marketing day

It was Marketing/Administration day yesterday (Marketing Day, calloo, callay...). I got the "once-a-week catch-up on finances and market research/query day" idea from an excellent article that author Kathryn Lay wrote for Inklings a while back. Entered and reconciled receipts in Quicken, did some market research, crafted and then sent out four electronic queries. Within a few hours, two magazines wrote back and said they wanted to see the articles, woohoo! I love the Internet.

Woohoo for now, anyway...in my fantasy writers' life I had imagined having dozens of queries circulating at a time. I guess (even in my fantasy) I didn't expect them to actually start saying "yes". :-) One even wrote back saying that yes, they'd like to see the article, but also added that I had a great query.

Highly encouraging, especially considering that I got pretty much zero response when I tried dipping my toe into the realm of magazine writing years ago, so was discouraged. I think the difference now is that I've had more nonfiction writing and editing experience, even if not all of it generated direct income (e.g. I wasn't paid directly for anything I wrote for my own publication :-)).

Which leads me to conclude that there's a lot to be said for just focussing on writing in the beginning of a freelance writing career, rather than just writing for income. The latter is a necessity, of course, if one wants to become a fulltime freelancer but as with any profession, there has to be a "training" period; in freelance writing, this would be a time where you concentrate on improving your writing and writing habits.

I'm spending a lot of time picking markets I know I could write for and writing queries tailored exactly for that market. I remember how much I hated getting sloppy queries as editor of Inkspot, where it was pretty obvious that the writer hadn't spent much time on the proposal and was likely sending off a hundred similar queries to any other electronic publications he/she could find.

If anyone else is interested in freelance writing for magazines, by the way, I highly recommend Moira Allen's The Writer's Guide To Queries, Pitches & Proposals.

I'm willing to take on some non-paying assignments to help build up my clippings file, but want to focus mostly on paying markets. Right now I have three articles to write (for pay) and four queries still circulating. My goal is to send out three new queries a week.

Meanwhile, I'm not forgetting about my true passion, my children's writing! :-) I'm staying on schedule with that so far, still plan to have two books completed by the end of the year. I do find it's still hard to switch mental writing gears when I go from my fiction writing to nonfiction, and vice versa. Any other writers out there who have a similar experience? I still haven't decided whether it's better to split each day between fiction and nonfiction, or divide days in the week (Monday is novel-writing, Tuesday is magazine-writing, etc.).

I'm still figuring this out as I go along; wish me luck. :-)

Blatherpics

Ruth and me, at Reid's cottage during a get-together of our university friends about 15 years ago (I'm on the left, Ruth's on the right). My hair was a LOT longer back then. :-)

doctor

Had my annual check-up with my own doctor yesterday afternoon. I'm really happy with my doctor; she has exactly the right personality...interested and sympathetic without being too personal, professional without being cold. I found her through a recommendation from Ruth and Kaarel. She mainly treats the Estonian community. The receptionist is fluent in Estonian, so are the doctors, so are many of the patients. I'm not. :-)

Being poked and prodded is never fun, but there's something reassuring about being checked out that thoroughly every year, same as going to the dentist for regular visits. Almost as if getting a clean bill of health was a guarantee that you'd make it to the next year without any hitches.

Still don't like the internal examination, though. (You squeamish types might want to stop reading here) It's much more tolerable than when I got my check-ups from anonymous walk-in medical clinic guy doctors with big hands, but remains my least favourite part of the exam.

I'm guessing that you mothers out there are much more used to this sort of thing, at least when you were pregnant. I never feel as vulnerable as when I'm lying there on the examination table, my feet in the stirrups ("Are You Abused?" the cloth cover on each stirrup reads, "You Can Talk To Me"), trying to think of other things.

It reminded me of the urban legend that circulates every once in a while about a woman who borrowed a washcloth from her teenage daughter before an examination to make sure she was clean "down there", and it turned out (during the examination) that the cloth had been one that the teenager had used to store her glitter. I've received at least a half dozen variations of this story by e-mail.

