More snow…

Wow. In the past two hours, we’ve gotten well over an inch of snow. It might even be two inches, just from looking at the snow piled on top of the garbage cans that probably won’t be picked up and emptied tomorrow. Tomorrow’s not a regular school day for my son.  So of course the schools haven’t closed yet. Typical.

Sometimes, you just make do

Yesterday I conducted an interview in my car.

Okay, it was only a phone interview. I didn’t force someone to hang out with me in the minivan and all the assorted preschooler debris that accumulates in there over the course of a few days. But I did sit in the middle-row captain’s chair, where I called my source on my cell phone, turned on my little digital voice recorder and scratched notes on a legal pad.

As interviews went, I’d say it went pretty well. Definitely not the worst place I’ve ever had to do an interview. I’m not sure where that would be. There are a couple of contenders. I once did an interview in a morgue, in the midst of a bunch of vats of (brace yourselves) bones that still had some flesh clinging to them; the source was trying to boil the flesh off. (No, I am not kidding. Yes, I have blocked out the smell.) I also did interviews in the rain during the 2000 Presidential inauguration; the ink in my pens kept freezing up while I was trying to take notes on a soggy wet notepad. It didn’t help that freezing rain occasionally poured off the brim of my hat when I was trying to do that. And I’ve never liked doing side-of-the-road interviews, usually with law enforcement or emergency workers, while cars whipped by at 90 miles per hour.

The only downside of yesterday’s interview? This darned carpal tunnel syndrome. The neuropathy in my fingers got  much worse the more I tried to write. By the end of a sentence, they’d be tingling so much that I could barely feel the pen in between my fingers. Everyone reassures me that the carpal tunnel is almost certain to disappear after I have this baby. I hope so. It’s driving me a little batty (battier than usual, I should say) in the meantime! Interestingly, in all these years that I’ve been a writer, I’ve never developed carpal tunnel syndrome syndrome. Not until I got pregnant, for the second time. Weird.

But, hey, I got the interview done and I felt good about it. It might have been easier for me to do the interview from the relative comfort of my home office (er, such as it is these days), instead of trying to balance the cell phone, digital voice recorder, and notepad all on my practically non-existent lap. But sometimes you just have to make do. And so you do. And that’s what I did.

Snowbound!

David takes William for a toboggan ride

 In case anyone was wondering what I’ve been up to for the last few days….it’s been gawking at all the SNOW that we got here in Nashvegas this weekend. Every few years, Mother Nature dumps a huge amount of snow on the area, and we were apparently due for a big one. 

Early Friday morning, I received emails from my son’s preschool and the public school system, which runs the enrichment class that he takes each Thursday, notifying me that schools were closing for the day. I rolled my eyes a bit because we got the same notices about three weeks ago, and we barely ended up with any snow at all. The ground looked like someone had sprinkled confectioner’s sugar over it, but it was hardly snow with a capital S. This time, however, the snow began about two hours after the emails arrived…and it kept falling all day. This was a case when a Snow Day really was a Snow Day, not just a knee-jerk It Might Snow Day. We had a good coat of the stuff by mid-to-late afternoon, and when we woke up on Saturday, it looked like a different planet out there.

Unfortunately for me, I’m not in very good shape right now for serious playing in the snow. Plus, I was a little bummed that I had to postpone all the work I had planned to do while William was in preschool on Friday. I’ve been trying to carve out time here and there all weekend to do what I needed to get done. But still. The snow was–and still is–beautiful. And of course, who doesn’t like an excuse to drink hot chocolate after stamping around in the snow for awhile?

Other positive things of note: unlike the snow and icestorms of my youth, this snowstorm didn’t knock out the power. Or even the satellite television. So we’ve been warm and relatively entertained the whole time we’ve been housebound, too.

Maternity leave for the self-employed

So I’ve been mulling something over.  How much, if any, time should I try to take off after the baby’s born?

