Spence Diamonds Guide to Jewelry and Allergies

I was doing some market research for a client, and I'm simply amazed by the specialization in each sector. I mean, when you talk about selling to women, it's a fine art. And totally different from selling to men. Men want something which works. When you're selling to men, the main aim is to seem genuine, in other words something which is not a con job. All my writing has been targeted for men, including most of the work I do for clients. This one job is slightly different. It's got to do with diamonds and jewelry. So I thought I'd get to know the market, and existing written matter, before I jumped in myself.

There's this one site, DiamondArticles.com, which is just what its name says - Everything about diamonds. There's even an article from Spence Diamonds about how rashes on your skin caused by jewelry are mostly related to nickel allergy.
"The bad news first: Once you’ve become sensitive to nickel, you’re likely to stay that way for the rest of your life. The good news is that over time, you may become less sensitive to nickel allergy."

Notice the format of the article. First there's an explanation that allergies are for real, and selecting the right kind of jewelry does not necessarily mean that it should be costlier than your neighbour's newest purchase. They go on to explain how contact with nickel affects your skin, and then deliver the punch line. That's the line which I quoted above - Good news and bad news. Bad news is that nickel allergy is not curable. Good news is that nickel allergy can be contained,and you can still enjoy the finest jewelry, provided you choose the ones which won't hurt your skin. And the good folks at Spence Diamonds know just what you need. So step right in and check it out today.

Any woman with a nickel allergy problem, after reading this article, will immediately pick up the phone and call the Spence Diamonds showroom, or head over to it. And I now know just how I'm supposed to write copy for selling jewelry to women.

Hubba Hubba

How would you like to be a hubber? Then you can post how to guides like Generate Static HTML Pages From A Database or Table Tricks for SEO. Course, you still need to have used or done the things you want to write a guide for. I mean, if you haven't used it, and don't plan on using it, what's the difference between static or dynamic pages and toilet paper? Ok, so one's a page and the other's a paper, but that's not the point, huh? If you don't know what to do with dymanic pages, you might as well flush 'em too.

Wanna write interesting guides? You can make a ton of money, and take pride in your creations and the depth of your wisdom. Just the small matter of learning how to do these things, but I'm sure you can get over that.

There's an ad on Craigslist where a publisher wants you to write How To guides. You write, they sell, everyone makes money - If you can write 'em.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/wrg/362865573.html

Hope you know how to flip your house.

Understand Your Credit Card

I've been doing some freelance writing for a client on debt management. Needless to say, I had to do a heck of a lot of research, just to understand all the terminology, leave alone offering expert opinions. The bewildering array of terms include debt snowballs, credit scores, APR, Prime rates, etc.

My point here is that it's necessary to understand everything about credit and credit scores, especially if you're working from home, freelance, without the backup of a formal organisation to take care of you. In the course of my research, I bumped into a very interesting credit card site, CreditorWeb.com. I spent a lot of time browsing through credit card forums and informational sites, but very few had precise and concise data to offer. But the folks at CreditorWeb seem to have developed a few really great tools, such as the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator'. This nifty tool will list the amount you save by transferring your credit balance from your current card.You enter your current card details, and it spits out a list of cards, detailing the exact amount you save for each card.

What this really means is that you don't need to pore through the small print for every card. Transferring your credit balance to a new card which saves you money is a commonly suggested method of reducing your debt. But to know exactly how much you save, and for which card, is something which a lot of us don't do, if only because arriving at the figures is a time consuming and burdensome chore. With the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator from CreditWeb, it's not so anymore. Checkout out this tool and other useful tools for WAHMs, such as the Credit Card Processing Comparison Tool, which compares merchant account / credit card processing plans to find the best deal for accepting credit card payments online.

Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting

Esther Schindler has a mega epic on telecommuting in CIO.com.
"Telecommuters also need to adopt techniques for working at home, both to keep their sanity and to move their career along."

