Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A Freelance Success

Good evening, all you faithful readers. I'm just back from writers guild, where I shared my long poem "A Woodland Acre" from my poetry book Father Daughter Day. I'm going through that book four pages at a time (four pages is our limit). Last week this stopped me in the middle of the poem. This week, however, two of our members were gone, and two who were there were not there last week. So they had me read it all from the beginning. Good reviews.

Tonight I had an e-mail from the editor at BiblioBuffet, and on-line magazine featuring reading and books. One of my February freelance submittals was an article titled, "When the Vehicle Will Be Worthy of the Spirit," about the beginning of Carlyle and Emerson's correspondence. They are going to publish it in their guest column section, probably a month or so from now. The pay is small, but there is pay. I don't know what the exposure will be, but it can't hurt. It's possible that, after a few guest columns, I could become a regular columnist at an increased pay. Once the article goes up I'll post a link on Arrow. I worked hard on that article, and to have it accepted is gratifying.

Every small writing success puts me on the upward track of the roller coaster. Or is it the downward track (the metaphor being reversed of the real life experience)? The one that is more pleasurable. There are enough rejections in writing to cause misery and despair that you need to latch on to the few successes and ride the wind with them. Hmmm, was that enough metaphors to mix?

So I'm happy tonight. I'll probably read twenty pages in the Coulson book, four pages in an alumni mag, and who knows what else. A couple of articles for Suite 101 are turning over in the gray cells.

Oh, today was also good because I finished my paper for my March 31st presentation, only one day behind the deadline. Also I finished a work related article on erosion and sediment control at construction sites that I'll probably submit tomorrow. It's not a bad article, somewhat of a rebuttal of an article a year ago in that mag. I suspect there's no pay involved, but it's another credit. Oh, and I had a lunch meeting with a woman I met at the Dallas conference. She is with a business right here in the area, and it looks as if she'll have some work for CEI. Not right away, but it would be nice to get enough business to justify the cost of the trip.

So, all in all a good day. I'll take 'em any chance I can.

3 comments:

Gary said...

Congratulations. Keep the articles coming. BTW, I just read the one on silt-fencing and wonder about the use of hay bales with the fabric. I see a lot of that here in RI, especially with road construction.

David A. Todd said...

Thanks, Gary. The ideas are still flowing, though time to write is a bit difficult to find. I was only able to write the silt fence article today because I was working on silt fence design guides and specs for the office, and so wrote it in Suite format and posted.

Regarding straw bales or hay bales, they have been found not to work very well. They break up; you can't get them tight enough together to keep water from flowing between, and they aren't embeded properly, leading to problems. Arkansas has essentially "outlawed" them for sediment control.

Dave

Gary said...

Our bales are usually the backing support for the staked fabric fence. It used to be bales alone, but I don't recall that to be the case now. Makes sense that they won't work very well. Probably some RI legislator had a farmer for a relative ...