I told my doctor about my visit to the walk-in medical clinic, showed her the inhaler. I felt a bit guilty as I told her, as if I had somehow betrayed her by seeing another doctor (ever see that Seinfeld hairdresser episode?). I'm Queen of Guilt. Or at least I used to be; I think I've gotten better over the years, especially after my corporate adventure in Philadelphia. If anything, I tend to react overly-negatively to anything resembling emotional manipulation these days (which, by the way, I've added to my list of Personal Pet Peeves in my personal homepage).

Anyway, my doctor prescribed some codeine to take at bedtime so I'll be able to sleep through the night without coughing fits. Jeff and I have been both super-tired these past few weeks, and I strongly suspect this is one of the reasons.

Then I went down to the lab and got my arms poked a zillion times for my blood test. Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration. I don't mind needles in principle, but doctors and nurses always have a difficult time trying to find my veins to get blood. They tell me to clench my fist, they poke, they slap the inside of my elbows, they scrutinize...it's like my veins KNOW what's coming so purposely run screaming from the room (heck, I know how they feel).

It took three tries to get a vein this time, and they used a special "butterfly needle". Unfortunately I can't describe why it had this special label since I couldn't watch what was going on, sorry.

And to think I once considered going into medicine...HA. Though I've always had more of a problem giving blood than getting shots; the advantage with just getting a shot is that the nurse doesn't have to look for a vein. I remember when I used to get flu shots back when I was a kid. Or rather, I remember a poster that was up on the wall that had a cartoon of a manically-grinning nurse holding a needle. The tagline below read, "It is better to give than receive."

I remember having nightmares about that cartoon nurse as a child. I guess that one reason I've never fully appreciated medical humour. :-)

News/Updates

I have four queries out circulating, am hoping to send out some more today, and I have one article to write by the end of the month. I've written 7700 words on my novel so far.

From time to time, I'll remember a photo I posted in my Blatherchat that I'd like to link to...but I won't be able to remember where I posted it. I still haven't figured out a good way to catalogue my digital photos in a way that I can easily search by content, so I've decided to start working on an index of all my Blatherphotos.



Today's Blatherpics:

- Jeff and I went to Sei Sushi last night with Bryan and Elizabeth, then we watched Enterprise on tv last night. Looks like The Bryan Project worked. Elizabeth's asked me to update the page. ;-)

- Sadly, our regular lunch spot, WOW Sushi, has been shut down. They were carrying stuff out of the building when I passed by yesterday.

my first apartment

My first apartment was a cockroach-infested, run-down unit at Spadina and Bloor in the summer of '83. My friend Sue Wong and I moved into the apartment to babysit it for a friend of hers who wasn't able to move in until the school year started. Sue and I were both taking summer courses at the University of Toronto.

We didn't know it had cockroaches when we moved in. The landlord had just sprayed, so it looked relatively clean at the time. And very empty...since Sue's friend hadn't moved in, there was no furniture yet. Sue and I improvised from second-hand furniture and cardboard boxes, and we used mattresses on the floor instead of full beds.

We started seeing the cockroaches within a couple weeks of moving in. I didn't know what they were at first; I had never seen them out in the suburbs. Sue and I bought "cockroach motels" (cardboard cockroach traps with sticky stuff inside that was supposed to lure and then ensnare) by the dozen at Honest Ed's, but no matter how many we put out at night, they were full of cockroaches by the morning.

The cockroaches were everywhere. I saw them skittering over the kitchen counters and dishes in the morning. If I needed to use the bathroom at night, I had to get up and turn the light on first, then go back to bed for a few minutes until all the cockroaches had run away. I remember changing a lightbulb in the ceiling once and jumping back as several cockroaches fell out after I unscrewed the bulb.

