Associated Content has a referral drive going on right now. If you list me as a referral, sign up, and publish at least one piece by May 31, you and I both get entered into a drawing for free gadgets.

The pay there isn't great, but you can write about topics you feel passionate about and make some pocket change. If'n you're interested, click the button and make sure to tell them I referred you!

So I don't talk about it much on LJ, but in addition to my journalistic writings, I also do write fiction and poetry and occasionally submit to literary magazines.

I have a story I particularly like that hasn't found a home, and I sent it to Room magazine in January of 2009. They said on their submissions page that they usually reply in 3-4 months, so after I hadn't heard anything for 7 or 8 months, I sent a follow-up. I got an e-mail back saying (I'm paraphrasing) there'd been an organizational shake-up and some submissions had gotten misplaced in the process and they'd get back to me. So, finally, THIRTEEN months after I submitted the story, I got a rejection letter. But a nice one, at least:

Thank you for submitting your work to Room magazine. While we are unable to accept this particular submission for
publication, we would very much like to see more of your work.

Members of Room?s collective read more than 700 submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction each year, of which about 10% are accepted for publication... All manuscripts are read for quality, and about 30% are then passed on for further consideration... Your submission was one of the 30% that gets passed on to an issue editor. We really liked it, but were ultimately unable to use it in one of our upcoming issues. Please be sure to send us more of your writing.

In other news, we had a nice weekend. I took almost all of Saturday off (other than about 30-40 minutes worth of copy editing) and I had an awesome workout in the pool that left me feeling really limp and relaxed and mellow.

I also did a fair amount of home cooking. Friday night, we made cheesecake brownies. Saturday, I made vegetarian taco salad for lunch and black-eyed-peas and rice for dinner. I kind of melded two recipes into one for the latter, and I definitely think it's a keeper. On Sunday, I had a hankering to make homemade vegetarian lasagna, so I did. I didn't have my recipe for the version where you don't have to cook the noodles in advance, so I winged it and crossed my fingers. It actually turned out quite good, so I was pleased. Now we have a fridge full of leftovers!

On an unrelated note, J. and I have been enjoying some online point-and-click detective/mystery games (not this weekend, but on previous ones where we didn't have much scheduled.). J. always wants to play video games together, but our taste in games is somewhat different and/or we don't have access to ones we would enjoy doing together. So, the mystery games have been a fun compromise.

Here are a few we particularly liked, but I'm open to suggestion if anyone else out there plays them!

Detective Grimoire

Detective Jack French  We only did the first episode on this ( I refuse to use the word "webisode" which I think is an abomination.)

Nick Bounty: A Case of the Crabs

Nick Bounty: The Goat in the Grey Fedora

Also, we looked at a Shakespeare-themed one,  The Seven Noble Kinsmen. It's really beautifully illustrated and looks intriguing, but it was more complicated than what we were looking for. I think you could spend an entire weekend solving it, and we were just looking for something that'd take an hour or two.

I've had a pretty diverse set of articles published in the last month or two.

Here, you'll find a story I did about the Clean Energy Outlet in Ypsilanti - a retail space that sells energy-efficient products and offers classes on related topics.

And here's a story I did about a Michigan author whose book about the Great Lakes was chosen as the "community read" in my area- each year, a committee picks a book for anyone in the two cities to read, and there are author events and book discussions based on the chosen book.

I wrote several retail-oriented stories for AnnArbor.com including one about a jewelry store finding success by going online only and an article about how merchants in Ypsilanti's historic district, Depot Town, are faring. I also reported breaking news- I believe I was the first person locally to report that Cheeky Monkey gift store is going out of business.

Additionally, Travels.com is featuring some brief "tip" articles I wrote about traveling and destinations.

And I continue to write some occasional articles (usually health-oriented) for eHow.com and post education stories and news roundups at my Examiner page.

When I first went full-time freelance in August (out of necessity after being laid off my part-time copy editing job), I was throwing things at the wall and seeing what would stick. I'd been doing a lot of low-paying but easy writing for Demand Studios and some other online venues and very occasional work for print newspapers. Slowly, the momentum has picked up and I'm getting more high-paying assignments. Getting more per assignment is just one goal, though. Other goals include doing more original reporting and interviewing and generally just getting to do more *interesting* work. Another goal is to get published in a wider variety of publications, including some with national exposure.

