties and quit your whining.

Possibly the most important thing Michelle said was:

Go. See. Do. Experience. LIVE.
Quit making excuses. Now.

I do have more. Yes, I got my money's worth out of the deal. I have a lot of info on book publishing if you're thinking of writing a book. Let me know and I'll be glad to pass it along. I have more tips for freelancers, too. If you want more, let me know. My poor little fingers are tired right now. And I really do have homework.

Oh, I've been meaning to tell you...I discovered that I am really sucky at pretty much everything required of me to be a writer. I am really bad at grammar and spelling and I can't type. I'm really slow and there are two words that I screw up every single time (not exaggerating): available and homework. They normally come out looking like this: avaiable and howmeork.
Every stinking time.

Alright, I'm done.

Life is tumbling down around me

So, you know it's really bad when an avalanche of magazines is happening right next to you almost in slow motion and you do nothing about it.

My desk is a disaster. I can't work like this anymore. I have been toiling with this desk problem for awhile now. I've tried different desk arrangements. I've tried different desks. Nothing is working for me so far. Maybe I'm just a slob. I think bills are my problem. I get so damn many of them and they just clog up my space. I may attempt creating a bill paying station separate from my work area. Maybe I can just have the mailman deliver my bills to the neighbor or something. Why do I even get the stupid things? Everyone is always siphoning money out of my bank account. Can there really be more that need to be paid? Geez.

Oh, and there are the receipts. My husband is self-employed, as am I sometimes. So we have to save receipts for everything. And I'm not so much a filer. I'm apparently a piler. What's a piler to do? I'd entertain any organizing tricks you have.

Meaningless Correspondence

Dear Blogosphere,

I am sorry for my prolonged absence. I am very busy with school and freelance projects right now. I do promise to divulge the super secret insider information from the magazine writing conference. Soon.

Must. Breathe. First.

I miss you. Back again soon.

I've returned from paradise

I've been back since about 2:30 in the morning, and I am so tired. The weekend was long, but so inspiring and productive. I am compiling some notes to share about the conference. Some great ideas I picked up and some outside validation of things I've heard in school.

It's going to take me a couple of days to get it done because I'm super busy this week. I have a main edit piece for work due Friday, and three freelance articles and a sociology paper due Monday. And, the normal flow of homework for the week. So, things are crazy as usual. I need to get in a few solid hours of uninterrupted work, then I'll get some great info together for you.

The clouds hath lifted

The sun shone bright here in beautiful Boulder this afternoon. From my couch in the hotel room, where I spent most of the afternoon reading (for classes, not for fun), I could see the foothills and a couple of snow-covered peaks way off in the distance.

Tonight was the opening cocktail party for the conference. I really, really hate those kinds of situations where I know no one in the room and have to try to introduce myself and engage in conversation with strangers. It is so hard for me to do. Really hard. There is a couple here that have made a life out of traveling together, and have built a business doing slide show presentations in schools around the country teaching kids about the places they've seen. I swear there is no place left for them to go. And, most of it they've done on bicycles. Their first trip was literally around the world—like 14,000 miles they rode. Amazing. They've been to far away, remote places that I couldn't even dream of going.

So, that was the kick-off. Tomorrow is a day of lectures from 8:30am until 8:30pm. I'm very excited to be here, but a tiny part of me really wants to take a nice hike tomorrow. It's going to be sunny and 72 degrees. Good thing I didn't bring my hiking boots.

For $200 bucks a night

Preface: This post is kinda boring until the last big paragraph. I'm in a mood or something.

Jeremy (my hubby,for those of you who don't know) and I left Des Moines yesterday shortly after noon headed for our beloved Colorado. We made it to our hotel in Boulder around 10:30 Boulder-time last night. I hate getting here late because I can't see the mountains on the way in. And sadly, I can't see them this morning either. It's a bit drippy out and overcast. The clouds are perched right on top of the foothills, obscuring my view. It's plenty bright out, so I know there's a gorgeous sun up there somewhere.

I am in Boulder for this magazine conference. Jeremy left early this morning to head up into the mountains to ride motorcycles with some friends that live out here and to do trail work. He called around 8:00 this morning from Leadville where he stopped for a coffee. It was 35-degrees. He said when he went through the Eisenhower Tunnel, there was three inches of snow up there. Since his plan was to camp up there, I anticipate he may be back here at the comfy Marriott before his planned arrival Sunday afternoon.

I don't feel much like writing right now. Can you tell from how dry I am?

I do have to rant about something for a minute, then I'll be done. So, I am generally what you might call a cheap person. I don't stay at the Marriott. I stay at the $89/night place whenever possible. Cheaper if I can find it when we're on the road. But, since this conference is here, I decided to suck it up and pay the nearly $200/night rate. And, I must say, I may never sleep a wink on any other bed as long as I live 'cause this thing is pretty damn comfy. But I was completely annoyed this morning to find out there is no wireless Internet in the rooms. You either have to go into the Business Center or down to the lobby to get free Wi-Fi or pay $9.95/day to plug in to this archaic cord thing coming out of the desk. What the hell? I am paying $200 already. Now you want another $9.95 to plug in to a damn cord that is already here? It's not like I'm asking you to send a guy with a tool belt in to wire the place just for me. Even the cheap places I stay all have free Wi-Fi. What kind of crackpot place is this?

So, I hope you are all satisfied that I have spent $9.95 just to write this post.

What's in a name?

I changed my blog address if anyone cares. I decided it would be better for potential employers to find me this way.

Daily Progress

I have gone from old dog to piddling-on-the-carpet-with-excitement puppy this morning! I just figured out how to edit my html to make my in-text links open in new windows. I don't want to run the risk of someone linking out, getting lost and never finding their way back to my blog. That will never happen now. I'm giddy.

Look out, blogosphere, this old lady is on fire.

I've lost that reading feeling

My brother is a blogger. He is officially a multi-blogger. I think I just made up that term so don't steal it. It may make you sound stupid. Anyway, he blogs about his life for the most part, and by life I mean bicycling. Sometimes there are other topics, but not many. A couple of days ago he started a new blog about books. So, as I was reading his first post, and it made me think about two things. 1) Did he take my copy of Kite Runner? 2) I wrote a paper in Comp I that I need to revisit.

I wrote the Comp I paper about 3 weeks in to my return to college a few years ago. It is funny to read it now. The fifth sentence says this: Well, I am not a writer. The writing is a bit clunky, and I see a lot of edits I would make today. But my voice was already making itself heard. Even in the words: Well, I am not a writer.

It was in that class, not much later, I discovered I wanted to be a writer. Dare I say, I discovered I was a writer? I was inspired by my instructor, Rose Hoffman-Toubes.

Enough with the touchy-feely stuff. The point of the piece I wrote was about reading. (See, there is some method to my madness.) In the book, In Fact: The Best of Creative Non-Fiction by Lee Gutkind, in the introductory sections, Annie Dillard says, "You'll have time to read after college." That sentence made my neck hairs stand on end. It was like she was standing over my shoulders whispering in my ear. I was only three weeks in and I already felt like I would never get to read anything but a textbook again.

Now I'm three years in and still feel that way.

Just so we're clear

Okay, I wrote my original post. Then I let it sit. Then I wrote the second, but posted it as the first. Then posted the first as the second. Clear as murky Saylorville Lake water? Great.

Just wanted to make sure you knew that I knew the first post is really the second. Or whatever.

Dear Lord, what have I gotten myself into?

So, I just made a promise to my editing class to start this blog. For real. Ugh.

Here goes nothin'.