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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. |
| We are still in Virginia, staying with my dad. It's been between 35-40 every night, way too stinkin' cold to be believed. I don't know what's wrong with my dad, but he lives in a 200 year old house and thinks that heating it to 60 is 'very very warm'. So I've been freezing my backside off. On the other hand, since he lives in the country, every time I step outside for something (like to grab something from the motorhome), I get a fantastic view of the stars. I told dh that we need to grab a telescope at some point while we are in Pennsylvania; the view must be spectacular up there. In case you don't know, cold air facilitates viewing the stars because it minimizes the dust and dirt in the air. I don't know all the meteorological terms for it, but I know enough about viewing to know that. So if the stars look especially beautiful to you in the winter, there is a logical reason to it. I've been hanging around the Families.com site and cruising through the forums and blogs to get an idea of my 'target audience'. Mostly SAHMs, per the information I was given, though obviously not 100%. If you guys have any thoughts or suggestions on parenting or family blog entries (to me, that includes elderly/grown parents, siblings, etc as well as kids), please feel free to share them and I will be forever grateful! What else...not much. Mostly just lounging around here, enjoying a whole house. The kids are about to drive my dad crazy - he's single and not particularly social, and they are LOUD when compared to, say, his cat. (I don't even think his psycotic cat meows.) We've been here since Tuesday afternoon and are pulling out Monday morning, although I don't know 100% of the details. But they should be fun. Today, we are heading over to my maternal grandparents, driving the motorhome in hopes that they will see it is NOT a deathtrap on wheels; they think we are nuts for planning to live in it and are worried that our kids will be scarred for life. Of course, they also didn't know that we had seat belts for the kids; they thought we'd let them pinball around while we were driving. Ha! My kids wouldn't be so lucky (though I confess, on the LONG trip to Virginia after getting about an hour's sleep the night before, I crashed on the bed in back). Nope, they are staying buckled, whether it is the law or not. |
| Happy Thanksgiving, all! Just thought I would drop in and let you know the dirt on the writing job with Families.com, since it got cut short last time (hold on while I run and hit the 'save and edit' button so as not to lose THIS entry!). I am supposed to start December 1st, and of course I will post the link to my blog once I am up and running. I am writing for LDS families, and it looks like there is only one other LDS blogger, with one or two occasional hits. I already contacted her; she seems very nice and I look forward to working with her. For those looking to apply, remember I sent my application in back in, what, August? So be patient, and don't give up. I didn't hit the position I wanted, but I am in a very similar position, which I think I will enjoy. I've already had some great ideas. A little more feedback for those interested: there is a cap on the paid blog entries that basically comes to 75 entries per 30 day period; the cap is monetary. I had big visions of writing 3 blogs a day for 30 days, but that won't make it. On the other hand, I was back and forth on what would happen if I posted on Sunday. Two things: first, the cap means I can hit my maximum without the Sunday blog posting. Second, they do have a way to schedule the publication date of your blog entries, which makes it all good. Just a little info in case someone else is struggling with the same decision. Of course I'd love to see some of you guys pop over and wave to me on occasion, but I understand if you don't, since very few of my writing.com readers are LDS family folks. On the other hand, they allow you to guest blog, and they also allow you (after some time) to work a maximum of three blogs. I was thinking about that one....but we'll see how we do with one and a baby, first. Alright, my dad just got home, so I'm off to visit, and then I'm going to sleep. We are still alive in our motorhome, and should be heading norther (is that a word?) towards PA on Monday. I still don't know where, though, so I have no permanent address. Soon, I'm sure. Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving! And staying out of the hospitals - did you know ER admittances spike around the holidays? Too many family feuds, I suppose. But not here, I hope! |
I wrote a long blog; I lost the whole thing. I love the whole new internet thing we have going - cell phone internet. I foolishly shut down the connection before the page finished loading. I am used to DSL speeds, and we are at about dialup. So I'm going to hit the high points, and come back to elaborate later. I have a paid writing position! I got the position with Families.com as an LDS family blogger. I start writing on 12/1. Very cool. We are officially living in a motorhome. We are about 45 minutes north of my dad, and will be there for Thanksgiving. Then on to Pennsylvania.I promise to try more again later. And I will really and truly (I hope) load the page this time.  |
