Everyone Knows You're Supposed To Fire People At The End Of The Day

I received some disappointing news yesterday morning -- first thing in the morning, no less -- which really cramped my productivity for the rest of the day.

It would seem a certain client of mine, an online publication, is scaling back its range of content. Feeling they've overextended the scope of their website, they have decided to cut certain sections, mine included. Complete bummer.

I've been writing for them on a daily basis for more than a year now, and I've worked hard to build up my contacts with different PR reps, various companies, brands, etc. It's disappointing now to know that next week I'll be publishing my last online article for them and then that will be that.

Not to mention, all the features I was planning on publishing in the upcoming months are now kaputtsville. And moving forward, all the pitches sent to me for the site are now going straight into my email account's "Trash" folder, and there will be the long transition during which I inform every relevant contact that I'll no longer be working in that capacity for that publication.

Fortunately, I'll be fine. Financially, the publication paid 22% of my total monthly earnings -- a significant amount, but still a percentage that I feel I can pick up again within a relatively short time because 1) I'm due for raises with some of my other clients and 2) I live with my boyfriend and even if I lost 100% of my total monthly earnings, I know he would not let me starve. (Mostly because he needs me around to cook the food he buys. Just kidding. Kind of.) And creatively, the client offered me a lot of freedom regarding what I wanted to feature on a daily basis, so that will certainly be missed. But you know what they say about proverbial doors opening and closing ...

Now I can take a breather and think about which direction I want to start heading. Do I want to publish the same kind of content on a daily basis but start my own website? Do I want to start my own website but publish a completely different kind of content? Do I want to use this opportunity to break into a totally new print or web market for myself? Do I want to write a book? Do I want to team up with another local writer/blogger and see what kind of damage we can do on this here interweb?

There are really so many possibilities; I get a little overwhelmed when I start thinking about all of my ideas at once. I'll have to spend the next few days and weeks weeding out all my bad ideas and narrowing my focus.

[Sway goes into her serious audiobook voice:] And so, in summation, letting go of a job you really cared about presents a variety of challenges as well as an opportunity to take some lessons to heart and experience personal growth.

Blah blah blah. What I'm trying to say is: If you're a newbie full-time writer, or you plan on becoming a newbie full-time writer in the near future, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Diversify your client roster. Even if you only write about a single subject, i.e., gardening, travel, crafts, fashion, whatever, you never ever want all your income to come from a single source. Unless, of course, you have some kind of iron-clad contract with them or just happen to like surprise financial disaster emergencies.

2. In that same vein, it might help you to figure out for yourself what your monthly earning cap for any single client should be. This is a percentage that only you need to know, and only you can decide. For example, I know a writer who doesn't like for any one of his clients to make up more than 15% of his total monthly income. But this means that at any given time, he's juggling close to 10 different clients and numerous projects. However, some fields are more conducive than others to a large client base. If you write mainly for magazines, let's say, you might have a lot of different clients, because the time frames between submission and publication and payment are so long. On the other hand, if you're copy editing content that requires extremely tight turnaround, you may not be able to juggle nearly as many projects/clients.

3. Understand that you could lose your client at any given time. Not even because they don't like you or think you're bad at your job. You might be really, really good at your job. But the client may go under, their budgets may get cut, they may downsize your department (see above), or they could be taken in the rapture. You just never know, so plan accordingly. For example, if you've written almost 400 articles in a year for an online publication (my scenario), you should have been preserving your best content for your writer's portfolio as you went along. [Note: I did do this. Thank god.]

4. I repeat: Understand that you could lose your client at any given time. And actually, it's pretty much inevitable that you will, someday, for one reason or another. So save up some moolah while the checks are rolling in to float you during the times they're not.

OK, that's it, kids. Tune in next week when I discuss how to convince your parents, friends and other members of your family that yes, as a writer you do actually work every day during the week -- sometimes the weekends, too -- and yes, it is possible to earn a good, honest living at this.

Actually, I don't really know how to convince your family of all that stuff. If you're a writer, it doesn't matter what you say, they're just going to think you sleep all day anyway.

A Very Important Post

Listen up. In writing this post, I set out with a very particular goal in mind, one of extreme significance in consideration of the potential outcome of my evening, the purpose of this post being to delay, for as long as I possibly can, work on my article about the situation in a certain African country, which is, ahem, due tomorrow.

Now, I am not against spreading the word about the atrocities that are currently taking place in certain regions in Africa, and I am certainly not against people wanting to correct these scenarios. I am just, for lack of a better word, tired.

After all, I did drive aaaaaaaaall the way into downtown Phoenix for an interview today. And if you've ever driven in rush hour traffic here, you know it's no picnic. Also, I wrote two web articles before that. Also, I'm going on 67 hours of work since last Friday. (And I will no doubt be burning the candle at both ends tonight. But let's not stop being in denial about that for a moment.)

See, I'm trying this new thing where I keep track of how many hours I work per day so that at the end of every week I'll know exactly why I feel so darn exhausted. So far it's mostly managed to depress me. Usually in the moments in which I consider the fact that in this wonderful industry payment often lags four to eight weeks. But sometimes it makes me feel great because ... no, just kidding, turns out I can't think of any reason why working that many hours in one week consistently is "great."