True that. But I think I lost my sanity a couple of decades before I became a freelancer. Anyway...It's a pretty good read, though I ddn't make it past Step 1. Why people break up articles into multiple pages, I will never know. For one, you lose a lot of visitors ( like me ), who have no interest in further clicking. Second, you waste a heck of a lot of bandwidth, and time, reloading the subsequent pages ( seven in this case ). Why not just make it one big page. Scrolling down is easier than clicking and clicking and clicking..... How many people read all seven steps? I'm guessing very few. How many more would have scrolled down and read the entire article if it was one big page? Uh....Not many, I guess. Bulleting points and quotes and facts is all fine, but where's the humor? Without humor, a web page is a dead pond, just so much more junk. Note to Esther Schindler - Get a sense of humor. It's on sale for $9.95 on eBay. Discount sale!

In other news, The Palladium Times has an article advising telecommuters to get a postage meter??
Update : If the link doesn't work, it's probably cause they're hiding the page, being ashamed of peddling a postage meter. And here's the proof. Don't ask why I was searching for postage meters....

In other peddling, citizen journalism aggregator Groundreport.com is touting their $1000 contest for best freelance news report - which went to Desi Zavatta Musolino, from Italy, who posted a news story about a naked tourist who crawled into a fountain.

The How To Boomlet

How to write a how to about writing how to's? Don't ask. Cause I won't tell. cause I don't know. Either you got it or you don't. The reason I bring up this subject is because, as a freelance writer, I've been asked to write 'How To's' by multiple clients - Three of them, to be precise.

Goes without saying that to generate a decent amount of revenue, I'd need to write 3 how to's a day. Problem is, what the heck do I write about? I mean, there's only so much you're an expert on, and can tell other people how to do that. After that, it comes down to the fact that you learn on the job. I have, in the last couple of days, pontificated on how to toilet train your cat and how to build traffic to your website. I'm racking my brains to come up with more how to's every single day.

How To sites, like Koonji, HubPages and Spongefish ( coming soon ), are looking to cash in on the increased trend of searching online for a solution to every problem - Be it debt management, buying a house or finding the nearest and cheapest barbershop. There's only one small problem - There's an information overload, and most of it is crap. I mean, heck, I don't even have a cat, and I wrote a how to on how to toilet train my fictional cat. I say this with no shame, because I did my research, and what I wrote indeed works. But, how many others can say the same? I have no clue, and I figure that sooner or later, folks are going to realize that they're being taken for a how to ride. Meantime, though, I intend to make hay - And how.

Journalism Meltdown

Take a look at this. Journalists are twisting themselves into knots about whether or not it's acceptable to allow email interviews to replace the conventional face to face or telephone interviews.

Situation is so bad that they're doing email interviews about whether or not email interviews are acceptable. "But in the digital age, some executives and commentators are saying they will respond only by e-mail, which allows them to post the entire exchange if they feel they have been misrepresented, truncated or otherwise disrespected. And some go further, saying, You want to know what I think? Read my blog.....My interviews with Rosen, who writes the Pressthink blog, were conducted by e-mail." - Media Notes, Howard Kurtz

One thing they're missing. It's all navel gazing. It's journalists and bloggers, talking about journalists and bloggers. In short, it's all within the media. Who gives a rat's ass whether the media interview themselves by email, phone, in person or by pegion courier? If Tony Snow or Karl Rove refused to do an in person interview, asking instead for an email interview, that would be news. Note to the MSM - Please stop, before you prove yourself to be the asses people think you are.

A Woman in Charge - Carl Bernstein

As the whole world probably knows, there's two books out on the life and times of Hillary Clinton. One of them is Carl Bernstein's 'A Woman in Charge'. It's been considered conventional wisdom that these books are 'hit jobs', on Senator Clinton, out just in time to co-incide with the '08 campaign building up. But I read today an excerpt from the book. So here's the deal, from the horse's mouth.

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A Woman In Charge, by Carl Bernstein

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"A sitting first lady of the United States was going to the state of New York where she had never lived and run for the Senate — while she was in the White House. And pull[ed] it off. Every political consultant in the world would say, Preposterous, it’s goofy. Where did that come from? And she did it.

Yet her credentials—as his wife, as a lawyer, and as a political strategist uniquely positioned to salvage the Clinton epoch—were unimpeachable."

