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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. |
| I need to refocus. I have an interview on Friday and I would like to prep some questions. I need to do some background research, and figure out how best to set up the phones to work. I have my recorder but am still waiting on my copy of Writers Market 2007. If the notes on the recorder are any indication, it doesn't look like I'll be getting it until tomorrow, which is going to bug me. I guess books are harder to ship than recorders? Very strange. So I need to do some background work; although I am slightly familiar with the organization, I don't want to ask redundant questions. I feel stressed in general and worn out. What I need to do is sit down and review the topic and the notes I have made, to get excited again. Okay, I read over the orginizational website. This one takes a very large view, not of the particular problem but of several related problems. But it gives me some good feedback for questions. I think I am going to do some basic, vaugue questions and let my interviewee fill in the blanks. I was going to go for some more specific questions - and I will keep thinking about them, mind you - but I think since this isn't a study, I will go with a larger overview. I am currently browsing grieving parents boards and asking for permission to post from the board administrators. Hopefully that will bring in some more contacts. It looks like I will have to find another search function, however. So I guess I'll go check on my kids real quick, and then take care of that. |
| Well, I am sort of in a 'lazy' mood. The kids are out with dh, except the baby; he's asleep. I was supposed to be working on (guarenteed paid) work for the gym while they are all out, but I'm not in the mood, and I think I'll try to do that tonight. I did the dinner prep. I could be cleaning the house but it is just too messy - sad, eh? It got messed up in the rushed-one-day-packing-to-leave-town frenzy, and then when we got home, I was too worn out to clean up. I'm in a funk because the <insert profanity> people who were supposed to be signing the contract for our house - after a week of negotiations - backed out yesterday. I actually thought we had come to an agreement. I didn't realize we were negotiating with them without even any earnest money. Um, that makes me a little irritated at the realtor. I am going to tell dh that is not going to happen again. In the meantime, we are looking at some of those 'we-buy-houses' people to see if we can get just what we owe - I think maybe $2k more - and go from there. But I thought we were all done. So NOT being finished has put me in an evil funk. So, looking at what I need to get done. I've decided I need to do...everything. <sigh> I wish my writer's market were here. Just so I could go online and search for local parent magazines. Come to think of that, I could do that now, couldn't I? <runs to Amazon to see if my order is in yet> My digital recorder is in Atlanta. Nothing yet on the writer's market. They should be close, though, right? Anyway, hopefully I will get them in the next few days. Oh, yeah. Here's a resource for you. http://www.parenthood.com/localpub.html A list of local publications. I am going to sit down, make up a spreadsheet, and investigate them. Perhaps just one would take a query. If I could do that, then I would start with a query and then I can resell the reprints or the article, or whathaveyou. But that would cover me doing the interviews. I would really rather wait to do those interviews until after I have a publication to do them for. Now, the down side is, this list doesn't have Georgia, so it is incomplete. But that's okay. Miami Family: A free magazine for "upper-income families in the midst of the highest spending period of their lives." You can download the current month on your computer (I did). So I will further study it and see if it is a viable market. It does not provide writer's guidelines anywhere on the site, so I will need to investigate further. http://www.miamifamilymagazine.com/ Our Kids San Antonio: Another free magazine. This one shows archives on the web. I'm waiting now to see if it is the entire magazine or just 'selected parts'. Yes, it shows you the entire magazine; if you click 'full screen' then you can page through it. Again, no writer's guidelines. Boy, they like to make things tough. That's okay, now I have two magazines I want to search writer's market for. I couldn't even find an 'about us' section. http://sanantonio.parenthood.com/ ARGGH! Okay, this is too frustrating. There are too many parenting magazines, and when I try to search by state, I seem to have no luck at all. Fine. I will wait for my writer's market to get here. If it wasn't for bad luck.... <sigh> I should probably work but I think I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet and read. Far better to work when my kids are here driving me nuts, eh? |
No more going to church for me. My kids were gone, so I could listen 110% (you'd be surprised at how hard it is otherwise). I had three article ideas and a suggestion for a new magazine market. Okay, how nutty is that? Thought about an article on starting a writing club. This was when I thought about starting a writing club at church. The article, of course, was a natural outpouring of the idea An interview with a family in the ward. On Friday, the mom is going to give her kidney to her son (maybe 20 mos old). He's been needing a new kidney since he was born and is finally big enough - and has gained enough weight. Ideally, I would like an interview before the surgery, but I bet they are going to be busy. I think I will call her tomorrow and ask if I can come over Thursday. Perhaps by then my recorder will have come in. Talked to a woman who traveled with her husband for several years on business. Asked her how to occupy the kids. She