One of the things I was happy to leave behind when I left the full-time job at the magazine because my hours there were so INSANE. Well, it turns out, the hours I'm keeping working from home aren't a whole lot different ... which is less than pleasant ... however, I don't think it will stay like this for years, because I'll eventually work my way up to nabbing higher-paying clients and therefore be able to work fewer hours. Plus, I can drink wine while I work. Hello?! Bonus! (By the way, don't drink and write. Or do. Apparently it worked for the Ernest Hemingways of the world. Actually, that's a bad example. Nevermind. Moving on ...)

[Intermission while I check People.com.]

[45 minutes later ...]

OK, so I should probably go write that article now. I mean, I am supposed to be a professional ...

But first I'm taking a tour of the fridge. Maybe I still have some ice cream. C'mon, it's brain food!

Perspective

 Two and a half years ago, I didn't have a clue about the magazine industry or publishing or what it took to write professionally.

Heck, even four and a half years ago, after having earned my bachelor's in professional writing, I didn't even have a grasp on what was involved.

And yet, here I am today, on the other side of a two-year-plus stint at a national magazine, now writing from home full-time. I'm running my own professional website, I have a for-business-only e-mail address, I have business cards, I've made an appointment with a photographer for a portrait to put on my cards and other various locations on the internet, and best of all, I have jobs and contacts.

The whole ordeal seems a bit insane to me to some degree, I'll admit. When I chose my major in college, I got the expected raised eyebrows from many (many) people, including my parents (especially my parents). "You want to major in professional writing? What does that mean?"

And I would explain in a usually -- not always, but usually -- patient manner that it meant I would most likely go on to work at a PR company, writing press releases, or I would be writing ad copy for a corporation or a marketing firm. And usually -- not always, but usually -- that would kind of put an end to people's questions.

To be honest, though, I'm not sure that I believed what I was saying each time I gave that explanation. It's not that I believed I'd be writing poetry chapbooks or penning novels, it's just that I really wasn't sure what a professional writing degree meant, either. All I knew was that writing for other people was something I was good at and something I enjoyed doing, and fortunately, I was able to convince my family and friends of the same.

Of course, now it's easy for me to see a third fold to that logic, which is the fact that my ability to write is, maybe luckily or unluckily, my only marketable skill. Really. And I'm not disappointed in that.

It makes a lot of sense now that I'm older. I am a kind of copier, in a sense; I can only work with things that have already been created or provided to me, but I can't just create stuff in the true sense of the word. And when I was a kid, this used to frustrate me to no end. But now that I'm an adult, I can finally see the pattern, and it's allowed me to play to my strengths, and also explained a lot about who I am and what I'm capable of.

See, there was a reason that I could only make beautiful copies from photos when I was in art class in high school. And there was a reason I couldn't just make up choreography on my own in tap class. And there was a reason I sucked at sports, too -- if a scenario didn't exactly fit one of our pre-game drills, I couldn't recognize what my reaction should be. And I was never really any good at geometry or calculus or science, either, because those subjects, too, take a special kind of creativity that I just don't have. (I did rock algebra pretty hard, though. I can find X with the best of them. Boo-yah.) And to this day, after knitting for years, I can't make up or adjust knitting patterns on the fly; if something doesn't have absolutely every single stitch written out, I can just forget it.

So maybe I can't do any of those other things very well, but what I can do is take a whoooooole lot of information and words, process it, and then spit it back out, so to speak -- re-organize it in a way that's interesting and that people can understand.

Even though everything about the way my brain is wired funneled me down the path of writing and editing, I never knew that it could lead to something as cool as this -- a career in which I get to work from home but still go to events, get to make my own schedule and decide when I take time off, and yet still earn a living while meeting new people and learning new things every day.

I've come a long way, baby. I'm proud of myself. I was a frustrated little kid (and later, a frustrated adult), who didn't understand why I couldn't just be good at all the things I wanted to be good at. But now I have a much broader view.
My point is ...

Maybe there's something you wish you were better at or had a knack for that you just always struggle with, and maybe it's time to recognize that that's OK. Maybe it's time to discover what the positive is to your negative, so to speak.

We're all bad at things, and we're all good at things. And sometimes looking at one can help us determine the other.

And I think that's pretty cool.

A Site About Writing Margaritas

Trying to build my writer's website and wanting to scream and pull my hair out.

Is it too early for a drink?

I Know You Remember That Episode

"No time! There's never any time!"



I'm feeling a little overwhelmed this week.

The good news is that one of the other women I met on my Santa Fe trip is the editor in chief of two magazines on the East Coast, and she's been sending a ton of copy editing work my way over the course of just the past several days. So hooray for that!

The bad news is I have at least one more Santa Fe article to write (but I did at least finish one! Woo-hoo!) as well as soooo maaaaany posts to queue up (for the website I've been writing) before I leave for Spain on Sunday that I'm this close [ ] to banging a hole into the wall with my head. I also desperately want to finish my personal website so that I can start using it as a marketing tool, like a place where I can post all my clips for viewing and my contact information. And I was counting on having all of this week to churn out a ton of work, pack, get the house organized and get any outstanding matters (bills, plans, laundry, etc.) all squared away for me and my boyfriend before I left town, but I just don't think it's going to happen ...

