Over the moon: my first real internet article purchased

Today I sold an article through Helium Marketplace.  I'm so excited!  . . . and this came at a perfect time too, as my days of gainful employment are drawing to a close and the blogs and hubs which have been taking up the majority of my writing time are earning me pennies at best.  I know it's important to establish a writing presence and portfolio online, so I don't see the effort as wasteful.  It's just really encouraging to have earned a writing paycheck in the double digits.  There's hope for me!

{Originally published October 21st, 2008 on my Wordpress blog}

Happy Birthday, Mom

{Originally published Oct 20th, 2008 on my Wordpress blog}

Today's my mom's birthday and since I'm starting out as a professional writer, it only seems fitting that I acknowledge this day with words (don't worry mom- you'll get a real present too).

This post is a tribute to my mom, Ann Scherm Baldwin.  I love her with all my heart.
 
I love my mom because she loves and takes care of her family with all her strength.

I love my mom because she taught me to be ethical, to be compassionate, to be passionate, and to be creative.

I love my mom because I know that every decision she made while I was a child, she made because she thought it was the best thing for me.

I love my mom because she never gave up on my sister or I, even when we had given up on ourselves.

I love my mom for her laugh.

I love my mom for the passion that she puts into her interests, and the interest she always shows in my mine, even if she is hearing about it for the thousandth time.

I love her for the fact that she will do anything to help my sister with her beautiful baby Landon, without a second thought.

I love my mom for how much she will love my children when I'm blessed to have them.

I love her for the parties she planned for each of my birthdays, down to every tiny detail, themed on whatever I was interested in that year.  I love that she put together play kits for car rides and decorated our rooms in whimsical themes, and assembled for us the largest dress up bin of anyone I knew.  I love that she took us to hay rides and rennaissance fairs and science museums.  I love that she's always had the most perfectly comfortable lap, and that she let me sit in it no matter how big I got.

I love my mom for more reasons that I can count, for more qualities than I could ever put into words.  I love her because she's been the best mom I could possibly imagine, and she's the inspiration I have to be a good mother one day.

Love you, Mom!

 

New Hubpage posted!

Check it out here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-host-a-scrapbooking-baby-shower

This one's pretty long but it was fun to write.  I got the idea because I recently hosted a scrapbooking baby shower myself, which was a lot of fun, and got me started on a new hobby!  Hope you enjoy.

{Originally published on October 20th, 2008 on my Wordpress blog}

Rodent Spelling: My Downfall

So, yesterday I composed a 600 word piece about a specific type of hampster cage, to be used on a UK pet supplies website.  Very professionally fulfilling, as you can imagine.  I felt it was pretty good- pretty damn good, actually, considering I was going to get paid a measly three dollars for my efforts.  I was perturbed, therefore, a few hours later when I got an email notification that the client had sent my article back for revision.
Great.  Here I am, a burgeoning freelance writer working for pennies, and my work is still getting rejected.
I went to check the commentary for the article and turns out, the client thought my article was very good.  The problem, apparently, lay in the fact that I had "mispelled" hamster as 'hampster' throughout the article, and they wanted me to correct it.

"Stupid Brits, can't spell hampster right," I thought.  I quickly changed all incidences of the rodent spelling in question and resubmitted.

It wasn't until I went to write this post that I found out that it is I, in fact, that is in the wrong.  I did a google search and checked Wiki and was pretty embarrassed to discover that 'hamster' is, in fact, the correct spelling.  Oops!

No harm done, I guess.  I'm just surprised to realize that I've been spelling hamster wrong my whole life.  Guess you learn something new every day . . .

{Originally published October 29th, 2008 on my Wordpress blog}

Preparing for a Handmade Christmas

One of my first paid writing gigs is going to be polishing and producing all the text on a very talented jewelry artisan's Etsy page.

She also happens to be my Mom.  But I'm not going to let that little detail take away any of my excitement over this paid writing assignment!

So, in preparation for the assignment, I was surfing around Etsy the other day, researching what elements and information other successful artists include in their profiles.  And, I fell in love with the concept of Etsy.  I love handmade stuff!

Now I'm starting to think about the possibility of using Etsy for as many Christmas presents as possible this year.  I love Christmas (see: my blog ID) and thinking about Christmas (although recently, I've been mostly thinking about how we're possibly going to pay for Christmas since I am quitting my full time job!).  And, I love the idea of supporting independent artisans- much like I've got my fingers crossed that there are multiple people out there willing to support ME as an independent word artisan, so to speak.

In about a week or so, go check out my mom on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5585030  At that point, the site should be featuring my writing and editing.  And while you're there, buy a bead. : )

{Originally published Oct 19th, 2008 on my Wordpress blog}

Five more work days to total freelancer-hood

Today, three hours to closing time, I started coming down with a killer migraine.  I get these rarely but when I do, it's not pretty.  It starts out with visual disturbance- I lost my peripheral vision, and everywhere I looked there I saw a shimmery gleam that distorted my vision and disoriented me.  Naturally, of course, my office, which had been dead for the first four hours of the day, became a hustling center of activity as soon as I started feeling bad.  Here I was, not even sure if I'd be able to drive myself home from work, and I had to process a complete move in, from the initial prospect visit to the signing of the lease and the handing over of the keys, in the period of an hour.  Still, the headache passed without as much pain and hassle as I anticipated.

Five more days before I can throw myself into writing full-time.  I'm very excited.  I've been coming home from work and spending nearly all my free time prior to bed working on various writing projects and explorations.  I think my husband is starting to feel a little neglected!

{Originally published OCt 19th, 2008 at my Wordpress blog}

I'm excellent, according to Textbroker

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