With my last full-time job and my last pregnancy, the company offered something like 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave, so it was pretty well-established what would be available. This time, I’m the boss, so I get to decide.  But how to decide? A freelancer’s schedule is such that if you’re not working, you’re not only not making any money, you’re probably not making any progress on making any future money, too. I don’t want to be a total cliche and say “you snooze (even for a well-deserved nap after going through childbirth), you lose” but well…

I have told one client for whom I’m working on an ongoing project to give me a couple of weeks to recuperate, and they said sure. I told them that they could certainly call me or email me during that time, but I probably wouldn’t have a lot of energy to spare to get actual work done during that time, and they were completely understanding.  But what if a great assignment comes along? Do I take it? Do I take it and potentially risk failing because I’m so darn exhausted? Do I take it and ask for a longer amount of time to work on it? Do I politely and regretfully decline while I take some time to recover from having a baby? Do I take the assignment and pound it out, no matter what? And what if I don’t get any assignments? Should I just be glad for a break or should I be worried about the future? Should I try to carve out some time to send out more queries and pitch stories to editors? Is it realistic to think I’d be able to even do that two or four or six weeks postpartum? Would it be fair to my family, especially my new baby and my three-year-old who will already be reeling from the change to our family, to try to do real work really soon? Will this annoying carpal tunnel syndrome finally go away so I can type for longer periods of time again?

What does maternity leave for the self-employed look like?

I have no idea. But I’ve been thinking about it….

Motivate me, please

Oh my God, I cannot get motivated to do anything extra!

It’s about all I can do to drag myself to the computer each day and work on the projects I already have on my plate. I really need to do even more on those, too. But to actually sit down and hammer out pitch letters and queries and apply for new stuff? So. Not. Happening. At least not right now.

And I had such good intentions, too!  Yeah, yeah, I know all about that road to hell. But seriously. I had a list of possible story topics, some leads, some good ideas to follow up on, and even a few people whom I wanted to contact.  And what happened? I haven’t touched any of it. This is SO not a good way to run a freelance writing business. It takes so long to hear back from some people, especially if it’s the query equivalent of a cold call, that I really should be sending out stuff now so I might hear back at some point in the spring.

But instead I am just doing a bang-up fabulous job of imitating a slug. Can I have a nap and maybe an ice cream cone, please?

Last time I was this pregnant…

So most of you probably know by now that I’m expecting a baby. Soon. I’ve written about how, er, challenging it was to work through some of the woes of pregnancy, and I’ve also written about how we’re going to have to find a new workspace for me at home once the baby gets here and kicks me out of my home office.

As I’ve worked on projects that need to be completed before Baby Brother arrives and I take a short break, I’ve been remembering what it was like last time I was at this stage in pregnancy. I was working as a reporter at a daily newspaper, and I was feverishly trying to finish up a major enterprise project on the state of gifted-and-talented education in California in the era of No Child Left Behind. I was devoted to that project. I conceived it (pun intended, since, hey, we’ve been talking about pregnancy anyway), I expanded it, and I tirelessly worked on it for weeks. I interviewed dozens of people: students, teachers, parents, experts and so on. I read books about gifted education. I even attended a weekend conference for the California Association for the Gifted to learn about the latest research and to find more sources to cultivate.  I was bound-and-determined to make sure that project was DONE before I went into labor because I didn’t want it to die while I was out of the office on maternity leave. I wanted my editors to love it as much as I did and give it excellent play on A1. I wanted people to read it and sit up and say, “Wow, we really are short-changing these bright kids! We need to really think about this and do something!”

Well, long story short, I did finish the project before taking maternity leave. It was a grind to get it all done, but I did it. Unfortunately, the editors did not run the story before I left the office and could do some final tweaking on it. About seven weeks or so into maternity leave, one of the news editors with whom I didn’t work very often took the project on. He called me at home, told me he had been put in charge of the project, and he wanted to go over some details with me. Eventually the package of stories did run, but they were shortened (well, that happens all the time). It didn’t look as glorious as I’d originally envisioned, but it still ran. And it still represented all that hard work that I did while lugging around an extra 25, then 30, then 35 pounds, and trying to plan for a baby. I was still proud of it. It was still (you knew this was coming) my baby.

Right now, I’m not working on anything that has that kind of emotional effect on me. Ironically (or perhaps not), my research on that project in 2006 ended up having some personal relevance to my own life as it has developed; I have my own officially gifted kid at home now–and I have his future education to fret about and plans for my very own membership in the Tennessee Association for the Gifted. As for work, I’m mostly working on freelance projects that I enjoy but am not consumed with, which perhaps is healthier for me anyway at this point. I like what I’m doing, but I’m not waking up in the middle of the night, worrying about those projects. (At least not yet! I still have a few more weeks, after all.)