... because my boyfriend and his brother somehow came up with the idea that THIS WEEK would be the perfect time for a visit. So my boyfriend's brother and his girlfriend are driving from Oklahoma to Arizona and will be arriving today. How's that for timing? And it doesn't make sense, because I won't even be able to be here through the duration of their visit, because my flight leaves at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. {Confused, one-eyebrow-raised, palms out and up, face.}

So on top of all the work I have to do in order for my newly self-employed, um, self, to turn over some kind of income, I also had to go to the grocery store to buy $300 worth of groceries (look, boys eat A LOT, all right?) as well as clean the house, do all the laundry, wash all the dishes, tidy up the guest bedroom, etc. etc. and so on, and so on, and so forth, ad nauseam.

I mean, seriously? Men are the worst schedulers. They usually mean well by it all -- and the conflicts are mostly innocent, but still. STILL.

Oh, and I should mention that apparently he (my boyfriend) isn't taking any time off from work while our guests are here, so I hope they don't mind watching me work around the house tomorrow and Friday morning, because even though god knows I love them and will be happy to see them, I will not have time for much beyond setting out the chips and salsa and handing them a map of Phoenix. :)

AND, I have a networking lunch this afternoon in Old Town with a woman who runs a fashion blog here in the city.

I can't even think about how much I'm looking forward to Spain until I'm at the airport on Sunday. Then I'll let myself be "so excited, I'm so excited."

Santa Fe, Part One

 On Sunday I flew from Phoenix to Albuquerque, where the resort had arranged ground transportation for the one hour to Santa Fe. In other words, some big intimidating-looking dude was holding a sign with my name on it and even though I was a little "hmmm... where did I pack that pepper spray..." about the whole thing, I got into the back of the huge black town car anyway.

About one hour later we pulled up to The Lodge, as the main building was called, and a lovely German man named Hans opened my door and greeted me by name. Then I was smoothly passed from check-in to a Mercedes-Benz that drove me the 90 seconds to my "Vista Casita," which was huge. (Pictures on the resort's site here.)

For a good 20 minutes or so, all I did was wander around my room and look out the window like a zombie, not really sure of where I was or how I got there. After I had snapped out of it, I hooked my iPod up to the in-room dock, unpacked all my clothes and took a few random photos of my room using my new "big girl" Canon that my boyfriend and my family got me for my birthday. (I am obsessed.)

One of my favorite aspects of the room was this cow underneath the window:

Other cool things about the room that I liked included the raw look of the wooden desk.

 The old-fashioned alarm clock next to my bed.

The bright wall art.

The wood-burning fireplace and cute pottery on the mantle. (I'm a detail person, can you tell? Hello, copy editor, remember?)

 And the view! 

I had a few hours of down time before the welcome dinner, so I used that to check e-mail and um, People.com, of course, because let's face it, that stuff is important to know ...

Dinner was at the Terra restaurant inside The Lodge, and my goodness, I can't even remember all of the plates they put down in front of us. There were scallops and roasted pork belly I think, white wine, red wine, tuna carpaccio, things I'd never even heard of before ... And I also got to meet the rest of the media folks who were along on the press trip. Five girls, one guy. One woman from New York who writes for a bridal magazine, one woman also from NY who writes for architectural digests and also a spa publication, one woman from Atlanta who is the editor in chief there of one women's interest publication and one affiliated men's interest publication, one woman from Los Angeles who writes for a certain entertainment news show, me of course, and then a man from LA who writes for a teeny tiny publication that I'm sure no one has ever heard of. ;)

All these individuals have been at this a lot longer than I have, so dinner was equal parts fascinating and rolling of my eyes and dropping of my jaw. Many of them have dozens of these trips under their belts, and some sound like they go on at least one every month. Nevertheless, everyone was very, very nice and totally willing to give me advice and such regarding the industry.

Monday morning we embarked on tours of both the property and of Santa Fe. The trip to downtown was a little "Disney," in that I felt like what we were able to see and not see was a little too controlled, which made for bad exploring, but probably helped keep a handle on time constraints. We drove by the Santa Fe Opera, toured the Georgia O'Keeffe museum, and then made our way to the downtown's plaza area, where locals bring jewelry and other wares to sell.

We also stopped by a really cool -- okay, SUPER cool -- candy shop called Todos Santos Chocolates & Confections. I highly recommend. I bought dark chocolate there to bring home to my boyfriend and my sister, and I got a tiny piece for myself, too.

After all the walking around, lunch was inhaled at The Shed, which is apparently a staple among the locals. I found it interesting that it serves all its New Mexican fare with "French garlic bread" and Zabaglione, an Italian dessert, to follow. Sorry, no photos of any of that, I was too busy devouring my enchiladas and chasing the ultra-spicy red and green sauces with iced tea.

Following lunch we walked part of Canyon Road, which is the definitive arts center in Santa Fe, not to mention the most prominent arts community in all the U.S., aside from New York. We were able to go into three galleries, which were all more like museums. There were Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt originals just hanging on the walls like it was no big deal, even though I remember seeing paintings by those artists in many of my grade school history textbooks. There were Native American blankets selling for upwards of $2,000 each, as well as antique New Mexican furniture, Inuit jackets made from whale intestine (or was it bladder? You get the picture), and even a Native American woman's beaded dress for $95,000. It was unreal the stuff these galleries had tracked down, believe me.