suggested the Junior Ranger program for historical sites. I need to do some research, but perhaps after we've done that a few times....article time. My best friend, Rachel, subscribes to a magazine about raising your kids in a Christian-centered home. She told me last week that she subscribed but I didn't think about it...duh. She's subscribed for the last year. I'm going to ask her to borrow back issues. Sounds like a good read, anyway, as well as a possible market.All that from three hours at church. Plus actually feeling the spirit and taking a lot from lessons (if I had only heard from families.com, I would have a lot to say for those blogs!) I also had some 'inspiration' last night. Querying at Parents is great but highly unlikely. Anything is possible. But I might have better luck going ahead and querying Atlanta Parents, and then sending the reprint - or rewriting the article - to other local parenting magazines. Not local to me. Atlanta Parent and Cincinnati Parent are not competition, though. Perhaps I could just query several of those magazines. Still trying to get a copy of AP. I keep forgetting at the library. However, I have several back issues floating around, I just need to dig them up. Perhaps I will put significant focus on those issues and spend tomorrow and Tuesday researching them. Then I can do periphary research in the childcare and pediatrics magazines, but I will most likely have more success with the others. Not to mention, those will be the best ones to help me break into Parents in the future. But honestly, I do think I can spend the time researching the market and make several sales. I can especially cater to local traumas and shift the article around some, so each article is an original. I'll start with AP, and then once I have their 'go ahead', write the article. Since I am going to go ahead and contact the parents through the website with their essays, I will hope that will be a good foot forward. I am going to work hard to ensure that I get that published, too. I can go through the south and west, since those are areas of most trouble, and then focus on the midwest and north as I get stronger. Once I write the first article, all I will have left to do is query. I know you are not supposed to query first, but I have faith in my writing skills, the low markets, and the subject. Since I am starting out, I will go ahead and do the AP on spec. Hopefully the rest will take queries, and I can query them. Or I can just sell reprints. I will make a list of possible markets. I'm sure I can find at least ten or twenty (out of 50 states), not to mention all of the breakdowns by city! So even if I wind up making $50/article (and I do think they pay more), that's $500-$1000. More work, but with a strong background, I will look at submitting to Parents next year. Don't you like my new plan every month? Or is it every week? New plan: have article written and submitted to Atlanta Parent by end of August. With that clip, I will go ahead and submit to wider audiences. I'll probably double my research hours in September to research more local magazine markets, and then consider querying to other places after I have an acceptance (like AARP and childcare mags). That way I can point back to it. I'm still excited about my interview idea. I thought of some great questions I would like to pitch. If anyone wants to donate back copies of Writer's Digest, feel free to send them to me....LOL. My library does not subscribe, the bums. The Dunwoody library (20 mts away) is the only one that does, and then I have to take the kids. Perhaps I will go ahead and grab that up for an article. Perhaps while I wait in 'limbo' for my interviews to come back in, I will go ahead and start researching possible markets for the interview, and also contact said author via email to ask about her willingness to interview with me. So wish me luck there. |
| I've been lazy today. I wrote the email for ProfNet with the basic questions, slaved over the posting for the grieving parents (actually, the email to be forwarded), and wrote a basic outline. Then I spent about an hour online at Galileo, the free library database system, looking for markets and back issues. They have Parenting available online, from one year back. They have Parents from 1988-1995 (that should be helpful!). They have AARP but just the table of contents, no full text articles (bums). So that's what I did for work today. I also wrote one book review, finished one book, and started another one. I should probably go ahead and write a few more book reviews. Right now, I have six books from the library waiting to be reviewed. Plus several others that I already read. Oh, yes, and I need to write a review on that Queries book I recommended to you guys last week. Maybe I can use my blog as a review. I have been reading this true-crime Christian fiction. I really enjoy it. I have always like crime solving books, but many of them are very, VERY graphic and violent. Terri Blackstock manages to write good, compelling, keep-me-up-late-the-last-week fiction without being graphic.  