I’m not going to lie – I’ve been known to curse like a sailor from time to time. I work part-time at a day care, so I’m pretty good at watching my mouth when I need to do so, but when I’m just around friends…well, we all curse.
What about your personal blog…or even a professional blog or work for a client? Should you pepper your posts with curse words or does that make you look bad?
Personally, I think sometimes, you can get away with it.

Does your subject cater to an audience that doesn’t mind cursing? For example, the video game …read more

Let me tell you from first hand experience: There’s not a lot of demand in the freelance world for literary analysis.
I’m not saying that you’ll never find a job relating to literature. And hey, if you want to go through the query and print publishing process, you may be able to get something published in a literary magazine. Normally, though, you aren’t going to find freelance work online relating to literature. Unfortunately for most English majors, that’s where most of their experience lies, since that’s what we all tend to write about in college.
So what are your topic options?
For some …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Hi Anne,
Is it my imagination or do you NOT publish ads from those outfits that sell term papers to students? I’ve noticed several of them on the boards I check, but not on yours.
How come?
BG
Hi BG,
Great eye! Or are you checking up on me?
Seriously, I think the term paper mills are just one more example of unbridled capitalism. Students should write their own darn papers and I try not to support those people who I think are exploiting them.
On the other hand, a student who is looking for editing or coaching to get papers written is another story – I …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Most of you who follow this blog are probably vaguely aware I’m writing a book about getting your book written. It’s designed to go with a class I’ll be teaching and I’m getting close to the end. I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the exercises and I know how I want to fix them although I haven’t done it yet.
After some soul searching I decided I have to include a chapter on marketing books, even though I don’t feel like I know much about getting books sold. So I drafted a chapter a month or two ago. Yech! I just …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Writing well usually means writing in an uninterrupted fashion – without distractions. Avoiding or eliminating distractions when you’re writing takes some thought and planning.
Distractions come in two flavors, if you will. The most obvious are the interruptions that come from the outside. If you work at home these may include your kids, your spouse, the phone, the door bell, friends dropping in, email, the fax machine, instant messages, etc. At times the list seems endless. Even if you write in an office away from the home, many of these apply.
The other types of distractions are the internal ones. You …read more

Mary Emma Allen who blogs at HomeBizNotes is focusing July on how writing and publishing fits in as a home based business. She’s done considerable writing herself and I, for one, am going to keep an eye on her blog to see what she’s up to. I’m bound to learn something.
Today her post is titled: Thursday Thirteen – 13 Home Based Writing Businesses
I added commercial writing in the comment section… what else did the two of us miss?
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for …read more

You’ve head me say it before – they are upgrading the electricity on my 1920ish cottage… it’s a fair drama for sure. I’m one of four, that is part of 10.
The next step is to “cut over” to the new box and this takes at least two agencies… the city and the electric company and at least one inspector. I’ll be running off extension cords until that process is complete and we don’t know if it’s half a day or a week and a half! So if the blogging seems spotty…
Darn, guess I should be set up with …read more

b5media’s list of blogs grows so fast that I often miss something that might be of interest to you. This morning I stumbled into One Book Two Book, a blog about books for kids of all ages.
Turns out it’s only a few days old, meaning none of us are too far behind. If books for kids are of interest you’ll probably want to subscribe to this blog.
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a book written.
Image from http://www.sxc.hu

My printer has finally given up the ghost. It’s an HP PhotoSmart 2410 and I got it free because I became a beta tester for them. That was over five years ago, maybe more than six. I remember when they came to set up the test unit, and how I had to go to a special website and answer certain questions and forward them stuff. It was a cake walk.
Then, they came and took the test unit away and in about a week I received a brand new unit as a reward. I think, back then, the printer sold for …read more

Jennifer Williamson who owns her own writing service and blogs about it all at CatalystBlogger recently took a temporary full-time, on-site writing job even though she’d promised herself and the world she wouldn’t ever do that again.
She tells the story in a post called: On-Site Writing vs. Freelancing: The Showdown
As she points out, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. She then lists some benefits of on-site work and some drawbacks. Included in her benefits is Quick feedback on your work. And, apparently, in this on-site job that’s what she got, often in a matter of hours. My experience …read more