And then it started to rain on us, so that cut our stay on Canyon Road a bit short. We visited the Railyard District, which is the area for the more modern art and video installations, etc., despite the rain, but I didn't want to pull my camera out in the bad weather, so unfortunately I didn't bring home many photos of the art gallery adventures. Dinner was at another New Mexican food restaurant called called Gabriel's, where the view was awesome, but the food wasn't necessarily any better than the Mexican food I've found in Arizona.

Tuesday was my favorite day of the trip because it was supposed to be themed as the "health and wellness" day. We started at 8:30 a.m. and hiked a trail that begins next to the resort and leads upward and into the neighboring Santa Fe National Forest. This was our view:

 Immediately following our hour-long hike was a yoga class that felt amazing, and then lunch next to the pool. Once again, I felt like I had slipped into an alternate universe, the food was unreal.

After lunch, all the girls (the guy opted out, understandably) had our spa appointments at 2 p.m. We checked in at 1:30 as had been recommended to allow plenty of time for the hot whirlpool and steam room. And let me tell you, I am by no means an expert, but I've been in my share of saunas I suppose, and this one was the mother of all saunas, almost to a fault. I actually started to drown for a moment, that's how much moisture was in the air. My lungs took in too much water when I breathed in and I got the weird sensation that I was drowning without being submerged. It was odd. So after I went out and went back in and breathed a little more slowly, it actually felt amazing.

Closer to 2:00, we were ushered into the "warming room," where there were fireplaces and hot and cold tea and fluffy blankets and over-sized chairs and ottomans and just everything that can make a room soft and cozy. There are photos of the spa on the resort's website here. Then our massage therapists retrieved us for each of our respective treatments. The PR rep had signed me up for the "Mountain Spirit Purification" treatment, which is described in the resort's brochure as:

Native American reverence for the Earth inspires this purification ritual which begins with a smudging ceremony, followed by an adobe clay body mask. A warm restful wrap with a scalp and foot massage, connects your energies to Heaven and Earth. Awaken to a rain shower rinse and embrace your final gift: a juniper-sage massage using hot stones.
2 hours    300

It was ... ridiculous. As in, ridiculously decadent. Two of the best hours of my life. If I'm ever wealthy enough to not have to worry about bills, I am going straight back to Santa Fe and signing up for one of these because it was a-ma-zing. First the therapist scrubbed the living daylights out of me with a brush made from some kind of cactus fiber or something and then smeared me with a wonderfully scented clay. Then she wrapped me up in heated blankets and left just my feet and head uncovered so that she could first massage my feet, then cover them up too, and then massage my scalp. I definitely nodded off a few times. When it was time to un-mummy me, she disappeared for a bit and I was able to rinse myself off under an outdoor shower using a cloth woven from more of that cactus fiber. (She said it was mine to keep. lol. It's sitting next to my sink right now.) And then, back inside the treatment room, I experienced the most blissful hot stone massage ever. EVER. I was totally blissed out for the rest of the day, and my skin still feels really soft, thanks to the massage therapist's mad skills with that scrub brush ...

Unfortunately, the real world doesn't stop while you're spa-ing (although it should!), so I had to go straight back to my room and answer more e-mails and finish a blog post for one of my clients, yay, but it wasn't long before it was time for dinner in the Pinon Room (cool sidenote: Those X's on the bookshelves at the far end of the room are made of Spanish Bibles. The gold you see is the gold leaf on the edges of the pages, and they've all just been meticulously stacked.), where the view of the sunset was incredible. And then after dinner, we meandered out to the fire pit, where we got to enjoy some spiked Mexican hot chocolate and good, old-fashioned s'mores before wandering back up to our casitas to enjoy a very good night's sleep.

~ The End ~

Santa Fe: Part Two will include photos from the solo hike I made Wednesday morning before flying out of New Mexico.

Ahzooey! Gesundheit.

Living the life of a freelancer definitely lends itself to days of complete confusion.

Yesterday a former colleague of mine at the magazine asked me, "Well, so, is life just awesome now that you get to work for yourself, or is it stressing you out beyond belief?"

To which I replied: "Yes."

Truthfully, my answer to that question tends to vary pretty widely depending on the hour you ask me. Sometimes I have days where I think this is the coolest thing in the world. I'm proud of myself for not being afraid to go it alone. I can own up to the fact that I'm not going to make anything close to a full-time wage in the beginning, but I feel good overall, because I believe in my ability to eventually build up enough contacts and assignments and projects to continue this career that I love.

Other days? Not so much. Those are the days I get super impatient and frustrated that I'm not getting the call-backs I really wanted. Those are the days I go for walks around the block in the middle of the 107-degree afternoon just because I need to get out of the office and breathe some different air. Usually accompanied by head-shaking.

But the hope and common sense in me have not yet failed to straighten me out again. I mean, things are looking up. Yesterday I received official notice from Ahzooey (sorry, I mean, AZUI -- Arizona Unemployment Insurance) that I am, in fact, approved to receive benefits.

