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I can't think of an exciting title so this will have to do

January 20th, 2012 at 01:22 am

I spent $76 this a.m. grocery shopping at Shop Rite. That's a LOT for me. They had those little Polar fruit in a jar things on sale for $1 each, so I decided to try a few, and I'm rather pleased. There were just 3 ingredients in it: pears, sugar, water, and it's not overly sweet. What's more, the pears were pretty firm, not mush like the Del Monte fruit cocktail I grew up with. It's a good way to work more fruit in your diet during the winter. I think I'll go back for more while they still have their sale.

I also splurged a bit on a quart of Kefir, which is so good, plus the Kozy Shack puddings were all on sale. I love my puddings!

I'm feeling a bit twisted and demented because I HAVE NOT HEARD from the editor in chief at the publishing company who was supposed to contact me early this week to schedule a time for me to come in to talk about the project manager job. I just dashed off an email to her. They seem to move slowly over there, but I hate the waiting game. It sounded so positive. I'm going to scream if she says anything negative about it.

I responded a few days ago to an ad for a freelance real estate blog writer, and they wrote back tonight asking me my rate. Turns out they're a husband and wife realtor team with a well-known brokerage in the Hartford area.

I'm so tired of getting backed into a corner on "my rate," as it's invariably too high for them to consider or so low it's not worth doing. So I sidestepped answering that and said it depends on how much research is involved, whether I'm doing phone interviews to get some quotes, etc. etc. I invited her to tell me what she had in mind, and I was once again galled and floored when she said she could they could manage $25 for a 350-word story.

Hardly worth the trouble, but I wrote back, hiding my anger and explaining that as she saw from my resume, I have 10 years of experience as a real estate copywriter and nearly 30 as a marketing writer. And maybe they could get a college kid to do it. But then I threw caution to the wind and said I would be willing to write a relevant, meaningful and topical general interest, 350-word real estate story, with their keywords, no interviews of anyone, for $50 and invited them to try me out on one and see how they like it.

So they agreed to do that. We'll talk tomorrow. If I could get them to work with me and do even 2 stories a week, that would work out to $400 a month, which would be very helpful. And I could do it all from the comfort of my home.

Warning: Rant ahead. I remember when I worked at the website at my last perm job, I managed a team of 4 freelance writers. Well,none of them were professional writers (and it REALLY showed, the writing was atrocious) but they all had the subject matter expertise, plus we were bound by a contract to work with them. So I was stuck with them basically, but I remember that we paid them $275 for a a 350-word story, which was a GREAT rate of pay, but just $75 for a blog post, which was too little, and just out of sync with the article rate. But anyway, you see how even $50 is a pittance. But like a lot of others, they go to these online sites like elance and see there are writers in places like India or China who offer to write a story for $5 or $10. You get what you pay for: local irrelevance and someone who wants to practice their English skills. End of rant.

I met The Author yesterday at Starbucks and she paid me the final payment on the first book. Expecting to get Book 2 in the next week or two.

Back in November, I ordered an economical Hamilton Beach hand mixer for i think about $25 at Amazon. I couldn't figure out the proper way to insert the beaters, even after reading their instructions,and I may have ended up bending them somewhat cus now when i insert them and turn it on, they click together, touching each other.

So I called Hamilton Beach and explained the situation and she agreed to mail me out replacement beaters at no cost, once I showed proof of purchase. So I am pleased, as I like the mixer. It got very good reviews. I certainly don't need a $300 stand mixer.

I am now charging up cashback credit card #4 and waiting to get the bill for #3 (Discover) so my cash back there will be awarded. I think you have to pay the bill first before it appears online.I was able to charge my car insurance to the new card so I think the new one will add up quickly to $500.

I think I will try making my first ever fritatta tomorrow with a recipe I saw somewhere, using sun-dried tomatoes, onions and eggs. I'll omit the bacon/ham.

I got a few bank statements today that I'll need to do my taxes, but still waiting on 2 contract employees to send the 1099s.

I finally replaced the hard-to-find battery in my garage door opener after doing without it for months. And all this time it was at Ace Hardware. It will be the only way I'll access the garage now because the basement door is so drafty, I decided to seal it up pretty well by stuffing foam insulation all around it with a butter knife, but obviously it won't stay in if I open the door.

7 Responses to “I can't think of an exciting title so this will have to do”

  1. Dido Says:
    1327026809

    Sorry you still haven't heard from the editor-in-chief and sorry about the sucky per-article rate. Hoping you hear from the editor-in-chief tomorrow.

  2. Looking Forward Says:
    1327028087

    I love CozyShack pudding. YumYum!
    I think you are totally right to rant. Best of luck with the new work.

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1327031035

    Man alive, $25. It both makes me mad and makes me want to cry. Gees---

  4. Petunia 100 Says:
    1327035993

    I'm offended on your behalf!

    Good luck with the publishing company. Smile

  5. baselle Says:
    1327039793

    $25! Might as well pick up a book of Mad Libs, find one of the narratives that fit, and start substituting words.

  6. HouseHopeful Says:
    1327069602

    Wow - $25 - that IS ballsy of them.

  7. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1327082822

    Well, I want you to get decently paid work writing! I want that for my own sake.

    You know what? As a consumer of the written word, I see a lot of worthless, substance-less, boring stuff. It is as if just anything will do to fill the space in magazines and newspapers; Quality doesn't matter. The bad stuff is full of all the errors that back in my grade school days the teacher would have corrected, leaves out important information that could have been included, editorializes where it should simply report, has gaps in logic, and is full of trite repetitions of what ever the current buzzwords are.

    We need the real writers!

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