I could even hear them in the walls at night, after I turned off the light. Soft chittering scratchy sounds, as if the cockroaches were involved in some massive construction project there behind the drywall. If I turned on the light to investigate, of course, the sounds ceased immediately.

The worst cockroach experience (even worse than when I first felt one run across my hand in the middle of the night) was when I got to my class (after a short subway ride) and discovered that the binder I had been holding to my chest during the entire commute had a squished cockroach on the outside cover.

So after all these cockroach horror stories, you'd think I came away traumatized by my first real encounter with city living. To tell you the truth, I remember having a ton of fun that summer.

I was wide-eyed with the excitement of living away from home, after all. I wasn't that keen on the cockroach aspect, but part of me figured that the bugs were a worthy price to pay for the opportunity. I had a part-time job at a cigarette shop on Yorkville Avenue (that was a horror story in itself) that generated enough money to help pay the rent, with enough left over for occasional dinners out and movies.

This Blathering was inspired by the photo at the top...me in the kitchen of the apartment Sue and I shared; I came across it while browsing through an old album. It's weird to look at an old photo like that (almost 20 years old!) and not be able to remember *anything* about the clothing I wore, the striped cup on the counter, the decoration on the wall, or even who took the picture.

Yet what I do remember is how I felt when the photo was taken: a secret pride. Never mind the fact that a half dozen cockroaches would likely fall out if I opened a cupboard...I was in my own apartment (if only for the summer), and cleaning my own kitchen.

For me at the time, that was luxury. :-)



Today's Blatherpics:

As far as I can tell, these photos were all taken in 1983.

- Me in my first apartment. Note the spacey eyeglasses.

- My roommate, Sue Wong.

- Andy studying at Robarts Library (University of Toronto).

- Tom West as dungeon-master. I seem to recall that my first D&D character was a wimpy magic user named Rowanna.

wobbly Jell-O

I went to the health club yesterday, for the first time in about three weeks. I'm still coughing a bit, but it's not nearly as bad as before. I'm still going to see my own doctor tomorrow (time for my annual physical anyway). Despite not working out, I somehow managed to lose five pounds over the Christmas holidays. Only five more to go and I'll be back to my pre-corporate weight, woohoo!

Sure can tell I haven't been exercising during my illness...my legs and arms and abs felt like wobbly Jell-O (tm) by the end of the workout. Ugh. Maybe I lost five pounds of muscle tissue over the holidays!

Got a nibble on one of the queries I sent out last week, got an expenses cheque I was waiting for from Writer's Digest (from my book), and work on my novel is going well. I'm also still caught up with my finances. Ok, it's only been two weeks into the new year, but this is a record for me. :-) I set up a budget and my books in Quicken last week.

I heard from WritersMarket.com that my Market Watch page is already one of the 20 most-visited pages in the site, which is a nice little egoboo (it's a good start, anyway).

I found out that Andrea's going to Confusion. So now my friends Dave Clement, Mark Osier (whom I haven't seen in several years), Rand Bellavia, AND Andrea Dale are going to be at this convention...and I'm not, argh. I actually did investigate seat sales to Detroit out of morbid curiosity, and found a flight for only CAN$119 through Air Canada. Just the additional TAXES on the flight, however, add up to $152 (!!!)...more than the flight itself.

No wonder Canadians are so leery of air travel these days.

It's a vicious circle, of course. The airlines have to jack up the prices to stay financially afloat. Meanwhile, an already nervous Canadian public is horrified by the absymal exchange rate and cost of flying, so they don't fly. Which makes it financially tougher on the airlines.

I used to love flying.

I used to even get all excited about plane food (I'm so into compartmentalized food) and other in-flight services. My experience with the Philly-Toronto commute and the gradual decline in customer service, however, has soured me on air travel. Jodi and I are thinking about going to Contata this June (Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers are the GoHs!), but we're going to investigate going there by train instead of flying.



News/updates

For Sci-Fi's Sad Geezers: Love the name. Has over 9,300 cult science fiction links.