This comes after the fact that the payroll company (who, weirdly enough, according to the government and for tax purposes I guess, is my employer, rather than the magazine, which I was hired by but who contracted the payroll company) declared I had voluntarily given up my job. Now that just isn't true. So after explaining to Ahzooey that I was laid off under the state's definition of "one's job [being] moved beyond a reasonable commuting distance" (I'm pretty sure Phoenix to Los Angeles counts), I received a nice letter in the mail yesterday informing me that the issue had been cleared up and I was approved to start receiving benefits.

Ahzooey's letter says:

"You are eligible for unemployment insurance." 

Then there's a lot of blank space. Below that:

"You indicated you were laid off or discharged from your last employer. Your employer was the client of a leasing agency that has a rule regarding reporting for subsequent employment after your assignment ends. However, there is no reasonable expectation that you should have know about this rule, because you did not have direct contact with the leasing agency ..."

Ummm ... YEAH. Of course I didn't know about that rule! What does that even mean?? What, was I supposed to show up at the office of the company who handled our payroll and be all like, "Yo, reporting for duty. What else can I copy edit for you fine people?" Crazies.

I also got word on fees for a few of the upcoming articles I'll be completing for the magazine. Because I'll be doing both the writing and photography, the total for those should come close to $1,000, depending on how many photos they end up printing. Which is a nice number. Until I consider that the payments will be spread out over four months, so it's really like I'm averaging $250/month with that ... But let's not get bogged down by accounting details, right? I'll take it.

Also, I did find some good information in Palm Springs that I think I can use. But because that's still currently on spec, that subject is lower on my priority list right now. What isn't low on my priority list, however, and needs to be finished as quickly as is humanly possible, is completing many, many blog posts within the next few days for the website I'm writing for. Since I'll be in Santa Fe Sunday through Wednesday of next week, that means I need at least four posts completed ahead of time that I can schedule to go up automatically on those days, in addition to my posts for today, tomorrow and Saturday. So a week's worth of posts completed by Sunday morning, that's my goal. If I don't make it, I'll just be working late-ish those evenings I'm in New Mexico.

Speaking of which! I'm super excited about that trip, as the resort and its PR company is going to be treating us really well. (I say "us" because this is a press trip for a group of reporters and other media persons. Think of it as summer camp for journalists, lol.) We're touring the Santa Fe Opera, visiting the Railyard District, seeing art galleries, trying awesome Mexican restaurants, going on a nature walk, participating in a yoga class, receiving "Mountain Spirit Purification" treatments at the spa ... It's going to be ridiculous. And amazing. Probably ridiculously amazing. I'll blog the whole thing if I'm not working like a fanatic in the evenings. And then when I get back, I'll have nine days to write two articles about the details of my trip, etc. !!!

OK, enough procrastination, I'm off to churn out some words.

Ein Paar Mohrrüben

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Palm Springs, California, with my family. The company my dad works for will be putting us up in a nice hotel for their summer regional meeting, which means during the mornings my dad will be in meetings, my mom will be in spouse meetings, and my sister and I will get to run around the hotel like we own the place. I see a lot of pool time and fruity drinks in our future.

But I'm not going just to have fun and spend time with my family for Father's Day Weekend, I'm also going to be "working" a little. My plan is to collect enough information while we're there to enable me to write two or three different articles on the hotel, that area of the city, things to do, things to see, etc. I don't know, I'll see what I find when I get there.

If I find an interesting topic or trend right away while I'm there, I'll start writing this weekend, and then next week commit to finishing the articles, and then the following week send out queries to sell them.

One week after that, I head out to Santa Fe to check out Encantado Resort and write another travel article for my ex -- my ex-employer, that is -- the magazine. And then, three weeks after that, my family and I will spend one week in Barcelona, Spain, where I will be doing my best impression of an information sponge so that I can write another two or three travel articles on that city as well. I already have a publication interested in buying one of those, so that's a plus.

Currently, I still have a regular blogging gig and am applying like crazy to many others, as well as full-time positions. Just whatever will stick. I'm also working on a beauty product feature for, once again, my ex-magazine, that will hopefully publish in August. 

And, today a lady from the state unemployment office called me to ask my why I had reported a few hundred dollars on my last weekly claim. I told her it was from odd jobs, freelance writing, and assured her I was not employed full-time again (which would, obviously, mean that I didn't need unemployment benefits anymore). But she said she was going to send me a "survey" anyway, which I have to fill out in order to provide more information regarding this tiny sum of money I've acquired so that they can determine whether or not my benefits can, in fact, be paid out to me.

Yo ho, yo ho, it's a writer's life for me.

Anyway, all this talk of varying income hurts my brain, so to end on a different note ... For the last few weeks, when applying for writing jobs starts to make my eyes cross, I've been taking breaks on Livemocha.com, brushing up on my German and doing beginners' courses in a few other languages. Some of the exercises they ask you to complete have this entertaining feature where other users can submit helpful tips that will appear on the bottom right of your screen. That's all I'm gonna say. That's really all I need to say. 

Waving Goodbye, Saying Hello

I've been putting off writing this post for, well, about two weeks now, because I think I keep believing that if I don't say it, it isn't really true.

