writing skills/profession

A Random Update


The paperwork from Care2 arrived in my inbox last evening, so after I fill them out and fax them back I will officially be a freelancer under contract. And then I need to get to work on my first couple of posts. I am considering the following: the effect of state budget cuts on the classroom, what parents think needs reforming and trying to coerce a union rep I know into giving me her take on the current mood in terms of reform in the coming lean years. Compelling, eh? Probably only to people in the industry, politicos and anyone with a kid still in the public education arena.

I am also charged with making comparisons between the Canadian and U.S. systems and I am going to look at online delivery and home school. The latter two are, in my opinion, done much better here. Oh, and I am going to explain the funding system in Alberta. It’s different.

Wow, I just reread what I wrote and I have a ton of work to do. Especially in light of the fact that I promise a live NaNoWriMo for November and I am working on memoir.

November will be chick lit, by the way. I have decided to tell the whole story of Julie and Walt. FYI.

Memoir has been keeping me from the blog this past bit. Not that the words aren’t flowing. They are drenching pages. Every chapter I have worked on has doubled its word count. But I am mining that painful year and a half from hospice through meeting Rob. It’s not pretty stuff and I was not a wonderful person and I have harsh assessments of myself, my family, his family and friends and the whole process that surrounds dying, death and the aftermath. I am also startling myself. The rear view is an interesting one and I am beginning to see why people were either put off by me or marveled at my fortitude. I can see too now that my way was the right way for me. The widely held notion that there are givens/milestones in the process cripples more people than it helps – but that is just my opinion.

I will be glad to get to the chapters on Rob and I. Not that there weren’t obstacles or that what we did was easy. I think people get the impression that ours is some kind of fairy tale ending. That we are anomalies. Not so. Relationships don’t spring up from magic beans. And contrary to popular (widowed person) opinion that new love distracts from grieving, it more often highlights it and forces you to give heed.

Anyway, I am working. A lot.

Blogging For Money


I haven’t got the contract yet, but I am almost officially writing for money on an education blog that is in the launching stages at Care2. I found out about the opportunity via the SVM Network, which is where 50 Something Moms blog originates. One of the editors at Care2 was looking for teachers who were interested in writing about education issues and I raised my hand in a cyber-like way via email. A short exchange and a phone interview later, I was offered a job that pays per post – not a lot – but with opportunities to boost my bottom line via page views and comments.

The editor was a bit embarrassed about the pay, but as I have been blogging for little but personal gratification and the chance to get my name out, I was happy for any writing opportunity that wasn’t based on a barter system. I am not enamored at all of the way bloggers exchange posts for stuff/free product. A little too colonial for my tastes. However, I am aware that the practice of giving away content – as I do here on WordPress and for the SVM – drips of indentured servitude as well.  I try to view the time at Moms Speak Up and Care2 as internships. I was writing for publications. I had to interview and submit writing samples. I was not self-publishing.  They are valid mentions when discussing my experience as a writer.

“What would you write about if you were to blog for the site today,” she asked me.

“Reform,” I replied, going on to explain my background and how much of my career was more cutting edge than a person might expect for a middle school teacher in Des Moines, Iowa.

I might roll my eyes a bit when the next new great and wonderful thing in education is something I have seen under a different name twice already, but I am a firm believer in pushing the envelope and was nearly always one of the first early adopters of things that moved the profession and the level of my teaching forward. Next to current events and politics, there is nothing that works me up more than education reform. There is an editor at the Des Moines Register who will be glad I have my own forum now because perhaps I will leave hers alone.

This is a real job though. It’s not going to be just me spouting my opinion – although I will be opinionated because I can’t help it most of the time. I am going to need to read and fact check and find sources. I began my college career as  a journalism major, ironically, and now I am back around to the beginning. I am committed to one post a week. I have a one post minimum every two weeks at 50 Something still. There is the memoir, and NaNoWriMo, to contend with too. If there was doubt about my status as a writer, this puts it to rest. I am a writer and soon I will have a paycheck for the governments of Canada and The United States to fight over to prove it.

An Interview for a Writing Opportunity


I mentioned a little while back that I had an opportunity come up via my mommy blogging gig at 50 Something to write for an education oriented blog that’s getting ready to launch. Well, after emailing the contact person with my background – which is substantial if I do have to blow my own horn – I have an interview on Monday.

I don’t know much about the mother site other than it is cause/politics oriented. I checked it out a bit. Liked what I saw there. I like writing about social issues especially when they veer off into the political arena, so this is an awesome opportunity. The more I can write for people and established sites, the better for me as a writer. It’s being published – number one – as opposed to self-publishing, which is what I do here. It is job experience. I have learned a great deal about online publishing and writing standards from my previous gig with Moms Speak Up and now with SVM/50 Something Moms. Experience is experience and online publishing credits count, more with the forward thinkers than the traditional media/journalism people, but it’s only a matter of time before online will carry the same weight on a CV.

It’s exciting, and I need the ego boost to tell the truth. Wish me luck.