I've added a Blatherings Cast of Characters page. I've had some people express confusion or curiosity about various friends I mention relatively frequently in my Blatherings, so this list is for them. Please note that it's NOT a special list of friends (i.e. don't get in a huff if you're not on it). The list will constantly evolve over time. You can always get to the list through my About page.

Today's Blatherpics:

- I was waiting inside when Jeff washed the car on Sunday. Though it made an interesting photo.

- Jeff read bedtime stories to Sara and Annie Sunday night.

a good day

(Update 2:45 pm EST: Diarist.net awards reminder)

Sunday was an extraordinarily good day. It started with brunch at La Hacienda (640 Queen St W) with Jeff, Parki, Lindsay and Wendy. The morning sun slanted in the front windows in just the right way to give everything an ethereal glow, nudging up the temperature so that we could almost forget the chill breeze outside and pretend it was early spring. Sweaters were shed; so were our "heading into another long Canadian winter" blues, at least temporarily.

I ordered the Breakfast Burrito and a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. Topics of conversation ranged from A Beautiful Mind (a movie we saw on the weekend and all enjoyed; Parki's lending me the book), Lindsay's and Wendy's house plans, the definition of art. I didn't participate as much as the others, partly because of my cough and partly because I was getting drowsy, lulled by the ebb and flow of conversation, the warmth of the sun in the restaurant.

I had a nap as soon as we got back; Jeff opted to go do work for a client, so I had the apartment to myself. Afternoon naps are a luxury I don't usually take during the work week unless I'm ill. When I do nap, I don't go for piddly 10-minute "power naps". My idea of a good nap consists of getting undressed and burying myself deep under the covers, shutting the blinds, taking the phone off the hook.



When I woke an hour later, I went to Parki's for a visit. Although I met Parki through Jeff, I like the fact that he and I have developed a friendship independent of the one that he and Jeff share...I think that's a pretty unusual thing, in terms of couple friendships. I sat in my favourite chair (in the world) and we had tea and just talked for a couple of hours until Jeff came to pick me up to go my sister's place for dinner.

We had our usual Sunday night dinner with my family. I can't remember when this tradition started...I think after my brother and his wife died. It began as a need to just be with each other, I think, to reaffirm the existence of the remaining family members. It's become much more than that now.

My favourite moment last night was dancing with Sara and Annie. Sara and I are going to see "Mamma Mia" together in the late spring (a birthday gift from my family); I bought her the CD soundtrack for Christmas. She and Annie already know all the words to three ABBA songs. :-)

Today's entry was written as part of an On Display collaboration. The topic is "What are you sure of?"

There's been a lot going on in my life these past couple of years, and there were times when I found it difficult to be sure of anything, even of myself. Happily, things have changed, and this was in no small part due to factors in my life that I've realized I can be sure of, both in myself and in others.

I've also learned that it's best not to over-analyze or second-guess, to focus on what's good and right in life and to not obsess over what isn't.

So last night as I danced with my young nieces in my sister's living room, I let myself give in to their pure, unhibited joy, delighting in the moment, looking forward to many more like it.

It was a good day. :-)

Diarist.net Awards:

I'm on the current Diarist.net Awards panel, and we've been asked to remind everyone that nominations for the awards close tomorrow.

If you know of a good journal or journal entry that deserves recognition, please do send in a nomination! Awards panel judges are not eligible for nominations, by the way (i.e. this is not a plea to be nominated :-)).

More info about the awards here.

Today's Blatherpics:

- The sunlight made everything much more interesting-looking at brunch yesterday; I felt compelled to take photos of some of things on our table.

- Like Jeff's bowl of latt|AMP|eacute;, for example. Several of the others were inspired by his latt|AMP|eacute; as well, so we passed my camera around.

- Lindsay, Wendy, Parki, Jeff.

- Jeff and I passed this sign after brunch; I thought the name was funny.

- Annie and Sara, dancing in their living room to the soundtrack of "Mamma Mia".