Uh...doesn't seem anywhere close to a hit job. If anything, it only adds to the Hillary aura, as a fortress of determination, ambition and importantly, success. That's the key here. Bernstein repeatedly hammers home the point that Hillary got things done, and she had the backbone to do it and stand stiff against headwinds. If anything, it'll help earn a few votes and some poll points. Admitted, this is just an excerpt, and there are others which are not so flattering, but all said and done, no hit job this. I wouldn't be surprised if Carl Bernstein ends up writing President Hillary Clinton's memoirs.

Or, and this seems more likely, failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's memoirs. On a related note, what do you think she's going to do if she loses? Where does the Clinton saga go from there? Will they do a Bill & Melinda Gates kindof thing, or will she try to emulate Teddy kennedy and become a revered figure in the Senate? Or is there another twist to the plot left? Something tells me the next twist in the plot will come from Bill, not Hillary. Keep tuned, or read the friggin book.

Sell a Book in 3 minutes

You got 3 minutes. Make your pitch. If you manage to con an editor, you're a published author. If not, you're one of the 15 million wannabe book writers in the United States. The Scotsman has chronicled the sad state of the chroniclers.

"If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes. That's what hundreds of aspiring authors were doing this week at a New York trade fair, and the odds were against them."

Hire a pro and bring him along to the fair to make the pitch. Better yet, hire a famous and published author. It's all about the art of selling. You can't write? Get a ghost writer. Your entire life is a series of non-events? Not a problem. Make it up. You can always go on Oprah and fess up to spinning a yarn or two. It's all about buzz and celebrity.

In other wannabe writer news, Listenandbeheard has an informal gathering of writers, where you're supposed to read out your scribblings and participate in burying anyone who has the nerve to read out aforementioned scribblings. Ten to one, they'll end up debating publisher rejection horror stories.

Literary Inferno

In a new twist to the information wars, Tom Wayne, Kansas, Mo., voices his protest in support of the writtem word by means of..Burning books. Article in StateNews.com has the fiery details, "Recently, when he attempted to clear out some of his collection he found he could not even give the books away. Wayne's collection contains everything from popular titles to obscure books, such as a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910.

Libraries and other used bookstores turned him down, saying they were too full. In his irritation, Wayne decided to get rid of his books by burning them.

Wayne said he burned books as a protest of society's lack of patronage for the written word."

Now this is one idea which may just catch fire. This is just begging for a discussion on the importance of books and the benefits of reading, but let's book ( no pun intended....well, maybe ) that for another day, when my writing talents are capable of producing a few more sparks ( intended ).

In other news, Solomon Rothman, writing for WebProNews.com, explains the importance, and joy, of blogging to build a community.

And, in news even closer to home, I just found out that Google has a Supplemental Index. And this blog happens to be one of the many proud participants in aforementioned project. Best way to break out? Start praying. And all this after I write a fawning super epic about the value and importance of Google to the economy and the world. Talk about gratefulness.

Telecommuting for Newbies

Having hammered a lot on telecommuting during the infancy of this blog, and then left it alone, to focus on loftier issues absolutely unrelated to freelancers and freelancing, I'm feeling the urge to re-visit the advantages of working from home.

What you get - No commuting hassles, gas bill savings, more time at home, freedom and independence. What you lose - Face time with the boss and colleagues ( invaluable for career growth ), lack of awareness of workplace changes and problems, loss of discipline ( debatable ). That just about sums it up.

Notice one factor. The pluses are all tangible and immediate, meaning you're getting the benefits today. The minuses, on the other hand all refer to problems which might crop up sometime in the future. Put another way, a telecommuter gets his cake, eats it, and might face the scary proposition of starving tomorrow. The office-goer, on the other hand, just gets to look at his cake, and appreciate that the chef is working on the cake and it's going to be bigger and better tomorrow.

The best way, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. You get to telecommute whenever possible, and report to the office whenever necessary. But this is easier said than done. There are 45 million Americans telecommuting today, and federal and state governments are scrambling to come up with legislation and rules for taking care of the arising issues. Connecticut was one of the early states to jump onboard, and remains today the trailblazer for facilitating telecommuting with it's statewide initiative Telecommutect.

