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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. |
| Time to check in without a prompt. I felt the urge to ramble. Today has been insanely hectic. One of the difficult parts of being freelance is that I get to pitch stories. One of the cool parts about being freelance is that I get to pitch stories. Usually even longer features come from research papers. But sometimes I fail to estimate just how much time I'm going to wind up spending on a piece for the space. I'm working on a story like that right now, an article for the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS). I apparently have done way too much research in trying to nail down the facts. I've browsed somewhere around 30 paper abstracts and deep read at least a dozen of them. I spoke with no less than eight researchers by phone and one by email. I have facts, opinions, and quotes coming out of my ears. I've spent over 20 hours on this so far and haven't completed the rough draft, which I'll wrap up and submit tomorrow; I have at least another 5 hours of editing to go. And I have to distill it down to 1,500 words. The obvious answer when one winds up with too much information is to pitch a similar-but-different story to another venue. The problem is that I have a hard time separating out just how similar is different and how different is similar. I do have some leads on upcoming, to-be-published research from the eight people I've spoken to, so that will help. I think I have a decent idea for another feature that expands on the subject. I just hate that I didn't go back to my editor even last week to see if he would be interested in expanding to 2,500 words, something he said he might be amenable to doing. Asking right before I submit seems like a bad idea. And it's a shame, because another thousand words at $1.25/word is another $1200; PNAS is one of the better paying venues. But that's the life of a freelancer. It may wind up that this turns into a longer story as we go through the editing process - that's happened with a previous story, and I'll probably let him know that I'm open to it. More likely, I'll take a look at a few other places. Muse magazine, for instance, pays crap - like $600 for 2500 words - but I do like the idea of writing for kids, and I can use material that I already have. There's another venue or two I'm considering as more papers come out, as well. I'll just have to keep my eyes open and be ready to jump on a similar but different story. |
| Uh oh! I accidentally wrote about tomorrow's prompt today! I'm going to write the prompt for today, tomorrow, rather than write two twice and have to delete and undelete and all of that headache. Help me fill the Challenge War Chest with new prompts! In your entry today, write at least three prompts to be used in future rounds of the 30DBC. Then, write the rest of your entry using one of your own prompts. Well, this is a great way to keep people from complaining about the prompts! "You don't like it, you come up with one!" Let's see if I can come up with a few, ideally with one that I would like. Prompt 1: What would you do with a million dollars? Yesterday I was responding to a post on Kåre เลียม Enga   blog and I actually thought that would be an interesting read. I also bet there would be a bunch of "well a million dollars doesn't go as far as it used to" which, fyi, is fine, you can give me yours.Prompt 2: What is a goal or resolution you made this year (or should have made)? How are you progressing on it? This is in interesting one because a lot of people make New Year's resolutions, and we're about halfway through the year. Assuming anyone actually made one with the intention of keeping it, it's a good time to touch base on it. Prompt 3: What is your favorite book OR the book you've most recently read? What did you like and dislike about it? I'd like to think that on a site full of writers, folks are still reading, since reading makes you a better writer. It would be interesting to see what my fellow bloggers are reading. Extra prompt: What has been your favorite prompt to respond to this month? Why? Feel free to link to that post. Because that would be a nice feedback Now, for my post, since I was already thinking about it, I'm going for the first one. What would you do with a million dollars? Well, you know, a million dollars doesn't go as far as it used to...  Call me morbid, but I already spent a million dollars. My ex-husband has a life insurance policy on him for that amount, plus he had an extra $250k for the house. Our divorce agreement stipulated that we both had to keep our policies paid until the kids turned 18 because if he died, I would need to supplement child support and if I kicked the bucket, he would need to cover child care (though that's less of an issue now that my youngest is 13 and can stay at home solo). I actually went through the spending process at the time because I figured that, if I lost my husband (which is what he was when we got the policies), I would be too busy grieving to figure it out. But let's say that I was randomly gifted, or inherited, a million bucks. First step would be to pay off my house, which is about $210K, give or take. That leaves me with $790k. Up until this year, I've made it without a car payment, but I decided to splurge this year and paid $12k for a 2016 Hyundai Sonata. That is both the most expensive and newest car I have ever owned, which says a lot about my car buying for the past 30ish years. So I would pay off that. I've also found myself ringing up credit cards during corona because I had three clients tell me they were cutting or cutting back on assignments. I've been very fortunate and still have a lot of cash in the bank, but I'm currently super nervous about it. So, pay that off. Call that a total of $20k; I'm scared to look up my credit card bills but that's probably not far off. That leaves me with, what, $770k? Wow. Alright, here's the easy part: I'd invest pretty much the rest. I'm 40 years old and there's a decent chance that I'll have another 20-30 years before I retire. Honestly, I could continue doing my job until I was 90 as long as my brain still works. I might move to dictating my articles at that point. But I do enjoy my job and would likely keep doing it after I "retire". I can't put it all into retirement, of course. I'd probably put $100k into educational funds for each kid (x4). Maybe just $80k. I'd put it in a 529, which can be rolled to siblings or children. For my oldest two, right now, that money would just essentially be in a bank, because they are in college or about to be. My youngest, I'd invest it. My 3rd would depend on when I got the hypothetical check. While it would be nice for them to have that money later if they don't spend it all on college, I don't want to encourage them not to go to college (wow, I'd get $100k if I don't go!). And if that money is invested for 18 years for their kids, it would become a nice chunk of change. And hey, I could always use it myself for classes and the like if I decide to go back to school. Now I'm down to $350k, basically. Most of that would go into retirement; I'd add a little more every year. But let's splurge: I'd take a nice vacation, maybe take my kids to Hawaii, which is beautiful, or scuba diving in the Keys, or on a cruise. My goal, though, is to have more money when I retire than I do now. Which, considering my limited income, is not that hard to do. Right now, my dad is living off his pension and has something like $300k in his retirement that he doesn't intend to touch. His house is paid off. He doesn't do much because he's about as much as a homebody as I am - moreso, actually. At the very least, during my retirement, I'd like to spend time with my kids and grandkids. I say that I'd like to travel, but I'm a homebody so we'll see how it goes. One of my ex's uncles is doing pretty well and takes each of his grandkids on an individual vacation, just grandpa and me. He has seven kids, all married except maybe the youngest, so he has plenty of grandkids. I'd like to be able to do that. But at a minimum, I'd like to be involved with my kids and grandkids. My parents have been uber hands off, and I don't want to be like that. On the flip, I've had to be the "mean" parent while my ex spoils them rotten and makes everything easy for most of them, while I try to hold them accountable and actually punish them for stuff. So I'm looking forward to being a grandparent - though since my oldest is only a month shy of 19, not anytime soon! It is sad and funny how much I enjoy mentally spending the money that I don't have lol. |
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