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On New Pens
During the last session of the Willamette Writers Conference on Sunday, the workshop I was really looking forward to, my pen died. Nothing but dry scratches on the paper. Luckily I was sitting next to a friend who is also a mom, so she had a pen I could borrow. Moms are more prepared than…
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On a Change of Plans and Serendipity
We have been planning for months to attend an old friend’s wedding out of town. We made arrangements for the dog and put off adopting a kitten. I made the painful choice to not attend the Willamette Writers Conference in my own city, despite having two book proposals ready to go, plus two completed novels,…
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On Great Expectations
Surprisingly, I’ve never read Great Expectations, though I bet I would like it. (Anyone who slogged through the middle of The Count of Monte Cristo would probably like GE, right?) I experience great expectations every 20 minutes or so. This is usually useful, but the letdown can be awful. I have been a fount of…
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On Freelance Breathing Space
Recently one of my favorite editors at one of my favorite freelance gigs sent out an email announcing that we all — staff and freelancers alike — were being given “breathing space” for a few weeks. I don’t know if this is a euphemism for being a bit broke or if things really were getting…
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On Taking a Break
I have been practicing aikido, a non-violent Japanese martial art, for over five years. Thanks to work, family, and adopting an active dog, my four-times-a-week regular practice has crumbled over the last few months. And I felt terrible about it. My first stab at a solution was to train through it, as they say. I…
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On Having Time and Space to Think
After a hectic couple of weeks where I’d overbooked myself (literally — I was editing two books at once), I got a reprieve. I took two days mostly off, followed by a light workweek. Rather than spending that time playing video games or watching afternoon TV talk shows, I spent it thinking. Just thinking. Some…
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On the Importance of Being Mobile
Last week, I cleared out some time in my schedule to bring my car in for a recall repair at the dealership. (No, it’s not a Toyota, and it has nothing to do with brakes.) I had visited the manufacturer’s web site — that’s how I found out about the recall — and made my…
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The Monday Morning Freelance Plan
As a freelance writer and editor working from home, getting out of the house is always nice. So I’ve instituted a new ritual: the Monday morning freelance plan. It gets me out of the house and makes the rest of my week far more productive. The basic idea: This takes about an hour, maybe a…
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Some Not-Resolutions for 2010
I don’t usually do new year’s resolutions. I would rather fix what needs fixing when it needs fixing rather than make a list in the last week of December of things I’d like to do in the next twelve months. But, of course, there are things that happen to need fixing right now — not…
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Learning the Automotive Photography Ropes
I went to SEMA in Las Vegas this year, and then the Los Angeles Auto Show a month later. The Lexus LFA supercar was at both shows, and I’m my own automotive photographer. So I took lots pictures to share with my readers on About.com. I’m the Guide to Exotic Cars there, and a $400,000…