In the end, though, it's going to upto your boss and you to hash out the deal. For example, you could be allowed to telecommute on Fridays and Mondays, leading to an extended weekend at home, with the office work to be done on the remaining days. There's no law which can govern such arrangements, and the undesired side-effects arising from such arrangements.

Also to be noted is whether both your boss and you trust you to have the discipline to get the work done. Second, are you so invaluable to your company, that you can afford to sit at home and be secure that no young whipper-snapper who virtually lives in the office is angling for your job, back at the office? If you can answer both questions in the affirmative, then do the right thing and help your country, save the gas bill and enjoy working at home.

Google Shrugged

• 1996 - Larry Page and Sergey Brin working on building a search technology project at Stanford University.
• 1998 - Yahoo! founder David Filo refuses to set up a company for them, and advises them to start their own search engine company, while Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim hands them $100,000 in initial funding.
• 2001 - Google's corporate journey begins with the start of profitability and the hiring of Dr. Eric Schmidt as CEO. For all intents and purposes, Eric Schmidt remains, to date, the face of Google on Wall Street.
• 2004 - Google files with the SEC for an initial public offering ( IPO ), more commonly known as going public.
• 2005 - With billions pouring in from the IPO, Google starts making strategic acquisitions including the acquisition of Urchin ( now Google Analytics ) and a $1 billion investment in AOL.
• 2006 - Even more acquisitions, including Youtube and tie-ups with eBay and MySpace.
• 2007 - Featured acquisitions include Adscape, Trendalyzer and Double-Click.

Source : Google Corporate Information

And this landscape is dotted with the acquisition and launch or re-launch of new products and services such as Google News, Google Earth, Blogger and Gmail. Today, Google has over 12,000 employees worldwide, annual revenues exceeding $10 billion and a market capitalization of around $143.5 billion.

While you digest all this information, consider the impact of Google on things, both online and offline. Silicon Valley is trembling in it's collective pants, because if some bright new spark from Standford comes along with a brilliant idea, the odds are that Google will either eat up the startup or throw it into the internet dustbin by starting a similar service. Additionally, the best and the brightest minds, from across the nation and the world, are migrating to Google, leaving everyone else to fight over the second tier of talent pool. This was, traditionally, the role occupied by Microsoft. Add to this the fight over the free flow of information with book publishers and Hollywood, the oozing of ad revenue out of newspaper publishing houses and into the waiting arms of Google's Advertising division, and last but not least, civil rights organizations worried about the privacy implications of Google's vast data vaults.

And all this, while the rest of the economy, both online and offline, tanked spectacularly. The net result is that Google had the field all to themselves, and they made the most of it. What we have here, in essence, is an island of stability, growth and innovation, surrounded on all sides by struggling monoliths and has-been's moving steadily into oblivion. This reminds me of Ayn Rand's epic - Atlas Shrugged. With so much stacked on the backs of the Google empire, what happens if Google shrugs?

It's a long story, and worth examining. If only to correct a few misconceptions about Google's outsized shoes, it's influence and it's intentions.

The best indicator of Google's influence and intentions came in early 2006, when it was disclosed that the Justice department had demanded access to the databases of the major search engines. I have nothing much to say about the merits of the data request. Make note of two factors here. Firstly, that Google was the only one who refused, and was willing to go to court. Second, had it not been for this bit of backbone from Google, no one would have known about the whole thing. Which doesn't mean that you can sleep easy after handing over all your information to Google - But it is indicative of how responsible the company is, and more importantly, that Google is capable of standing upto, and facing down, powerful forces.

There is a lot of truth to the fear in Silicon Valley that Google is a big bully now, and all startups need to stay as far away as possible, to avoid being squashed. Question is, is Google filling the void, or is it just raking in the ad revenue? Their myriad research projects and idea incubators, where Google employees are given wide latitude, suggest that it's not all about money, and the next big thing just might hatch out of Google labs. There's room for debate here, but it's early days yet.