| First, let me apologize to the folks who read my blogs, since their blogs are usually the ones I hit, for a variety of reasons. One day soon, I anticipate life spinning back into control...it may require the universe to tilt slightly, but there you go. Hopefully by next week. Today I had a yard sale. Let me just say, I am not an early morning person. I got up before six today (excuse me, I have to puke at the memory of that), drove my kids across town to dh's grandparents house so they would be out of the way, forgot to account for Atlanta traffic (and of course, couldn't find my keys, their shoes, and so forth), and got back at 7:10. At 7:12, after I posted a sign directly in front of my house (the other signs having gone up earlier today), the first person showed up. I had a fairly continuous flow all morning, which meant that all the slack work I procrastinated took even longer. Things like, putting prices on the most expensive items. Urgh. I sold no furniture, all little stuff, and in 7 hours made about $160. Decent wages. Hopefully tomorrow will bring the furniture lovers. DH says he will post whatever doesn't sell on Craigslist. I just hope it's gone. I was suprised at how few kids clothes sold. I bet I can batch them on Craigslist by size; wonder if that would work? Hmmm. We're having digital camera problems or I would seriously consider ebaying them. Maybe I'll borrow my MIL's camera again and try that. Hmm. I am worn out. Closed the garage sale at about 2:30, ate lunch, talked to dh, fell into bed at about 3:30 (could barely keep my eyes open). I woke up an hour ago, at 5:30, and I am supposed to drive down to the airport to pick up dh in about an hour and a half. I hate driving at night, especially on a Friday night. Blech. I love dh, but when I was relishing the idea of eating out somewhere sans kids, he suggested I wait until I pick him up tonight (at 8:30) and eat dinner with him (at 9). I love him, and I have missed him all week, but 1) after a week with no help from him (he's been out of town since Monday), I would have enjoyed some time to myself and 2) it's not like he hasn't been eating out all week while I, exhausted, have served cereal, PB&J, and mac & cheese to my kids (on different nights) and myself. I've spent all week packing and getting ready for this stupid garage sale. Argh. But, I do miss him, and since he asked, I'll wait. But I'm already hungry. It's a real shame the Ben & Jerry's kiosk at the airport is inside the security gate. <fantisizes over chocolate fudge brownie> Then again, isn't B&J's located in Pennsylvania? I hope that means it is cheaper. Wow, prices on ebay are high but it looks like everything is listed by brand. Eh, it will sell or it won't; if it doesn't, I'll take it to Goodwill, right? Alright, I'm going to read, relax, and try to ignore my tummy. I may just leave early and go sit at the airport. And look for Ben & Jerrys (although per their site, they seem to have them only in the Concorses; then again, he's flying Delta so maybe they forgot to put one on their website? I can dream). And read my book. |
| Of course, I'm telling good writers about this, which will diminish my luck, but then again, with my luck, it's probably by random drawing, not talent. https://www.wellsfargo.com/jump/mortgage/challengeessay Wellsfargo is sponsoring two essay contests, one monthly, one ending in December. The ends-in-December one is for $250k towards the purchase of a new home in 2006, 2007, or 2008. Not sure if that is for WF customers only or not. The other one is for WF customers only and the prize is a one month payment, up to $2500 after-tax, applied to their WF mortgage. Oh, wait, it says State residents of AZ, MD, ND, NJ, TN, or VT need not be Wells Fargo customers to enter. So if anyone is interested....I saw it on my May WF statement while I was sorting through all the junk lying around my house, LOL. Since we always pay online, I didn't notice it before. That's what I get for being too technologically advanced! What do you think? Maybe I'll win and then we'll really be set when it comes time to buy a home!  Hey, I can dream, right? |
| Another quick note here; I'm having trouble sleeping. When I mentioned my plan to live in an RV with four kids under the age of 6 for the next two years at least, two of my closest friends (who know I love to write) seperately suggested that I write a book on the subject. I was ashamed to say that, before the first friend brought it up, I hadn't even considered the idea. Once I did, however, I decided to take it one step further. I've been thinking about it today. I could easily see some essays on the subject - homeschooling, travel, RV magazines (yes, they exist!), parenting mags, and so forth. What would be really awesome, however, would be a column. That, of course, would be shooting big time. That said, I have decided that, once we are on the road, I am going to write two 'sample' columns - one on deciding, one on the trip north - and submit them. I thought first of a few homeschooling magazines, but then decided, why not go for broke? (my major failing, of course) My SIL's great-grandmother (not related to dh, sadly) writes a weekly column for the Atlanta Journal & Constitution. So what if I put together my essays, call her up, and ask if she would mind if I call her contact at the paper? I can