But the truth is, next Tuesday is my last day working full-time with the magazine. A handful of corporate positions, mine included, are being relocated to one of the magazine's coastal markets. And as my boyfriend and I agree that we don't want to leave Phoenix at this time, I won't be making the move with the company.

While this has been an incredibly demanding full-time job for the past two years, and I've often joked that it's the "best worst" job I've ever had, I have to say it makes me very sad to think about now being forced to abandon a department I worked so hard the past few years to build up into something awesome. Not to mention, I'll miss the people I worked so closely with. I definitely saw them more than my family over the past years, and maybe that's why they feel like family to me.

So since January, I've been looking for a new full-time job, but I'm afraid I've turned up empty-handed. I was offered a position in March, but the company wasn't a great fit for me, and after much thought, I had to decline. And so now, it would seem I'm going solo for a while.

The good news out of all of this? I'm actually going to be able to write full-time!!! And I'm really, really excited about that. As of right now, I already have one major client, but I'm hoping that with more time to devote to marketing myself, I'll be able to acquire more. And of course, the magazine will continue to send me out on assignments and pay me as a contractor for this and that.

As of Wednesday next week, it looks like my new title will be "Go-Getter." Or "Workhorse." It's too soon to tell.

In Which I Lay Out This Week's Rockin' Agenda

Today. A coworker and I went to lunch at Stax Burger Bistro. It's quickly becoming my new favorite place to grab a burger, because the sandwiches are somewhere between the size of a slider and your standard hamburger. Translation: You can eat two or three of them in one sitting, which means you get to try a few different meats and flavor combos, instead of just one. Plus, so many foods are cuter when they're smaller. Burgers included.

Tomorrow. I'm spending all day with my mother. That will likely be equal parts fun and stress. God help us all.

Wednesday. I'm going to a PR lunch at Modern Steak as work for a new writing gig I just acquired.

Thursday. For the magazine, I'm interviewing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen regarding their line The Row, and then later that day I'll be attending their event at Barneys New York. They'll be in town for a charity event they're participating in with the Phoenix Suns.

Friday. My boyfriend and I are going to see Muse play at the US Airways Center, and I could not be more excited!

Saturday. Remember that friend of mine who got married about two weeks ago? She and her husband just got back from their Parisian honeymoon. I'm meeting her and all the other bridesmaids at Petite Maison on Saturday to catch up with one another and spare the bride from having to repeat every story about Paris five times over.

Saturday afternoon. I will collapse into a heap -- poolside, preferably -- but not for long, because a writer never really has much time she can afford to not be writing. Well, she can, but let's put it this way -- she'll pay for it.

And with that, I turn toward my word processor ...

Puppies Make Everything Better

The bad news is that one of the web publications I've been freelancing for, my highest-paying client, actually, has cut back on freelance articles (I suspect due to budget constraints), and so I will be receiving significantly fewer checks from them. Bugger.

The good news is that this video makes me feel so much better about, well, everything:

Help! The Ride Through Freelance Hell is Making Me Nauseous

Note: If you look at this photograph very, very closely, you can see something melting in the red-hot center of the fire. That something is my sanity.

Hi there. I'm at an amusement park, trapped on a bumpy rollercoaster ride called Sway's Freelance Career.

In January, I challenged myself to get my freelance writing career off the ground by the end of the year. Well, now it's the middle of July, so maybe this is a good time for a checkup. [Er, it was the middle of July when I started this post, promise.]

Verdict: I've succeeded.

That is, if by "succeeded" we mean "contracted, completed and earned money from one or more freelance writing assignments." In which case, the answer is, "Yes! Yes! I've done that! I made that happen!"

But if by "succeeded" we mean "earned some sort of reliable income from said assignments," then the answer is no, not quite.

Right now, payments for freelance assignment make up a tiny, tiny fraction of my full-time income. And one day, I'd like that equation to shift in the opposite direction.

But do you want to know one very important thing I've learned about trying to make your income -- or at least part of your income -- via freelance writing?

It will steal your soul all your free time.

Because if you want to write for profit, you have to be writing all the time.

Every day I wake up, check my e-mail, check in on my assignments and follow-up as necessary, Then I go to my full-time job, where I work and write in between working. And then I go home, and I check in on my assignments and write and follow-up as necessary again. Write, eat, sleep, repeat.

It's pretty exhausting to always be stressin' about deadlines, and that is starting to take its toll on me -- on my energy, on my patience, on my attitude in general ...

But, then again, it's not like I didn't see this coming. And, it is what I've always wanted to do. And it is what I believe I'm good at. And we all want to do something we're good at, right?

So until I get to the point where every one of my articles nets me a healthy wad of cash, I have to find the discipline and motivation to keeping chugging along for the smaller payments.

Can I do it?

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, It's Back to Work I Go

I started freelancing at the beginning of this year. Fortunately, I'm not (currently) depending on it to account for all, or even a majority, of my income; I just decided it would be fun and education to try, so this year is the year I tested the water and finally got my feet wet in the freelancing pool.

As you can see from my totals at the left, this is not a huge moneymaker for me. Yet. But I'm trying. And I've been putting just enough pressure on myself to be productive, but not so much that it's become a pain in the neck. I'm having a good time with it and enjoying the fact that I can occasionally say, "Hey! I wrote that!"