Even if you aren't a big Christian fiction reader, I would suggest giving it a try. Then come back and let me know what you think, either here or in my "Invalid Item" . Please stop by and let me know what you think. Or stop by and tell me I've been doing way too much reading and need to do some more investigative journalism.I have all this work to do, and I'm stalling. Not just freelancing work, but work for the gym, that really does have to get done. I just don't feel like it. It's so monotonous, and I don't want to turn on the tv right now. Maybe I will just wait until dh comes home and do it Monday night while we watch tv together. It's been a long week. I checked out several books on writing from the library today. Found one on the shelf about travel writing. I figure, if I'm going to be traveling everywhere, I may as well give it a shot. Not sure anyone really wants to go somewhere like Ahoskie, but there you go. Then again, I am supposed to be going to Augusta GA, which draws a decent crowd, and Enterprise AL, apparently a city with a statue honoring the boll weevil. I have no idea what I would write but I find that hysterical. Then again, it sounds like a nice southern setting, doesn't it? I'm still stalling. And when I finish here, I will probably go ahead and read some more. I really need to go ahead and research the childcare magazine markets. I hate market research on the web, though. And I'm bummed because I missed the 'shop @ amazon' affiliate link here on writing.com that helps support the site, both when I bought my writers market and when I bought my recorder. Okay, well, how's this for a whacked out brain? I just went to www.writersmarket.com, thinking I'd look to see if they have a free 7 day trial.  They don't (I didn't think they did, but it was worth a shot, although I think this is the second time I looked). What I did find was a link to a new magazine:http://www.writersmarket.com/markets/spotlightconsumermagazinedisplay.asp The magazine is Savannah Magazine and it publishes articles about people, places and events of interest to the residents of the greater Savannah areas, as well as coastal Georgia and the South Carolina lowcountry. Okay, this isn't big news. However, the series that I am reading right now by Terri Blackstock is set in Savannah; well, just outside of it. How interesting do you think it might be to do a profile on the writer and talk to her about why she set the story there, what she did to catch the feel, etc. Do those kind of articles sell? I'm going to go post on the evil freelance forum and see. You know what, the heck with it. I am going to query them and find out. I am going to do this on a smaller scale than my one month idea. Then again, I'm having expanded ideas. Suppose I took this interview with this Christian writer (assuming I got the interview, of course) and tried to hit a Christian magazine with it? In fact, Blackstock was a huge writer in the non-Christian genre for some years before she made the switch. That should be highly marketable, probably more marketable than the other. Okay, now I am excited about that. I wonder if I could actually get the interview. Wouldn't that be cool? <runs to check out website and accessibility> She lives in the south, Mississippi, I think, so not even too far from me. Odds are good dh could get a job in that area and pay for transportation! Oooh, I wonder if I could pitch it to a writing magazine, too; the difficulties of transitioning from mainstream to christian fiction. Oddly enough, I am really excited about this one, too. I can forsee a lot of different paths that I could take with this story, assuming I can get an interview. I'm looking for Christian magazines now and seeing if they have any interviews with her. You know, as I look at the long list of Christian magazines, I am thinking that she has created a story that most of them would love to hear. Talk about making a stand. She turned her back on a profitable Harliquen (sp?) career to write Christian fiction. See, this is why I can't do one idea a month. I'll die. Too much to do. Then again, perhaps I could go ahead and do two if I keep everything focused. Like, right now, I'm waiting for responses to interviews. Once I get those, I can move on. I still need to do some magazine research. Perhaps I can set up a goal and do that, and then I can move on to the next thing on the list. I mean, who needs time, right? Okay, I'm going to go take a break. After reading all of these great Christian books, I've cut back on my scriptures, which is sad. So I'm going to go read those for awhile, then come back and brainstorm. Or maybe I'll organize my brainstorming and go read my scriptures. I am so undedicated. Let me see what I've got for an interview with Terri Blackstock (if I can get it): Possible publication in the Savannah magazine about location Publication in a Christian writing magazine (is there one?) about making the transition from secular to spiritual Publication in a Christian magazine about said transition (are those considered competitors?) and standing up for what you believe inI could even possibly revamp the Christian writing magazine for a regular writing magazine (think Writer's Digest would take it?) once I get more clips. Just saw that there is a Guideposts for Teens. Oooh. Now that's a good interview for kids about to go out and decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives. |
| I love google. I've been googling 'child care magazine' and come up with some good results. Here's a few of them: Healthy Childcare: This one comes with a full-out writer's submission guidelines. It even tells you not to use contractions. Shoot, the downside: Authors must be employed and/or credentialed in an area of childcare health and safety. I'll give you the link in case any of you guys are interested. <mutters> http://www.healthychild.net/authorguides.html Child Care Business: Since you have to have a subscription to read the magazine, and it lists no author's guidelines, I guess I'll wait for the Writer's Market and hope it is listed. http://www.childcarebusiness.com/ Child Care Exchange: I will have to examine the site to see if my article would fit. Nice listing of submission guidelines. I'm not sure if it is a print magazine or an ezine. Needs a little more investigation. http://www.childcareexchange.com/about_us.php?action=write Children Webmag: This looks like a webmag, but it could still be a good in. I'll have to investigate it some more. http://www.childrenwebmag.com/content/view/204// Okay, now, I found an archived article in Working Mother on childcare. They lied! I thought they were all business articles. Guess I will have to revamp my interest thataway. I'll grab some of those issues and study them. Alright, now I have a list to investigate. I'll have to do that later, as I think dh is having a nervous breakdown. He doesn't function so well with three kids. |