Then there's the ad revenue being sucked out of print publishers and into Google's ad services. The simple fact is that most print publishers are hopelessly out of date, as far as online news is concerned. If they have nimble websites, which appeal to users more than online portals and blogs, they could tranfer their revenue from print to the web, keeping it inhouse, instead of losing ad revenue to other online sources. As for the book publishers and Hollywood whining aout copyrights, it's a losing battle for them, as the recent Digg DVD DRM episode showed. Information on the internet cannot be hidden behind a lock and key, and the sooner they realise that, the better.

If you put together Google's ( attempted ) free wireless project for San Francisco with the net neutrality debate, you realise that Google is light years ahead, in terms of predicting the future, planning for it, and nudging others in the right direction.

Nuff said. The point here is that change is a reality of life. The old way, with Microsoft and General Motors, is on it's way out. Google is the today. And there'll be someone else tomorrow. I'm thankful to Google, for being a responsible and not-so-evil today. For your sake, and mine, let's hope that we don't collectively cause Google to shrug, at least until the next Google comes along.

Reference Links:-

Explore Google - Listing of Google Apps, Services and Products
The anatomy of a large scale hypertextual web search engine
IPO / The boy wonders not all googly-eyed ... well, not yet
Google Inc. SEC filings - Yahoo! Finance

The Penguins Are Coming!

This is no joke. I firmly believe that once an idea takes hold, it's going to flourish, no matter what. This particular mess started with Penguin books launching their colloborative book project "A Million Penguins." More on this bunch of penguins later, but today I stumbled onto another similar project in the works - A Writers Year. Guess what? Both projects are based in the United Kingdom.

While it would give me infinite pleasure to recount the magnificient online projects unrolled by the British ( Operation Clark County comes to mind ), it would be unfair to declare the penguin and similar episodes a disaster at this early stage. I mean, just the fact that thousands ( if not a million ) people, have co-written the book, will generate a lot of buzz. And in today's buzz-oriented world, the one with the most buzz hogs the NYT best seller list. Point is, what's the future after the novelty wears off? If there's a hundred similar projects going on, and a dozen new collaborative books out every month, who's going to interested? End of the day, the books will sell based on the content. So, it might be fair to analyze if a wiki-book will be better than a book by a single author, all other factors being the same.

The obvious advantages -
Abundance of talent and ideas, and the best will remain, while run-of-the-mill passages will be stricken out by informed writers.
Speed - If enough people are working on it, and they get the hang of it, an army of writers could churn out a book in a mtter of days. They could flood the market with their books, and hope for the best.
Money - Pretty soon, someone is going to start making money out of this, and then it'll be time for all the would-be penguins to jump in and demand their slice of the igloo.
The Blog effect - Today, it's difficult to differentiate between readers and writers of blogs, and generally speaking, they're one and the same. It's likely that the penguin thing is going to end up the same, with readers, book buyers and writers all ending up hopelessly mixed.

Anyway, let's hope the book world is not invaded by an army of penguins, and for once, the well-meaning British didn't screw up the works.

Book Review - The Assault On Reason - Al Gore

The Assault On Reason, by Al Gore

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For the record, I haven't read the book - Yet. What I have read are a series of reviews of the book and the possible, but not-likely, Presidential bid of former VP Al Gore. So, without further ado, I'll give you the links to the reviews, and selected quotes from the reviews. Followed, of course, by own critical analysis of the situation and the book.

WashingtonPost - E.J. Dionne - Free to be Al Gore
Gore's book, "The Assault on Reason," to be released today, is about "the strangeness of our public discourse" as mediated through television. He thinks the Internet may revive the art of reasoned argument that has been lost in our obsessions with "Britney and KFed, and Lindsay and Paris and Nicole."

New York times - Michiko Kakutani - The Assault On Reason
As for his conviction that the Internet can help re-establish “an open communications environment in which the conversation of democracy can flourish,” it plays down the more troubling aspects of the Web, like its promotion of rumor and misinformation alongside real information, and its tendency to fuel polarizing, partisan warfare.

