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How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
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I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"  In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job. Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B. After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate. It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general. Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions. |
| If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are living now? If so, what would you change and why? Ugh I'm not a fan of death discussion. The ideal would be for me to say that no, I would change nothing, and that's mostly true. There are a few things I would likely firm up, most more personal than I want to share. The biggest change would likely be in the way I allocate my time. As much as it would pain me, I'd probably spend less time reading so that I could spend more time with my kids. Of course, they are teenagers, so there isn't a ton of things they are interested in doing with me, but they're good kids so I'm sure we'd meet halfway. And hey, my oldest loves to sit and read in the same room with me, so perhaps I would still be able to add in some reading time. The things I worry about are whether I have taught my kids enough, been a good enough example, to help them find happiness in their lives. There are points of concern that I have for each of them, but right now they are teenagers and are supposed to be finding their way. I suppose what that means is that I need to do a better job of inflicting that example in their daily lives, perhaps with a bit more discussion. **** In other news, I picked up a job on Friday that was a rush deal. Editor rejected one of my pitches at the end of the day, then asked if I'd be willing to cover another one, which would be due today - Tuesday - by 10 am. I needed to not only speak with one of the authors but also with two outside opinions, on an embargoed paper (which means you're really not supposed to share it, so no blind emails). I'd have to set up all the interviews for Monday. I figured that there would be a good chance that some folks wouldn't check their emails in time, or wouldn't be available, so I contacted two authors and three outside opinions. Of course, all five responded - that never happens. Yesterday, I had five interviews - four for this article and one for the piece I have due next week. The fifth interview I did by email - I sent questions in the original contact - because he was in Australia and the time difference is just crazy to try to match up. Today I got everything written up and submitted by 11 am. <thumbs up> It was definitely an interesting piece, and I think after everything I'm glad for the large amount of interviews. I spoke with one of the authors, followed by an outside expert who raised some questions. Instead of having to email my first contact, I asked the second author to clarify some of the points made. Altogether, everything folded in nicely. When I got the edits, "show changes" was on when I opened the document. The first few times I saw a document post-edit, I was certain that my editor would tell me to shove off. The changes looked enormous. Yet many of my editors have told me that they appreciate how clean my copy is, etc, and that it doesn't require a lot of edits. I know that one issue has to do with moving things - if you cut a paragraph and paste it elsewhere, both seem to be big changes. Still, it makes my skin crawl, and today was no different. Seemed like my monitor was bleeding. But once again my editor seemed happy so another <thumbs up>. A good day. |
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