I'm a 35 year old mother of two living in northeastern Ohio (just down the road from Hooterville and cross creek from Bumpkin Junction). My best job ever is my current gig as a weekly lifestyle columnists for a regional paper with multi-state circulation as well as a sometime freelance journalist and magazine feature writer. My work has appeared in local, regional and national publications (House Beautiful was one of my first paying gigs but, alas, they have never wanted to photograph my toy strewn living room - go figure!) and I have been a staff writer for two online mags (all the free mousepads and coffee cozies you could wish for, but oh, why don't the folks at VISA except those as payment?)

I've been writing "professionally" (or so it says on my taxes) since apx. 1997 which not so coincidentally coincides with the birth of my first child when I decided I'd like to earn as little as possible writing while staying home in my spit-up stained pj's and chugging down coffee like there's no tomorrow.

I am an active underachiever who has steadfastly let wonderful opportunities to further expand my column fall by the wayside because I have this voice in my head that ceaselessly tells me that as long as I don't try I can't fail - but I'm trying to shut that voice up!

Although, a column concerning what the voices tell me might be sale-able ...

"I am an active underachiever. . ."

I love it!

writerdave

This is a cool thread. It's neat to have a glimpse into another writer's life once in a while.

I'm Jerri. (Duh!) I post here periodically. If I'm not completely slammed with work (and this week I'm not) I'll post more, read more. When I'm slammed, I don't do anything but research and write. You might say I'm all or nothing.

Anyway, I've been in this business for about 10 years now. Most of my writing credits are in the business and technology industries. I've written somewhere in the neighborhood of 700+ articles over the last 10 years. My first novel was written for myself, I think, and after 7 years of shopping it, if it comes back this time, it's going into a drawer. My first non-fiction book was published in 2001. Now, there's a sleeper. How in the world anyone got through that book, I'll never know, but my editor thought it was pretty good!

I have two kids, three dogs, a fish and a husband. And I homeschool. And people wonder why I'm a writer. It's that or the funny white coats and padded rooms.

Hi, I am Dennis and I work part time while trying to get my freelance writing on a good start. I always loved to write and after I retired, I had the time and started my first book. It took me only four months to research the information and compile the book and then another two months to get copyright permissions. I am currently working on my second book and have ideas for four more, two of which came as suggestions from my friends and associates. At this time I have submitted an article for publishing to a professional society newsletter of which I am a member. I am married and have one son. I am currently interested only in nonfiction.

_________________
Dennis
Author: Integrity: Do You Have It?
web site: www.myqualitywriting.com

I'm Jill. Four kids ages two to 12. Been married to the same guy for 17 years. Been writing forever. I studied journalism in college for two years, then changed my major to psychology with a minor in creative writing. I didn't have enough confidence then to call myself a writer. That took another ten years or so.

I write and edit newsletters, brochures etc. I also do ghostwriting and writing of things like news releases -- whatever pays the bills, you know? I write personal essays that often end up as a column in my local paper (which doesn't do as well at paying the bills) I'm hoping to remedy that in the near future by freelancing to larger publications.

I work when my two-year-old naps. At best, that's two hours a day or 10 hours a week. I've found with that time, I can do my "regular" jobs (ghostwriting, etc.) and write about two personal essays or research and send two query letters a week.

My current motto: "Just keep swimming."

Howdy.

I'm Brett, and I'm a writerholic.

I'm a full-time Mr Mom who is now starting to ease (or try to ease) back into the "writing for pay" game after a few years on hiatus (four kids born in the past eight years and a wife who is a night-shift RN with great benefits made the decision fairly ease).

Once upon a time I had a nice client roster as a freelance writer/designer, but after kid #2 showed up it started to get more difficult to juggle the time demands of the kids, wife's sched, and client needs, so I've been on hiatus for at least 6 years now.

In the past month or so I've managed to get some minor assignments for local lifestyle quarterly, and the editor seems excited and interested in having me do more work for future issues, but even if I became the mag's sole supplier of words I'd still not really be making enough money to call the work much more than a lucrative hobby. With the youngest of the four kids starting to pre-school a few days a week this fall, I am hoping-- praying-- that I can start to get back into the swing of things, professionally speaking.

I've done brochures and flyers, magazine work, newsletter editing, some grant proposal writing, and probably dabbled at least once in every form of writing other than "internationally acclaimed bestseller."

I was really excited to stumble across this site today, as it can get might lonely and spirit-crushing to sit behind a keyboard, trying to find an outlet for your talent. Just finding other folks who understand this weird addicition is exciting. The possibility that I might learn something useful... well, that's gravy.

And I like gravy.
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B

0_o....43 posts in and I really should say something here.

An Irishman who has not done much more with his life than have opinions about things…happily God invented freelance journalism for this great purpose…
Having had no formal educational background beyond secondary school (high school to you yanks…I think…err, hope…) Krupp looked a dim boy in school…well, STFU MOFO’S I’M EARNING MORE THAN YOU DO!!!!!...ahem…anyway, back to the biography…err, there ain’t much left apart from he queried, he got assigned stuff, he read more stuff and suddenly is here giving a resume for some odd reason. Humm.