Boston Globe - Jim Sleeper - Gore's 'Assault' makes his case for an open market of ideas
He notes that Internet openness is reviving the mental stimulation of reading and writing, and its interactivity is reviving Revolutionary-era pamphleteering, generating new "committees of correspondence" and strengthening a "meritocracy of ideas" instead of letting conglomerates corner the "marketplace of ideas."

You can read the growing list of reviews here.

Everyone has something to see and say in the book. The anti-war, anti-Bush crowd are hailing it as truth to power. MSM critics are hailing it as a kick in the butt for the media's performance in the past 6 years. Political junkies see it as Gore's return to politics. Me, I see it as one more Gore prophecy - The importance of the internet in politics. As for Gore, this is one smart cookie. He's got just about everyone, except for President Bush, eating out of his hands. That said, there's one thing neither Gore nor his army of supporters can change - He's not in the White House, and he's never going to be.

The Sound of Quality

I've been doing some research for a client the last couple of days. I sent him a file, with my findings yesterday night. I come back in the morning, and I see a reply from him. See for yourself - "I am sending another $50 to you via paypal. Based on the quality of research you're providing me, I would be more than happy to pay more than the contractual amount..."

And this after he paid me $50 yesterday. I tell you true, what makes me jump like Tom Cruise is not the fact that he sent the money. It's the fact that he sent it wiithout my having to ask, plus he's willing to pay even more now for further research than the amount agreed on.

End Note : Quality matters. I broke my head for a couple of days over a subject I knew squat about, and kept banging until I came up with stuff that provides value for money. I could have sent sub-standard work, and kept what he owed me. But I didn't. And that proves two things:-
1. That talent, hard work and perfection gets rewarded, even in this sick internet world of instant gratification and overnight hustlers.
2. I'm good.

ByGosch

Take on editor Ann Gosch, who runs ByGosch editorial services in the News Tribune.

"I didn’t even know enough about the subject to know what questions to ask to learn about it," she said.

At that moment, Ann Gosch the freelance writer thought maybe she should become Ann Gosch the freelance editor.

See Editors vs. Writers

"Besides, everyone who puts words on paper can use an editr, right?"

Guess this is one writer who sorely needs an editr ( so do I ).

In other news, if you have great voice and nothing much else, you might want to read "If They Mention Voice-Over Work, It's Just All Talk" by Howard Leff in the LA Times

And Sean Stubblefield, writing for the Student Operated Press, has this to say:-

"And, unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of people seeking freelance writers don’t really comprehend the intricacies of being a writer...or how gifted a writer you may be, a real writer can’t be expected to instantly churn out meaningful or useable material on command. A freelance writer can’t make a living with these kinds of jobs."

Sean, find a new career or grow up. The reason people hire writers is because they don't know squat about writing or writers. Nuff said.

Bosses are for suckers

James Braly, writing for Marketplace, CA has a really, really interesting take on freelancing vs. a traditional job. He says that, um...the risk lies not in freelancing, but in sticking to an office job. He has a point. Judge for yourself from the quotes or read the full article. It's worth a read.

"Risky?" asks the tycoon's wife, her disdainful eyes strangely incongruous above her lovely, placid cheeks. Evidently the plastic surgeon cut her facial muscles. "How is a job risky?"

"Someone with a boss," I say, "must answer to that one person, who could end their career, destroy their lifestyle, on a whim. Tomorrow."

Absolutely true. But it takes an extraordinary amount of self-confidence ( or stupidity ) to implement this logic.

On a side note, it's little references like the part about the placid cheeks and plastic surgeons that make an article interesting. Fact, figures and analysis is just fine. But what makes an article really interesting is the little herbs and spices the writer throws in.

A peek inside the pages of a writer's mind

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How I Write : The Secret Lives of Authors - Edited by Dan Crowe

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The Chicago Sun Times has a book review for 'How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors'.

"Most writers are infinitely nosy about how other writers go about their business -- how they summon their muse and descend into their inner sanctum. Transitioning from this world of barking dogs and blasting car stereos to a terrain of precise words and intriguing plots is perhaps the most difficult process of writing"

Navel gazing by any other name - Writers writing about how they write and how they seek inspiration is welcome. But looking at the kind of teddy bear they need to hold in order to write is stretching things a bit too far. I mean, well...