My goal for each month has been to earn at least as much as the previous month, if not more. Through March I did pretty well at that, but last month my full-time job took up more time than usual. And that's OK. I have to remind myself that anything I make freelancing is pocket money.

All right, so I had one bad month. This month I'm going to try to get back to the grind and get closer to my goal.

It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive

Hi. I'm still here. I've just been busy. And sick.

Last week most of my free time was eaten up by freelance assignments (not that I'm necessarily complaining!), which left little time for blogging.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of these assignments involved me running around, trying to chat up security guards and Cricket Wireless Pavilion personnel in order to ascertain details on a certain celebrity's appearance in Phoenix last Thursday evening, none other than...

Miss Jessica Simpson.

You can tell that's her, right? Barely? Yeah, I didn't have a lot of time to snap high-quality photos, as I was scribbling down every word this woman spoke.

Highlights included... Let's see...

Well, she tripped and nearly fell while singing "You're My Sunday," but recovered herself.

Tony Romo was not there. (I can't believe lack of presence counts as a highlight, but I was still asked to report on it.)

And oh yes, before launching into "Remember That," Jessica said, "… In love, we all go through a lot of things, and a lot of things unfortunately make us stay there [in the relationship]. No matter what you go through in life, no matter what abuse you go through, take your heart and run so far away."

Looks like the latter is what was agreed upon to be most "newsworthy" in the Internet universe.

The original write-up based on my report is here.

A list of other sources -- including MTV, Yahoo, VH1, and E! Online -- that picked up the info and are also reporting on it can be found here.

Seeing it splattered all over the net, it's kind of bizarre for me to know that I was the one responsible for putting that quote out there. I mean, I know she said it, but this time I was the tiny cog in the celebrity PR machine that made the whole thing move forward.

Weird feeling.

Here's a snippet of video (poor quality) that I took while I was there:

Flaming Lips, Bruno Torfs, a Box of Beauty Supplies and Selling Out

Oh geez. There's so much to post about today that I don't even know where to begin. Let me try to be organized about it.

1. OK, so first of all, I have to mention that ye good citizens of my former state of Oklahoma have declared "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips to be the state's official rock song.

[I could go off on a tangent here about my confusion as to why state officials feel it's important that a state has an official folk song, an official country song and an official rock song, and why they aren't busy cutting budgets and generating more state revenue, buuuuuut... I'm not in the mood to dive into politics tonight.]

I felt like this tidbit of news was something important to point out, seeing as most of my friends here in Arizona fully believe that Oklahoma is filled only with conservative, country music-loving types who would never ever -- ever -- find any good or worthwhile material in the lyrics of a psychedelic alternative rock band. But see now? There are people in Oklahoma who like trippy music, too. And this should not come as a shock, considering backwoods Oklahoma is one of the meth capitals of the world. I think you see where I could go with this.

2. I had never heard of Bruno Torfs until today, but I wish that I had known of his artwork long ago, because it's incredible. He's a painter and sculptor who created hundreds of these gorgeous, fascinating wooden sculptures in a rain forest in Australia, an area which he called his art and sculpture garden. Check out the site for photos of the fantastic forest people he brought to life.
Unfortunately, last month, on February 7, fires overtook the area, claiming lives and destroying all of Torfs' creations. Please take a moment to think of the families whose loved ones were lost, and I encourage you to view the images of Torfs' sculptures, as they are truly wondrous and exist now only in photographs.

3. Remember the beauty products article I was assigned? Well, our LA office sent me a box of goodies, some of which are to be included in the article, but most of which are just mine to keep.

















I'm currently trying to refine concepts for a site on which I will post reviews of all these products, plus others I acquire. So stay tuned for further word on these fun items. Um, did I mention that the total value of the box's contents is about $1,400? (My head nearly exploded when I added that up.)

4. I am a sellout. (...who finds it amusing that Wikipedia has defined the term...) Today I got a freelance assignment that will pay $250, plus reimbursement for gas and tickets. It involves following someone famous around like a bloodhound next week -- which, under normal circumstances, would not appeal to me at all, but it only took me about three seconds today to determine that $250 is $250, and I need CASH. I'll let you in on more details after the event. Wink.

5. Random quote of the day: "You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they -- they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking." -- From the movie The Edge, written by David Mamet

And finally, I present to you: "Do You Realize??" set to animated children's movie clips. Why? Why not.


Photo by Sway Sovay

What I've Been Up to Lately

...I finished my article about the culinary festival for the March issue, and it will go to print this weekend. I'm not very happy with it, but it will have to do.

...And speaking of finishing things -- my tax forms are complete and ready to be filed. That's a huge weight off my shoulders, even if I'm not really getting much any money back.

...I've bought a lot of educational books focused on different fiction writing techniques, and I've been really poring through them lately. Who knows, maybe this will soon lead to a flurry of short stories or novel chapters, since I'm due for just such a flurry. They seem to hit their peak about every four years, I'd say, so it must be time again.

...This past weekend my boyfriend and I traveled home to Oklahoma for his birthday. (I bet you don't know many people who want to go to Oklahoma for their birthdays, huh?) It was very cold, but good to see friends (including the kitty pictured above!) and family, and get away from work for a while.

