Tag clouds are passé. Today I started organizing four years worth of blog posts into digital magazines using Flipboard. I created specialty magazines on music, sleep, freelance writing and technology. A fifth title covering my feminist wrestling matches is on its way. Moving forward, this will be a great archival tool for my posts. To read my […]
Journalism: Still A Love Story
Originally published in November 2013 in Blog
It’s the spring of ’62 and Nora Ephron is at the wheel of a rental car crossing the George Washington Bridge into downtown Manhattan. Her mission: to find a job before she graduates from Wellesley College in a few weeks. At an employment agency on West 42nd St., Ephron tells the worker assigned to her, […]
WTF?
Originally published in October 2013 in Blog
I don’t have any hard stats on this, but unresponsive editors appear to have reached epidemic proportions of late. I know so many writers — newbies and veterans — whose pitches are being met with deafening silence. Everyone’s talking about it on the writing listservs I subscribe to. Editors, they say, aren’t even sending them […]
Industry news
Originally published in August 2013 in Blog
Two quotes about media stood out for me last week. Here’s the first: “We’re not ever going to return to a stable status quo where editors know where their audience is and publishers know where their revenue stream is. We’re in an era of non-stop innovation and constant turmoil. [Don’t expect] any kind of settled […]
Future shock
Originally published in May 2013 in Blog
Shitty things can happen when good people do nothing. This is my interview with Story Board, the blog for the Canadian Media Guild and the Canadian Writers Group. The internet spreads stories, voices and awareness, when we use it well. The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #8 – Alison Garwood-Jones In this regular feature, Story Board asks Canadian writers […]
Spilled milk
Originally published in January 2013 in Blog
UPDATED: January 30, 2013 Yesterday, The Globe & Mail, “Canada’s national newspaper,” fired took its literary editors, the crusty and intelligent team of Martin Levin and Jack Kirchhoff, off Books. I pounded my fist on the desk when I read this. Then I let out a cry in my condo that was heard only by the dogs […]
Blogging rules
Originally published in November 2012 in Blog
#FreedomIsBlogging
Originally published in April 2012 in Blog
Show me the money ~ Part 3
Originally published in March 2012 in Blog
I feel a change in the air. No, not spring. This may be even better than raindrops on tulips and girls in white dresses. The first sign of climate change for freelance writers is emerging for real, and, in a very unexpected twist, the future looks bright. Really bright. After four decades of earning a […]