Toward that end, I've had a piece accepted at Writers' Journal! The fee isn't huge, but it's more of a "how to" piece about the business of freelance writing, so it didn't take me a long time to research or write. They're giving me $30 plus a year's subscription to the journal. And, I get a byline in a national publication, so that's very cool. They're only going to post an excerpt (not the whole piece) on-line, but I'll be sure to link to it when it goes up.

Squeeee!

I have a batch of new articles up at ehow.com on a wide variety of topics. These days, I'm making enough money from other freelance projects that I haven't been writing a ton of these, but they're fun when I don't have any other major projects:

Foods that Affect the Thyroid

Nonsurgical Scoliosis Treatments

Where are Carbohydrates Stored in the Body?

Savings Accounts for Children

The Yohimbine Effect on Sperm Count

Queen Bee Facts

Which Foods are Rich in Iodine?

Natural Underactive Thyroid Remedies

Signs & Symptoms of Thyroid Problems in Adolescent Girls

I've also been writing for my Education News Examiner site. I've mainly been posting education-related events and news, but I recently wrote my first commentary/opinion piece:

Commentary: Budget cuts to early childhood programs are indefensible

In related news, if all goes as planned, I'll have one article about meditation and a second about the Detroit Derby Girls going to print on the same day in different local newspapers later this week- fun!

So, I've been compiling sort of "business brief" items for AnnArbor.com for quite a while but posting as "AnnArbor.com staff." Now, I've got my first story up there under my own byline- whee!

Traditional lifestyle at Ann Arbor Township convent attracts a full house

I will say that I did NOT write the story with the "Field of Dreams" reference- it was added by one of their copy editors. Recently, I've had two articles changed in ways I didn't care for. On my "Pick Your Own" story, there was an editor's note tacked onto the end but not really identified as such, and then my lead was changed in this one. Out of the two, I find changing my lead the more obnoxious intervention, but oh well...

I enjoy most of the writing I do, though some of the shorter articles are mainly a way to pay the bill. But I really like doing longer-form journalistic features where I get to take photos, interview multiple sources and put together more in-depth stories. I've had a couple published recently.

I can't find a simple text form of this story, so you have to access the PDF of the publication. My story about local "Pick your own" farms (with photos!) starts on page 18:

Visiting 'Pick Your Own' Farms in Washtenaw County

And a friend of mine is starting a new alternative monthly in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti. It's just online at the moment, but he's trying to get advertisers so he can take it into print. In the meantime, I have a piece on local studio space for artists published online here:

Spur Studios helps artists take part in Ypsi renaissance

I read a tiny blurb about this in Time magazine and had to follow up and find out more. The part where parents talk about their autistic kids  being targeted for punishment and administrators and teachers thinking parents are "making excuses" for the kids' behavior makes me nearly homicidal...

Report on corporal punishment in schools: Disabled students receive disproportionate share

And before any of my Michigan friends get too smug about the fact that our state bans corporal punishment... it only applies to public schools. Paddling and other physical punishment is allowed in private schools here.

 

Hey: For my examiner page, they use some kind of secret formula to determine our pay. It includes page views, but they also factor in how many subscribers you have. Sadly, I have none. :(

If you'd be willing to subscribe to my page, I'd appreciate it. Don't feel pressured, but if you live in Michigan and/or are interested in Education news,  you might find some of the things I post about interesting. I'll be posting 4-7 stories a week, very likely never more than one a day. If you subscribe, you'll get an email alert when I publish something new.

To subscribe, go to my main page, and click on "Subscribe to Email" just under my mugshot.

A sampling of my latest posts:

Education 101: What is Proposal A?

Eastern Michigan University wins grant to help children learn about ecology

Michigan Academy for Green Mobility launched to train engineers for renewable energy jobs

Washtenaw Community College Web site wins award in national contest

Education 101: What is 826Michigan?

I think the last topic is really interesting, and there's a brief youtube video embedded for further explanation. I'm fascinated by the whole idea of having a silly storefront (Robot Repair, Superhero Store, Pirate Supply store, etc.) that supports a tutoring and literacy nonprofit in the back.