Photo by Sway Sovay

If You Pay Close Attention You'll Notice I Have Avoided Doing Any Real, Actual Work

This month I'm writing two articles for our magazine, and each will appear in a different city's publication. The first is an eco-friendly beauty products piece for the "green" issue that we publish every April, and it's going in one of our California magazines.

So far I am loving this first assignment, because all I have to do is call up companies and ask them for free samples and press releases. Then I write up two or three short sentences describing the products' benefits and ta da!, I am done. So easy. Not to mention all the fun, free swag I'll receive by the end of the month. I may have to beg my editor to let me do one of these every month from now on ...

The second article is about the West of Western culinary festival which will be taking place here in Phoenix next month at the Phoenix Art Museum. Have not really started this one yet, but it's due like, yesterday, so pray for me. (In my defense, my editor assigned it to me late, so I won't feel guilty about taking some time with this one. I'm operating according to the concept of quality over speed this time around.)

Things I have done instead of writing the culinary festival article...

Well, I made this:






















Just the one for now. Maybe by Monday morning I'll have a bonafide pair.

The pattern is "Gifted" by Kate Gilbert and the yarn is some I had left over from the Man Scarf I made for my boyfriend. Again, I'm aware that this is further proof that I am in denial about living in the middle of the desert. Or maybe just proof of a personal conviction that I will not always live in the desert? Regardless, mittens are adorable -- particularly these -- and I do intend to make another!

Also, happy Valentine's Day! (If that's your thing. If it's not, you are going to want to visit this post on Lemondrop.com and click through to the foreign site. I certainly hope you're not having THAT kind of a day.)





















Photos by Sway Sovay

As I've Already Mentioned

So, with the magazine industry about to tank tanking, I've decided to try freelancing again.

Do you know what's great about freelancing? (Besides the obvious -- being able to work in your pajamas...) It forces you to learn a little about a lot of different subjects.

Now, do you know what stinks about freelancing? Learning a little about a lot of different subjects makes you feel like you're in school again. (I know what some of you are thinking. And yes, I actually liked school, too, to some healthy extent. I also enjoy going to the movies, but that doesn't mean I want to be trapped in a theater for the rest of my life, does it? It doesn't.)

Every writer I know is splitting his or her focus about seven different directions now. "Well, on Mondays and Tuesdays I write a week's worth of blogs for a site that my friend's friend runs. And on Wednesdays through Fridays, I work on all my articles I'm trying to submit to this online news site -- but that's just before noon, because after noon, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I make myself query print publications to see if I can get any leads. And also, when I can, I make phone calls for this sales gig that one of my former coworkers got me into. On weekends I try to chip away at my book, but you know, most weeks I don't get that far."

That is no way to live. Sure, right now my fellow creatives and I may have to operate on a schedule that we don't like in order to pay the bills, but if this is just the way things are going to have to be until the economy turns around, then I'd like to at least make it a personal goal to work toward having the option of writing about things I want to write about.

Anyway, I'm still in the phase where I'm trying to figure out into which two or three or four outlets I want to split my focus. Soon, however, I'll be adding a widget to the side of my posts here that will list my monthly freelance earnings. I want it to serve as encouragement to meet my goals, and then later, hopefully, as a way to track my progress.

In related news, I have been having wicked eye strain and tension headaches lately. Probably due to the 10+ hours I spend in front of a computer all day. Too bad it's too soon to take a vacation.

Who needs cheering up? I do. Click here and you'll feel better -- or at least, different.

My Kick in the Pants

It's no secret that making magazines or newspapers is not exactly the most lucrative business to be in right now.

Nearly every industry in the U.S. economy is taking a hard hit, so it makes sense that less necessary items such as magazines, periodicals and trade journals are having one hell of a time maintaining their usual pace. In fact, many of them aren't. People just aren't spending the few bucks they used to picking up magazines. And clients don't have the cash to cough up for ads, either. As my friend Christine put it, "Now is a bad time to be whip cream, you know what I'm sayin'?"

So there are dozens of publications folding or struggling, and the one I work for is no exception. Effective this month, all my coworkers and I are enduring a wage reduction. The powers that be say it will last six months at most, but I have my doubts and believe it will likely go on much longer.

However, I'm trying to spin this as good and telling myself that this is just the sort of shove I needed to start approaching freelancing opportunities with more conviction. More determination. More desperation! ("The time has come," the Walrus said... to write of many, many things...)

And as always, I will be reporting my successes and failures here. Stay tuned. It'll change your life.

That's All She Wrote

Ask me anything about Scottsdale Fashion Week and I can tell you the answer because I finished my article!

I handed it over at exactly 5:59 p.m. yesterday, one minute away from my 6 p.m. deadline.

Funny thing about my article -- my editor asked me for three pages; I gave him seven.

(I was eventually able to cut it down to five. By the way, it is so depressing to spend over 30 hours to write this kind of a sprawling article -- that number doesn't even factor in interviews,
transcribing, e-mails, phone calls and research -- and then have to cut it down by about 2,500 words.)

What can I say, I got really into the subject and uncovered a lot of interesting things to include.

Although I'm sure there will still be images coming in over the next week and other various tidbits of information that may have to be added, I am so glad it's (pretty much) finished.

I will be celebrating this weekend by doing nothing that requires writing.

Except for this.