Alison Garwood Jones

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 [...]

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Mobile blinders

Originally published in February 2013 in Blog

  Photo by Jordan Taler with Brushes drawing by Alison Garwood-Jones Newsstand sales of magazines and gum are both down. There’s a connection David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, is calling it “the mobile blinder effect.” Talking to the Financial Times, he said that people waiting in line at the grocery store and the newsstand are [...]

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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 [...]

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Blogging rules

Originally published in November 2012 in Blog

Another “yup” from Clay Shirky and Hugh MacLeod.

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The power of pause

Originally published in May 2012 in Blog

Maria Shriver has a foothold in all the major social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, WordPress and, presumably, whatever promises to be the next best thing. Media and communications are her career. But how she uses them is worth noting. There are enough voices on the internet going for cheap attention. Expensive attention, as [...]

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#FreedomIsBlogging

Originally published in April 2012 in Blog

When it comes to blogging, my mental trajectory over the last couple of years has looked something like this: Looking back, I’d love to say I was an early adopter. The truth is, I arrived late to the social media party and hardly mingled when I got there, choosing, instead, to mope alone in a [...]

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Why some never disappear

Originally published in April 2012 in Blog

I am not a grammar geek. I didn’t like Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. Admitting that, I’m told, is a travesty — like not drinking 8 glasses of water a day. I do, however, love everything else E.B. White wrote and said. He feels like a trusted mentor. “A writer should concern himself with [...]

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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 [...]

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Show me the money: Part deux

Originally published in January 2012 in Blog

For all you old-school print journalists still wondering how to make a buck from blogging, here’s how it works: Editor sees your McSweeney’s post reposted on Facebook (you’re not even friends … yet), and says, “Oh my God, I own a print of “Poster Making” (a.k.a. the FUCK OFF poster). She purchased it at the [...]

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Going graphic

Originally published in November 2011 in Blog

Dispatch from the annual Design Thinkers conference put on by the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario.   . “Getting graphic“ Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

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