Writer's Block: Rabbit Rabbit!

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Yeah...yesterday's question, obviously. But today's question is kind of stupid (and for the record, I have both a landline and a cell).

If I could have one wish come true this month - no brainer - I would get a really good long-term writing contract that would give us a little more security and get me out of this current situation. Or in general, I can launch my freelance career successfully again and have multiple projects to work on, because that makes things a lot more interesting. And I can make the kind of money that freelancers make on average (which is twice what I was making at Paychex).

It takes awhile though. I know it won't happen in a month.

But things ARE happening. My Twitter following is growing. Normally, I wouldn't read anything into that, but I have some very useful people following me. Writers, photographers, and people affiliated with TV shows and print publications...people who could potentially provide leads. YAY for networking! So I'll keep riding it and see where it takes me. I had my doubts about Twitter and its usefulness. But now I definitely see its potential.

***

It's windy today, and our temperature gauge outside appears to be out of order at the moment, so I have no idea what the temperature is outside. It's not raining, at least. But I would like to know if there is the potential for spending some time outdoors, plus I am supposed to go enjoy Kathy's hot tub today, and I don't want to do that if I'm going to get out and freeze my butt off.

But I have other stuff to do first. A bit of cleaning around the house. More freelance gig searches. Getting Reece some exercise.

The cleaning is going to be difficult. I was playing with Reece outside last night after dinner and was trying to extract a ball from her teeth and in the process of that, extracted a rather sizeable chunk of skin off the pad of my left index finger. It hurt like hell (all those nerve-endings there, you know). It bled even more. And I have to keep it bandaged. It makes doing routine tasks a bit tricky. Even getting that finger wet causes searing pain on the tip of my finger. The gross part was when I went back outside to clean up after dinner and picked Reece's ball up off the grass and actually saw my missing chunk of skin sticking to it. Ewwwwww.

Reece felt bad because she thought she hurt Mommy (given that we were playing one minute and then I was screaming in a mixture of pain and surprise the next), but this one was totally my fault. She immediately followed me inside after it happened and watched me clean and bandage my wound, with this look of guilt and shame on her face the whole time. I had to reassure her that I wasn't mad at her.

She's a good pup, she is.

Anyway, I guess I better get started on something constructive.

Apple Dumplings - a repost

For wendywoowho, because I promised her this recipe weeks ago. It's an old family favorite. I posted this a few years back, but I can't find it.

(My mom recommends Macintosh apples...I prefer Granny Smith)

1 cup sugar
1 stick butter - cut into small pieces
2 cups hot water (hot enough to melt the butter)

Put all these ingredients in a bowl and set aside

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1-3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk
6 medium apples - peeled, cored, cut into bite-size pieces

Mix flour, sugar, salt, powder & soda. Cut in shortening. Stir in milk and mix well (add more flour if needed). Separate dough into 4 pieces. On floured surface, roll each dough ball into a thin circle, place handful of apple pieces into center of dough and fold up edges to enclose apples. Place each dumpling into square baking dish. Stir sugar, water and butter mixture until dissolved and ladle onto dumplings to fill baking dish to within half an inch of the top. Bake 50-60 minutes.

I would love to take one fresh from the oven, pour milk over it, sprinkle sugar over it liberally, and eat. So amazing. I suppose ice cream works with it too, but I always had it with milk, so it seems sacrilegious to eat it any other way. Leftovers are always reheated for breakfast the next morning. :)

Freelance Writing: Another Rant

It really irritates me that I have to weed through so many bogus freelancing jobs just to find one that isn't.

I got another potential gig today, but upon further research, it's another scam.

Things that ticked me off:

- the link that was sent to me with more info about the job said, "Most people on the Internet read at a ninth grade level If you can write at a ninth grade level then you can be a freelance writer." W.T.F? No. It's not that easy. I'm not of the opinion that anyone can be a writer or that everyone is a writer already (some writers make that argument, but I taught College Composition for 2 years, so that's enough to convince me that it's total crap). And methinks we have a missing period in that statement, by the way. (This statement says a lot about the quality of writers they would like to hire, IMHO...meaning, people who will work for next to nothing.)

- this link also said that freelance writing is a stress free job. What? Ever heard of deadlines? Ever heard of writing things according to style guides? Ever heard of multiple drafts? Ever heard of having to wait to hear back about queries/on spec articles that you send in? Stress free...right. Keep on telling yourselves that.

And there were all these "the sky's the limit" promises...the more you write, the more you make...blah blah...no explanation whatsoever of how long the required articles must be for the pay you receive, or that you could be spending 12 hours a day cranking out these articles for a mere $12,000 per year. Come on!

And here's my favorite part...you click on the "register now" button, and it opens another page, which tells you that you can become one of their writers for the great low registration fee of $2.95.

*headdesk*

It bothers me that the ads they post on craigslist seem fairly legitimate. They get mixed in with all the truly legit ads and it's hard to know which ones are for real and which ones are not. And then they end up on the freelancing job forums - the good ones - and people end up wasting their time applying for these, like I did.

And then of course, I get a response (which was actually in my Spam folder and should've stayed there), and it turns out to be this.

Grrrrrrrrrrr...

I'm getting a bit frustrated with the craigslist postings now, and I hate that, because I've always had great luck with them in the past. That's how I got the sidestep gig, and that was the best steady freelance gig I ever had. I miss writing for them. City guides are fun.