Lionel Shriver keeps a lamb curio she named "Clippity" on her bookcase to remind her "to eschew fancy-schmancy character names." Next to Clippity is a tiny, cloaked shaman statue that looks like a Ku Klux Klan member. This, she says, is for penitence -- "for every time I craft a crap sentence."

Maybe it would work better if she added a new cloaked shaman statue every time she churns out crap. An overflowing bookcase full of tiny cloaked shamans would be a magnificient inspiration to write beautiful prose.

Why Me?

Magnificient article in the New York Times by Alice Lesch Kelly titled The struggle to move beyond 'Why Me?'

"Not long after my treatment ended, I found myself in a hospital elevator with a bald woman. I had no hair at that time, either, so we started to chat. (It’s amazing how cancer brings people together — I’ve had deep, 45-minute conversations with complete strangers in waiting rooms.).....Only when I accept the sometimes cruel randomness of fate will I be able to call myself a survivor."

It's not really an article. It's an outpouring of the writers' heart and mind. This piece brings together a lot of the parts which put together make for great writing. For starters, there's the fact that the illness strips away all the artificial layers of personality and leaves no gap between the writer and the writing. What you see is the writer, as is. Second is the issue of the need to find solutions. Some people relish challenges. Facing down problems is like nicotine, dangerously addictive. When you bump into a problem which refuses a solution, you fall back from science onto faith. You close your eyes and let a higher authority decide what's best for you - If only becuase there's nothing much else you can do about it. Which is the stage Alice Lesch Kelly finds herself in.

I have nothing to say to Alice about her cancer. I have nothing to say to Alice about how to face the issues arising out her health problems. All I have to say is, write. Write some more - A lot more. And enjoy it. Because this is the best you can do, Alice. And your best is darn good.

Alice Lesch Kelly is a freelance health writer based in Newton, Mass. and she is the author of masterpieces such as 'How chocolate helps your heart' and 'Tick-Proof Your Yard'

The Art of Freelancing

Article in Statecollege.com by, um..someone discusses 'the art of freelancing' questioning the worth of your words.

"The great irony is book writing. People I know who refuse to write for less than $2 a word will spend hours each week writing a novel or researching a non-fiction book....Article writing makes money. Book writing is for fun. At least for me."

Two questions - Would you write for $1.99 a word? And have you read this article?

In other news, Web Worker Daily asks whether telecommuters are more vulnerable? "Is navigating change more difficult for the far-flung versus traditional on-site workers? What changes has your web work arrangement weathered, and how would you say your career has flourished (or not) since that disruptive element was introduced?"

For a site which caters to telecommuters, these guys seem to be overly insecure. Besides, it would be a mistake to lump all telecommuters into the same bracket. There are indispensable freelancers and then there are guys doing ( or trying to do ) the exact same job, and their contracts get flushed faster than toilet paper.

Sparky

LuWanda Banks, freelance writer and guardian of the creative spark, writing for Massachusetts Live has advice for writers' groups.

"Fourth, if you wrote what you felt was a humorous piece, and no one chuckles, it wasn't funny. If you wrote what you felt was a sad piece, and people laughed, you need to rewrite it. If you wrote what you felt was clear and concise, and there are lots of questions about what you meant, then you learn that it isn't clear at all."

Um...Right. Moving on....

Writers are often, and rightly, advised to avoid wasting ink and write large and rambling essays. Well, guess writers should learn from A minor history of miniature writing. And, as a sidenote, if you can read this, you need to have your eyes checked.

And here's an interview in the Louisville, Kentucy Courier-Journal with writer Anna Quindlen ( Her accomplishments are listed here - Anna Quindlen - Uber WAHM ). She saves the best for the last.

"You wrote the book "How Reading Changed My Life." What do people really gain from reading?

When you read … you're able to transcend your world and understand better what it's like to be (someone else) in America. And that's just invaluable because our country has become so fragmented by race and class and ethnicity.

And on a purely personal level, given how isolated so many of us are, reading makes you feel less alone. … I can imagine my life without writing. I cannot imagine my life without reading."

She's right. Guard that spark.