Leena

When my son asked me if he could have a cat, I told him that there is no way that I was ever going to get another cat. "We have one," I told him, "and I don't want another cat after Lobo. Besides you are too young to get a cat."

Sure enough, I stuck to my guns for oh, about two months. I have to say that I am amazed I had held out that long. My reluctnace over getting a cat came solely from the fact that we lost a cat a little over a year ago during the food recalls. Colonel had liver failure and we found out that the food we were feeding him had been recalled. Colonel was only 2 when we lost him and it was really hard for everyone.

So, I'm a slow healer. It takes me a while to warm up to the idea that maybe getting another cat won't be too bad. I finally got it, something my son had gotten a long time ago and we opened our home to a rescue kitten.

She is very cute, very spunky and fits into our home very well. I do have one problem with her, though. She has decided that laying on my chest at night is perfect for sleeping and if I kick her off my chest, then snuggling as close to me as possible is the second best. Plus, if she is pressed right against me, she can take advantage and lick my elbow all night.

I'm hoping this is just a phase and she will go and sleep with the kids as soon as she is big enough to jump up on their beds. For some reason mine is easier to get at.

Anyway, here is Leena.

And here is Leena and Lobo (if you can't tell, they are already friends but Lobo is still a little miffed at me.)

New Blog Roll

I thought I would take a few minutes to just let you know that I installed a new blogroll on the side bar of the blog. There are many wonderful sites there so I encourage you to take the time and read some of them. You never know what wonderful tips you will find.

Enjoy and I should have more soon.

Sirena

New Blogs

Just a quick post tonight since I am very tired. I wasn't going to post today since I was feeling a little overwhelmed with work and everything else in life but at 13 minutes to 12 I decided to get in a post last minute. Boy, did I cut it close.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I am officially writing for two blogs. One I can't give you the URL for just yet but soon I hope. The second is Love of Labs, which is for another client.

Oh, speaking of blogs, go check out my husband's new blog at From the Knife's Edge. It's a sculpting blog if you are wondering.

Days I hate being a freelance writer...

Usually, I love that I am a writer. I enjoy putting those words to the paper and creating something new. Sometimes, freelance writing can become a bit boring, especially if I am writing about something that I am not particularly interested in...all for that pay check at the end...but most of the time, I enjoy it.

And what's not to love. Not only to I get to put word to paper and try to craft something exceptional (which doesn't always happen) but I also get to research. I'm probably a complete nerd since I love learning new things and chasing down facts but it is one of the facets of freelance writing that I really enjoy.

The one thing that I hate about freelance writing is chasing the pay check. It is a necessary evil, no work, no money, no money and I have to go find a real job (lol). I have been very fortunate with work. I have found some great clients, and I have had a lot of short term contracts but I still have to put in the time to get those clients and when one doesn't work out, I kind of feel like I'm not good enough.


I know there are 1000's of other writers out there looking for work so I shouldn't feel too bad but sometimes I get very frustrated, especially when writers are offering only 3 bucks per article. For one point, why bother asking for pay at that point and for the other, how can you feel good about what you do when you only charge that much.

This last week, I had a potential client pursuing me pretty relentlessly. I opened up my email to find 4 emails from her over a course of an hour pushing to get going on a project that I hadn't officially accepted yet. I have to admit that the tone of the emails, and everything else made me hesitant to work for the client but I continued with the negotiating phase since I enjoy the content she wanted. I also felt that maybe after I had ironed out the specifics of the contract, everything else would calm down.

The client came back with different word counts and asking me how much each would cost. I stayed pretty firm on my quote but at times, I actually undercut myself because I started worrying about charging too much. Then I found out that instead of going with me, the client chose a writer that was only charging 75 dollars for 25 articles. I'm fine that the client chose someone else but I felt that flush of frustration over the whole thing.

I think it has more to do with how the client pursued me and then how they decided that I just wasn't cheap enough. I can't understand how anyone can expect a well written article for that low of a price and even a seasoned writer with tons of experience and thousands of awards would skimp on a job that was only paying them 3 dollars an article. You would want to get at least 3 written in an hour to feel like you were making at least minimum wage and with research, writing and revisions that just wouldn't happen. Not to mentioned a seasoned freelance writer isn't about to take a position for that low.

Oh, well, to each their own and as a potential client once said to me after offering me only 7 dollars per 1000 word article, "I used to pay $4 for articles but I had to stop because I got what I paid for."

Writing Class

I'm taking another online class about finding the joy of writing again. It is ways to get over writing blocks and also ways to be inspired. So far it has been wonderful and I am learning a few things from it. I might not be inspired just yet but I have only been taking it for a week so I still have 3 weeks to go.

I find that I need to be inspired right now and when it comes to the novel, always. I will put it to the side because it is the dream, the thing I do for myself and I don't pursue things for myself. I have always put myself last in a long list of others so the novel suffers for that.

Hopefully, this class will help center me and I will be able to focus on the novel each day, if only for a few minutes at a time.

On a side note, I took a telephone conference this weekend as well and the speaker of the conference strongly recommended taking 15 minutes for writing each day. This is recommended for those writers that work full time in a different career but I am going to apply it to my situation. Maybe I write more than 15 minutes per day but it is for clients so from now on, I will put aside 15 minutes for my novel each day.

I really hope I keep up with it.

Until the next time I take 5 minutes to blog, have a good week.

"Shake Hands with the Devil"

This last weekend I watched the movie, "Shake Hands with the Devil." I'm not sure but I think that it must be a theme for me. First I see the article about Anne Frank's "One true love" and then I am watching a movie about the genocide in Rwanda.

No, I'm not usually this fixated on the sadder aspects of life but I guess it is something that is not too far from my mind. I am aware of the plight of others but I can't relate to what others have been through. I mean how can I honestly say that I can empathize when I have lived a western life. Maybe I wasn't sheltered and I did see some of the negative aspects of humanity but I have never experienced anything even close to what those who have lived through genocide have seen.

I guess all I can really do is try to raise awareness and to try to help those that I can. I'm not this great superhero but I think that I can make some changes to the world, even if they are little changes.

Shake Hands with the Devil really got my mind working. I have read the book by Romeo Dallaire so I knew the story behind Rwanda and the time he served there. It was an excellent book and I spent a lot of time crying while I was reading it. I found the movie was just as strong and it stayed pretty close to the book. I strongly suggest that you read it or at least watch the movie.

All I can say is that things like Rwanda should not be allowed to happen. We need to make a stand, push our governments into acting and to help those in need. We need to educate ourselves about what is going on in the world and not try to hide from it.

I know, I know, two semi political posts in a row but I really wanted to share the way my thoughts are going right now. And I guess that is all I really have to say today.