| Okay, I am checking things off the list. I just wrote and posted my entry on Profnet, asking for professionals to contact me. I wrote: I am writing a freelance article on hyperthermia and children, specifically on children who were left in a car for a short period of time and had to be treated for heat-related problems, but did not die. I am interested in any studies on the subject, any statistics on the subject, and personal views on the subject from someone in the pediatrics field. Because I am writing a freelance article, I would like to get a brief overview via email of what type of information you have available. Once I have an article assigned, I would contact you for a full interview, preferably over the phone, or possibly in person, depending on your location. My goal is to encourage more parents to stop leaving their children in cars. Thank you for your time. Hopefully that will generate some leads. Now I just need to sit down and create some preliminary questions for the pediatric-type folks who respond. I put a week from today as the deadline, which means I should be able to move on with the next step. I also found a list of essays from several grieving parents who had lost their children. They put a 'this happened to me' essay on the web. I am trying to decide whether to go ahead and contact them about an interview, as they are already being proactive in putting out their information. I don't know if I can find email addresses for them. Then again, perhaps I could contact the website they put their essays on and ask them to pass on an email. I like that idea. Then they have the option to respond to me. I think I am going to do that. The down side is, that only gives me three parents, so if they all say they are unwilling to talk to me, I'm in trouble. Then again, if they are unwilling, I will move on. You know what I should do? Contact the people at that website anyway. Then, while I am engaged in a conversation with them, I can ask them to pass it on. Then it isn't just random. I have to think about what to write for them. I will add that to my list and bump things around. Argh. edited to add: Okay, I am on the ball today. I sent an email to the website requesting information, and got some stuff back from Profnet to finish up registering. So now I have hit two of my deadlines. I also just added the preliminary questions for the website into my email. Hopefully I will hear back from them promptly, and then I can respond and ask if they would possibly pass on my contact information to parents who have lost their children. I have three specific parents in mind. If the web site does not want to pass on my information, then I suppose I will try another way. But this would be the easiest. Okay, well, I should probably get some work done. Like I haven't been working all day. Anyway. Also, another great prize for my 'free' articles - another $50 amazon gift card. Just think, if I had used the one I already had for Writer's Market and then waited to use the second one...I wonder if it is too late to change? Maybe I'll do that and save myself the charge. edited again to add: Okay, I found a great list of magazines. It was actually listed in one of my writing books. You can search by subject. Should help with anyone who wants to submit. It's courtesy of Yahoo: http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Magazines/ You can click on the subject you are looking for, and then get more information about the magazine. Great source. I'm using it now to look for childcare magazines. |
| More thoughts. I have been thinking all day about what I am going to do in relation to my kids and my family. I have decided to make a few cuts, including the writing. I am going to focus on one subject for queries each month. Funny that I started out with one a week! But I am going to shoot for five slants on each one, with five different markets, so that is five queries a month. That actually gets me close to the aforementioned 21 queries by the end of the year, only one off. Maybe I'll throw out an extra one for fun. Alright, off to spend time with my husband. Going to try to be a little tighter, and I'll explain more later. |
| Well, dh is out running a few errands, leaving me with the kids. It's all good, since he's making us big money, big money. He sold one of the zillion mattress sets we have around this house. Anyway, it's been a long day, and I've been trying to think about a few things. I'm bummed about the FLC response, but that works. Apparently (as I posted in my comment) they want to reference FOUR books, which is a little different from what I've seen on most content sites. So I guess I'll have to pick a more book-related. I wonder how he would take it if I suggested referencing general parenting books? Like, you won't find a book on 'don't put leave your baby alone on the changing table', and I doubt you'd find one on 'don't leave your kids unsupervised at the pool'. Maybe I will email him back. What's the worst that can happen? I am struggling. I am having issues with my job - the one that pays, not the freelancing. I am struggling to play with my kids - a huge part of the reason I wanted to be a stay at home mom. Their best time to play is my best time to take them to the gym and grab the work. I am very lucky in that I have a job that I can mostly do from home, but I hate having to go in on a daily basis. I'm torn between wanting to all-out quit so I can play with my kids, and continuing to work, especially with the financial problems we have been having. Ideally, if we can go out of town every two weeks, the situation will wind up resolving itself. I talked to dh and told him about the problems I'm having and we agreed to see how much we made in 2 months of working with