So...I was just hiding in my closet...

I absolutely had to call a client out in LA today. I didn't have a choice. I try to keep my phone calls on Tues and Thurs, which are GardenWall's main workdays, as my 4 year old and 7 year old are in childcare those days this summer. However, I had to make sure I got this particular account. It's a large ad agency, and honestly, I hope to wow the heck out of them and be hired again.

So, I timed it like this: Here, Spongebob is on at 3:30... In LA that would be 12:30. So perhaps this particular client was out to lunch and I could really quickly slip away and leave him a quickie voicemail. I even took the kids for a long (hot) bike ride so they'd be ready to chill out and fall under the squeaky sponge's spell.

Well, sure enough, (many of you moms know whats happening here), my son's spidey senses went off. Most preschoolers come with this mechanism that emits an alarm sound in their head when mommy gets on the phone...So he comes wandering over, talking very very loudly about the dogs least appetizing habit...which includes the words bum and other interesting colloquialisms.

Of course, I hear him coming and panic just as the client picks up his phone! (Hello, don't you people do power lunching over there on the West Coast?)

I panic, and look around...can't close the door to the office...that's like a big fluorescent sign that says Come over here and bang on me loudly! So, I do what any sane writer would do...I dive into the closet, while talking to my client and securing the account.

I closed the door and heard my four year old wander into the office and...whew...wander back out when he couldn't find me.

I completed the phone call in the pitch dark, sitting on a pile of shoes.

Only 5 more days until school starts....

I've discovered gold....

Well, maybe I've just discovered a GREAT blog for us writers: http://www.ihateyourjob.com/
And another here: http://xfep.com/problogging/cons-of-being-a-problogger/

This Writer Makes $5000/month freelancing!

http://www.chrisblogging.com/freelance-writing-income-july-2007/#comments

Now, I'm not sure how long he's been doing it, but it looks like, from his comments, that he doesn't have any magic formula or secret website. He's using the same sites and competing for the same gigs as the rest of us (GAF, Journalism jobs, etc). I do wonder how many hours he gets to work per day though...

DAILY UPDATE

Ok, I am lying a little. I'm not doing the entire daily update. However, I do want to note that between yesterday and today, I've submitted to 20-30 contractual jobs (including elance) and already got three bites back.

Now, I'm not bragging. But I am noting that I have only been growing this business aggressively since Memorial Day weekend.

Today we finally made arrangements to send the children back to their childcare arrangements for 2 days per week.

I have the contracts to cover the cost, but I lack the appropriate time to devote to them. This 2 day a week reprieve will allow me to go after more of what's out there.


I have been thinking about fear and risk lately. I have this idea, one that would be more appropriately covered in my humanitarian/service blog, but I also have a wee bit of this fear of risk. But I need to mentally coach myself to look at GardenWall, look at what's been accomplished in a short time. The first time someone paid me for my writing, my jaw almost fell flat. When I interned at FAITH magazine in 2005, I recall being vaguely jealous of my boss, who had told me that she'd made $50 on a short story she wrote. Even though she was so demure about it, I recall thinking that it was an incredible accomplishment.

I feel accomplished now. I can say by the age of 30 that I set up something that I was passionate about, and that it had at least the beginnings of being successful.

Cliche, yes, but look here it is anyway: The world is an open door.

Oprah's On To Me

Hi all, and welcome back to me. They had to drag me out of the mountains of Mexico, I didn't want to leave, but I have finally made it back to my writing...Which is all behind.

Seems Oprah is on to us lately. In her most recent issue (which costs 80 pesos in Guadalajara), she covered subjects that are of great interest to us here, and to my humanitarian blog (kept at http://www.30yearstosavetheworld.blogspot.com/), too.

Walter Mosley, author of 47, a book that is a sensational introduction to slavery for young readers, tells you that This Year You Write Your Novel on page 160.

Before I left for Mexico, my novel gnawed at me, but my two biggest fears were

1) Similarity of my characters to real life

2) Lack of an ending. I didn't know the ending.

Number 2 laid itself out for me as we drove through the mountains in Michoacan, Mexico. And Mosley helped me with #1 via this highly recommended article in the current issue of O Magazine.

Happy reading!