throw in the 'displaced Southerner moves to the Northeast' for a little local flavor. If that doesn't work, I'll move to the homeschooling mags, then perhaps the RV mags. Either way, I'm sure I can put together some essays for various publications. And you thought I forgot about freelance writing. Meanwhile, I'm laying upstairs writing the first article in my head. Stupid thing won't go away. I may well post it on here with a passcode and ask for feedback. Them. Whichever. In the meantime, I have gotten a lot packed. Not looking forward to dh being gone tomorrow morning. It would be easier if I could sleep. I may just go ahead, get up, and clean, clean, clean. The downside, of course, is that I won't really be able to sit down at a computer for a good week plus. But, as I said, I have practically written the whole column in my head, or at least a fairly decent rough draft. Then I started on the cover letter. LOL. I'm really excited about this idea. <sighs blissfully> |
| And we are taking the PA job, and we are moving sometime after next Saturday - yes, folks, a week from today. And dh is going to be in Utah for meeting and training all next week. AND I am going to try to have a moving sale - bringing folks into my house - Friday and Saturday, to sell off our furniture, primarily, and a few odds 'n ends. DH won't be home til Friday night, by the way. That's the short version. I have to go now and try to get some sleep, since it's going to be a long week. And I need to pack some more stuff. <sigh> The good side is, in the last day or so, I've packed up and cleaned out two and a half rooms in the house. We are getting some more boxes, which will enable the end of the rest, I hope. I am impressed with how much junk I have been able to throw away (keep in mind I am a packrat, my dad is a packrat, my mom is a packrat; I still have notes I passed to girlfriends [and boyfriends] in high school). I am almost finished with downstairs; I think one more good, hard day's work will do it. I'm back on the Dave Ramsey plan (sleeping good, huh?) and have been listening to my MP3s while I clean and pack; very motivating. I'll post the new-debt numbers after we move, I suppose, and break down the get-out-of-debt plan. And, um, sometime soon, I plan to start writing some more. In the meantime, does anyone have any idea where my case of CDs is? And also, if you've seen them, my box of tapes, which I haven't seen since dh and I were married 6 years ago in December. I do not want to accidentally toss them out! |
| Some days, I wonder why I do anything. LOL. Not long after the last post, we decided not to take the Pennsylvania job. The job dh is with countered with a basically equivalent offer. 'Basically equivalent' means that they are paying about $5k less and have no benefits, but we will be in the South rather than the Northeast, so lower cost of living. A quick look at a cost-of-living calculator basically told dh that $70k in the area of Pennsylvania we were planning to 'base' is equivalent to $55k here. So the lack of benefits basically put us at a higher level...okay, it's hard to juggle all the weird numbers, but there you go. Otherwise, we still plan to live in the motorhome, since the job requires travel. Not as much, but we own some property in North Georgia, and I've been wanting to get out of Atlanta, anyway. We are moving to Ellijay (anyone know where that is?), which is pretty countrified from what I remember. I told my boss at the gym and he said, "Ellijay is where you go when the world is ending. It'll take a good year or two for them to realize it up there." So pretty much as un-Atlanta as it can get! DH's region is primarily Georgia, but also will include Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and occasionally Virginia. So, travel will include areas outside of GA, which is cool. We'll be closer to my inlaws, which comes with pluses and minuses. BUT I figure, with a baby coming, if I absolutely can't tolerate the motorhome, I can always stay with said inlaws for a few weeks. After two or three days, I'm sure I'll miss the motorhome. I saw the comments, and I usually respond directly, but I'm going to post here. It's Halloween night, and I am wiped out. I took three kids trick or treating sans my dh, who is flying back from California tonight. And I already tire easily. So, to answer the motorhome question, it is a single unit, with the whole motor attached. I'll try to take a picture, load it, and post it in the next few days. Maybe I'll post some Halloween kids' pics, too. Also, we will have a car, which we'll tow behind it. Our Pennsylvania plan included hopes of getting, at some point post-baby, a two car trailer, but I'm not sure what our revised plan is now. Finally, dh used to do this job in his single days, and so he is very familiar and comfortable with driving a motorhome, especially with an attached vehicle. I intend not to drive it, ever. I'll walk to the hospital dragging three kids first... Another plus. Since we will only be about an hour and a half out of Atlanta, there is a good shot that my inlaws and mom will make it to the hospital while I am still in it (not likely with the PA plan, LOL). And an even better chance they will be willing to take the kids. Three cheers! In the meantime, I'm going to start talking to folks at the church in the area (which we'll