Dave, traveling, and go from there. The other reason I am having a problem is that I made the decision about two years ago to homeschool my kids. Now my daughter is five, and school is starting next week. I feel like there is a lot I want to do, and I just don't have the time. Like I said, the best time to do stuff with my kids is in the morning; that's when they are in the best moods. In the afternoon they get cranky. Plus we have the baby taking a 3 hour nap, which means we can't do anything then. And I'm not the best in the afternoon, either; I'm exhausted and hate the idea of dragging them out somewhere. Anyway, still waiting to hear from families.com. Not sure how freelancing fits into the whole plan. On the other hand, if dh is home during the day the two weeks we are home, I can run out at 'quiet'/nap time. It's just that that is the only downtime I have. It's kind of the time I've filtered away for writing. Perhaps, with dh home one or two weeks during the month, he can do some fun things with us. Then we'll have some other things to do on the road. I'm going to go check out some books from the library, though. |
| Your article on Hyperthermia is well written and interesting. I think you make your point very well and it may change the minds of some readers. However, as stated in our Writers Guidelines, we need to be able to link to books about the article's topic. The only books I could find on the subject are medical books. Therefore, we won't be able to use this article. Please have a look at our Writers Guidelines and if you have another article that you think would qualify, send it along. Your writing style is very good and we may be able to come to an agreement to buy a different article from you. So, finally got a response from LFC. I believe I only sent them my essay last week. Somehow I missed the 'link to books' part of the Writer's Guidelines. <grrr> Mildly frustrating at the moment. I can't believe there are no books on the subject...well, actually, I can. Okay, so note for all of you writing for LFC. Make sure your article is book-linkable. Maybe I should write a book on the subject.  On the plus side, it was a pretty positive response. Of course, it is a content-purchasing site - granted, a higher priced one - so they may not be so discriminating. |
| Went to the library today and picked up 5 copies of Parents magazine and a copy of the 2004 edition of Writer's Market. Grr, but that's all I'll say. And guess what magazine is not listed in the 2004 edition of WM? Yup. Parents magazine. However, I have mine coming from Amazon (even though they haven't shipped it, don't they know they are supposed to move faster than that?), so I'll keep waiting... I have studied two issues of P. so far today, and I'll be lucky to get any more done. I scanned the feature-like articles to see what types of information was general throughout the magazine. For June & July 2005 (I wanted to look at the summer months, and they didn't have many recent 2006s there), I noticed a few things: Most of the articles have personal and expert opinions throughout. Occasionally, statistics were included, but these were few and far between. In fact, I only noticed statistics in two articles - one in each magazine. There were a couple of 'personal' essay-type articles. One was about a woman who breastfeeds her three kids until about the age of 5. That was told in first person. The other (in the 2nd magazine) was titled something like '14 things no one told me about having a baby' (although the actual title was bit weirder. That wasn't so much an essay as a bulleted list with descriptions. Each magazine had an aritcle that interviewed 'different' parents. For instance, in the first, a family with three sets of twins was interviewed (first set adopted, second set in vitro, third set naturally). In the second, a couple who worked together and lost a total of 115 lbs between the two of them, for their child.(Although these last two don't pertain to my query, they are something to keep in mind for forthcoming queries and articles.) More articles than I would have thought are told in the 2nd person. 'You should', 'make sure you', etc. This is definitely something to keep in mind. Each article was broken down into subheaders of various lengths. Also something to keep in mind. There is a section titled 'Parent Report' that might actually work perfectly for the article. Both are told in 3rd person. In the June 2005 magazine, the article was on Internet porn and how to keep it from our kids. In the July 2005 article, the subject was household toxins. I will have to look a bit more, and hopefully view the writer's guidelines, but I think that might be a good fit; in fact, once I finish here, I'll go check it out.There were a couple other things I noticed in these two; the first feature was financial (paying for car insurance & credit card tips), a 'healthy kid' section with two articles and pieces, and a great deal of numbered sections ('55 Tricks for Potty Training', '32 Ways to Save Money'). Also, submissions in the 'Time For You' section seemed prone to numbered lists in the June issue; I forgot to check the July issue for consistancy. For now, I'm going to type up and review the introduction I previously considered. As I recall, it starts off in the 3rd person but leans towards 2nd. But, looking at the Parent Report section, I can see that the two so far both start with a personal story. I may follow that up, as well. But I'll go ahead and type up my introduction first. The kids are not napping. Well, the baby is, but I'm about to run out of time with my kids. In the meantime, fellow freelancers, I added another link to the offsite blogs section; it is a blog by Mridu Khullar (who apparently suggested the 5 slant method) and is below my Redd Infinity blog. So feel free to check it out. If you are still reading this. |
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