This month marks the first anniversary of re-launching my freelance writing career – and what a difference a year makes. In the past 12 months, I’ve written for close to a dozen magazines and Websites, reconnected with former colleagues I hadn’t talked to in years, discovered LinkedIn and Facebook, started this blog, joined a writer’s […]
10 things writers can do right now to feel better about the economy
There’s nothing you can do about the Wall Street financial crisis or the $700 billion bail out package that Congress is debating as I write this. You can’t control the economy, or the price of gas or who’s going to win the presidential election in November. In the face of so uncertainty, it’s easy to […]
Is it time for freelancers to take a full-time job?
On Monday the House voted down the Bush Administration’s $700 billion Wall Street bail out and stocks took their biggest dive in 20 years. People are freaking out over lost retirement savings and whether they’ll be able to make their mortgage payments. There’s a presidential election in five weeks, and who knows what change that […]
Doonesbury's Redfern gets laid off from the Post
Everybody in the newspaper business is getting laid off. Even Rick Redfern. Redfern, the fictional investigative reporter in Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip, is getting canned by the Washington Post after 33 years on the job, according to a story line that debuted in the strip this week. He’s one of the lucky ones, Redfern’s […]
Help a freelancer in need, help save Lori's house
UPDATE: I am sorry to have to report that Lori Hall Steele passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at the age of 44 after a short and mystifying illness that was diagnosed as either Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) or Lyme disease. Here is her obituary as it was printed in the […]
Mediabistro.com on contributing editors: "gigs with teeth"
Mediabistro.com, the career center for freelancers and other media types, just published an illuminating article about contributing editors, and I’m not just saying that because I was interviewed for the story. The article, “Between Freelancer and Staffer: Contributing Editors,” by E.B. “Liza” Boyd, explains how the title means different things at different publications but for […]