be attending anyway) and lining up someone to help with the kids should I go into labor while dh is away. Okay, I'm off to bed. As I said, Halloween exhausted me. Fortunately, I have lots of candy (three buckets!) to show for it, and kids who have no clue that I am constantly scarfing theirs! On a side note, you should have seen Jimmy. He'll be 21 months tomorrow <sniff> and he was so funny! The bucket we had (a 1 gallon ice cream bucket with a handle) was so heavy, it dragged on the ground, but he absolutely refused to let me help him. And then he screamed bloody murder when I took the bucket and dumped the candy into a bag. Seems he is smart enough to know when someone is blatantly filching. We were out at about 8:30, and he could barely walk. In fact, I had to carry him. But he carried his bucket. |
| Okay, since I can't sleep tonight, I will spend a little bit of time (not much, since I really *ought* to be in bed) letting you know what is going on. I'm going to focus on the whole job thing. After being laid off for almost 9 out of the last 18 months, dh has had three job offers in a relatively short time. Two very close together, followed by a third before he had fully committe (ie finished the trial period of) the job he accepted. I am leaning towards the third, despite the realization that the third will bring some complications into our lives. But it also brings, among other things, full benefits, and since I am (as previously briefly mentioned) 3 mos pregnant or so, full benefits if highly important to me. Key points of the new job: It is in the northeast, mostly Pennsylvania (isn't that where SM and SMs live? <initiates stalker voice> just kidding). Since we currently live in Georgia, this means we need to relocate. Since our house has been sitting vacant for nearly forever (almost a year) and our lease ends at the end of November, this works out well. It is a traveling position, hence the 'mostly Pennsylvania' portion. DH would be on the road somewhere between 20 and 25 days a month. We are 'allowed' to come with him, not to the job site, but to the motel. Thus, after great deliberation, we decided to buy a motorhome instead of renting a house. This makes more sense than paying for a place we will be home 10 days in a 'good' month. Also, since the company reimburses a flat rate - $95/day - for 'motel and food', this covers camping (looks to average $35/day to park the sucker) for the whole month in a worse-case scenario. I believe I ran the numbers with him 'traveling' only 15 days/month and the parking fee for the motorhome at $50/day, and we broke even on that part. Since odds are good we will have more travel with lower cost, that means some will be left over for the (used for business thus tax deductable or so I've been told) motorhome. Or food. However you want to look at it. I looked at food; dh thinks of it as 'motorhome payment money'. It's all good. As to the travel, yes, tough with three little ones and one on the way. But I've been looking online for some fun kid things to do and found quite a few. They enjoyed the last few civil war battlefields we went to, and the visitor's centers/museums, and of course we'll have to hit the 'chocolate factory' in Hershey at some point <excuse me, I need to wipe the drool off the keyboard> And other fun things like that. Did I mention full benefits? Full medical benefits for the family, as well as dental and vision. My kids are 5, 3 and 20 mos, and not a one has been to the dentist.  Something I intend to remedy three or four months after we start. Uh, it is in PA, which gets me away from my inlaws.... It is temporary. DH and I agree that the northeast is the least desirable area of the country to us (sorry, Yankees!), and there is a good chance that we will be able to transfer in 2 years or so. Especially since we are willing to go anywhere else. The South is at the top of the list, closely followed by the West/Southwest, followed by the Midwest, I guess followed by the Northwest...I'm not sure where Alaska falls, but I guess Hawaii would be higher on the list....you get the idea. But in the two years we spend traveling, we should easily be able to wipe off our credit cards, and make a serious dent in our student loans. Then we'll just have to work a little longer to pay off the motorhome...okay, wacked, I know. Alright, I have to make a pretty spread sheet of projected bills. <runs off to Excel> I will try to come back and share more later. On the baby front - no idea of the due date. Since we have no insurance, we haven't been to the doctor; we were waiting for our 'pay for your own insurance' to come through, or whatever. So I'm guesstimating April but who really knows? <sigh> I'll tell you when I find out. |
| Okay, this is going to be quick. New baby due around April (still don't know the date) Trying to decide between two jobs, one of which requires moving in two weeks Been on the road to Washington DC and Athens GA (2 x to Athens) Between DC & Athens, dh went out of town for a week and left me with the kids If we take the new job (which I am strongly leaning towards), dh will be out of town for another week, leaving me with the kids to finish the packing I think those are the high points. It's been a rough month or so. I'll try to fill in more details later. <sigh> |
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