Artistry With Words

Welcome back this third week of January.  How’s the weather where you are?  We are having one of the mildest winters on record here in Olympia, Washington, basking in fifty-degree temps and wondering when hell will break loose.  Maybe it won’t this winter.  Maybe it’s just being sneaky and will hit us when we least expect it.  The trick is to be prepared for anything.

And that will be our topic today….preparation for the unknown.

On a personal note, I am done with the second edit of my novel “Shadows Kill,” and I’m now ready for beta readers if any of you are interested.  Sadly I can’t afford to pay you to do this, but you will receive my undying loyalty.  If you are interested, let me know, but I need it read within a week or so.

Now let’s move on to preparation.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”

Confucius
How can we ever go wrong reading the words of Confucius?

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

If you are a freelance writer, and by that I mean you write for money, then we need to chat.  Let me tell you a story about my family during the Great Depression.

My dad spoke often about those bleak days.  He told me his parents took any odd job they could find to put food on the table. He told me about raising chickens and selling the eggs. He told me about riding the boxcars to different cities in search of odd jobs.  Every day was a new “experience” as every member of the family chipped in and made money any possible way.

Being a freelancer is a bit like those days.  Diversification is the key. I’ve been singing this song for a couple years now, and some of you have heard the notes.  You can’t put all your proverbial eggs in one basket.  Being a freelancer means writing articles for magazines, writing blogs for companies, making passive income on sites like HP, writing newspaper articles, and on and on we go.  When one source of income dries up you always have another to fall back on.

TIP OF THE DAY

Branch out.  If you are in this for the money, then you need to expand your efforts so that your source of income doesn’t dry up and blow in the winds like the great Dust Bowl of the 30s.

CONTEST OF THE DAY

Yes, you can make money entering writing contests.  Someone has to win, right?  Why not you?  Wag’s Review Winter Writing Contest will be taking submissions in poetry, fiction and essays from now until February 28^th.  First price is $1000 and you can find out about it by following this link.

MAGAZINE  SITE OF THE DAY

Upstreet Magazine is taking submissions for their mag. I believe they pay fifty bucks if your article or essay is accepted.  Find out about it here.

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY

Things to do and people to see, so I’ll leave you now to do whatever it is you do.  Have a great week.  Thanks for always being here…now get out there and diversity.

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”