Krupp has been published in many magazines under a number of pseudonyms (hey, you write about “better orgasm diets” under your own name and see how long it takes for your life to be ruined...). His main forte is with IT, technology, computer games, marketing and management style features though if paid enough money will even do bridal magazines…stop looking at me like that.

Right, err....

What an interesting thread!

I haven't posted here for a long time, or even visited, but there's definitely a lot of interesting discussion going on.

My name is Fiona. I'm a freelance writer in Calgary, Alberta. I spent some time as a corporate writer for a big furniture company and after that a copywriter for a Web agency with big clients, but now I am staring into the abyss that is freelance and trying to make it work. So far it's going well - assuming I get paid for everything! I get most of my business through former coworkers and by word of mouth.

I've also started sending out query letters, which I hope takes my career towards magazines and away from so many corporate profiles (not that I don't love them, don't get me wrong...).

There's one thing for certain - I hope to never have to become a nine-to-five corporate drone again.

Amen

Hi everyone, I'm Debby, an author, freelance writer, photographer, accountant, and small business consultant. I've written one book (Everything Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s, published by Adams Media) and am working on another one.

I've been the About.com Guide to Portland, Maine (http://portlandme.about.com) and to Financial Planning (http://financialplan.about.com) for 6 and 5 years, respectively, and have written over 350 articles for them. It's a great gig (it even pays) and is the reason I'm a published author. A literary agent read some of my articles on the Web and approached me about submitting a book proposal.

I also work four days a week as an accountant and marketing manager and do business consulting for a couple of small businesses. (Who has time for sleep?).

I've had a couple of articles published (but not in mainstream consumer mags) and really want to write more for magazines, a dream I've had since I was a kid (a very long time ago).

I live in the beautiful state of Maine and love my life here. I'm happy I've found this forum. It seems like a great group.

_________________
Debby Fowles
Author of "Everything Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s"
About.com Financial Planning Guide
http://financialplan.about.com
About.com Portland Maine Guide
http://portlandme.about.com

Welcome to the wild and wacky world of writers, Debbie.

writerdave

Great to hear everyone's background

first - my spacebar is notworking so apologies for worse thannormal typos

I write my first book four years ago - my first query,and it was a best seller initsfield in NZ and Australia. -and now being sold in the UK. Since then I havehad myfamily,andwrite around them -mainly at night or in quiet moments.My husband has been keeping me but hopefully he willbe able tojoin me at some stage! - he is a great writer!
I have two regular columns in magazines,and about to land another Ihope
I also freelance whereever I can,and getting somegood work there.
I havewritten about 16 booksin my main feild (education) andlastyear wrote a book for the mass market marketed for now in asia.the plus of this is I get some free travel to promote it (I worked that intomy contract!)

I don'tseemyself as particularily talented - just lucky,and a very good salesperson
Writing is so much about how you promote don't youthink?
I love the way I can spend time with my kids,and still have a career
What I am finding now is just how do Ifind the time to do all the work!! - right now Iam swamped!

I've had some professional successes. My food-restaurant reviews were published in the county paper. I have written articles for a local paper on the East Coast and an online toy magazine. I've done product copy for a cosmetics company as well as a couple of websites (www.follyfolio.com).

Currently, I am slowly trudging through two novels. I also maintain a blog (http://originalorangutan.blogspot.com) which serves as my own private playground. It is a wonderful place for me to just play and work out my writing. No editors, no rules.

I enjoy writing fiction and comedy. I adore writing about food and I seem to have a spooky talent for coming up with product slogans. I should really pursue that more. Finally, a lot of my energy is devoted to my duties as a Theatrical Coordinator for an Improvisational-Living History-Performance Troupe. Now that's a mouthful. So -- that's me.

Who's next?

_________________
The pen is mightier than the sword. I keep the sword in case I run out of ink.

The Harmony Chronicles:
http://kendellporter.blogspot.com

The Urban Bunker:
http://originalorangutan.blogspot.com

Hello. My name is Lorie and I've been reading these forums for a while now (I'm a serial website and list-serv lurker), but I've finally decided to take the plunge and register and post.

I call what I've been doing recently "dabbling in freelancing." I taught for two years, and it wasn't quite what I thought it would be, so I've been trying to figure out where to go next with my English and education background. Back in January while I was looking at a job board website, I saw a listing for a "Writing Intern" for an educational website. It didn't pay anything, but it was my first hint of freelance writing. I've always liked writing, but I haven't really had any fiction inspiration since middle school, so the idea that there was a market for non-fiction was like a revelation. So far I've had three pieces published online, and I've even gotten paid for two of them. I'm also doing a small research job at the moment that I found out about on this forum. I really don't see writing as something that I would like to do full-time, but you never know.

So now that I've registered, perhaps I'll join in the conversation sometimes, but I really do prefer to sit back and soak it all in.

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www.davidlevinchess.com