Another thing that is different about this point in time: I’m already a freelancer. Last time, I had no idea that eventually I would choose not to return to the full-time newspaper reporter life. I had to establish a freelance career from scratch at that point. This time, I’ve already done that. My biggest challenge will be convincing my clients to let me take a short break after the baby’s born and keep me on their go-to roster of freelancers. I’ve pretty much given up on soliciting new jobs at this point, but hopefully at some point, I’ll be able to get back to doing that, too. It’s not as intimidating as it was the first time around, thankfully.

So I guess I’ll get back to work now. My ex-utero child is napping, hurray, and my in-utero child is behaving himself for now, too. Back to work…

January gets underway

I don’t generally make New Year’s Resolutions, personal or professional. I never remember to keep them, so what’s the point, other than to set myself up for failure? Who needs that? I try to take things as they come along, while also doing a prudent amount of Planning Ahead and Goal Setting. I think that’s more reasonable and less pie-in-the-sky anyway.

With that in mind, let’s see what the month of January is shaping up to look like. So far, I’ve got on tap:

• two stories for a health care website;
• an ongoing project for a medical center website;
• a story for a university magazine;
• a weekly newsbriefing to put together for the aforementioned health care website.

That’s it. The last one is easy, so I almost didn’t even list it. Another story for the health care website develop at some point, which would be nice.  On the long-range Goal Setting front, I would like to continue to expand the publications (online and traditional) in which my work appears. So I’m trying to put together a couple of pitches for other magazines; the real question is going to be whether I have energy to put together a fully-fleshed out proposal or not while I’m trying to get existing work completed AND prepare for the baby. I don’t want to submit a pitch without having a really polished proposal to show for myself.

Now….if I can only get this annoying carpal tunnel syndrome to leave me alone so I can get things done!

My deductible is going to be how much??

Normally, I enjoy being a freelancer.

I do. I like the flexibility and the variety. I remember being afraid, when I first embarked on the freelance life, that I’d never find a way to make it work for me. I worried that I’d never find clients, I’d never make any money, I’d never find enough self-discipline to work at home without an editor or coworkers around to motivate me, I’d be lonely.

Well, there are times when I do miss the adult camraderie of an office, but I did manage to find clients and some self-discipline, and I do even make a little bit of money (more would always be good, however). I’ve written some interesting articles and pieces, and I’ve enjoyed the work that I’ve done, for the most part.

But you know what I’m missing right about now about the full-time job thing? Benefits. Specifically, health insurance. See, as the wife of a working man, I’m listed on my husband’s health insurance plan. Which is nice because I don’t have to feel the pressure of either attempting to go without (a risk I could never take) or paying through the nose for some random plan. Except that my husband’s company has decided to switch to new insurance for 2010, and our monthly premiums and deductible are going to skyrocket.

That’s a big old “Ouch” that you might have heard coming from this house, followed by some wailing. And some gnashing of teeth. I’m remembering the health insurance that I had a couple of jobs ago very fondly now. It was actually (gasp) affordable.

I’m not the only freelancer, of course, who worries about health insurance. Freelance Writing Jobs had a good article on this topic a few months ago with a few useful suggestions. I know I’ve suggested that people contact professional organizations that they belong to in order to find out if there is a group insurance plan available; the Society of Professional Journalists offers some options for various types of insurance, including health insurance, to its members. (Which reminds me. I need to re-up my SPJ membership. I accidentally let it expire when I was sprawled out on my back, reeling from morning sickness earlier this year.)  Some people can’t afford the options that are available, though.

At least I already have and will continue to have health insurance. It’s just going to cost us more money. (A lot more.) And as anyone who’s a parent knows, children are expensive enough without that added insult. It’s a good thing we’re having another boy, so I can re-use a ton of the stuff that we already have and not have to buy much. But now I’m starting to fret about how I can procure additional work in the next six to eight weeks to help pay off the gargantuan deductible that we have to meet before our insurance company starts to pay for anything. Is it unrealistic to expect to bring in new or big work in the last quarter of pregnancy? Probably. It’s probably just as unreasonable to expect to get much done in the first two months after having a baby, too. The first few months of my son’s life are a blur to me, so I probably shouldn’t count on using the time after this baby’s birth to be dedicated to finding more work. Sigh. And people keep telling me to enjoy this time. Ha ha ha. Sleepless nights are just so conducive to being productive, sure.

And frankly, I don’t think that whatever comes out of the health care reform movement is going to affect me and my family much one way or another. After all, we HAVE insurance. That’s not the problem for us, fortunately. It’s the affordable part that seems to be the problem.

Good intentions lead to…

So I did all this smack talk about how I am good at planning work around holidays, blah blah blah. And you know what? As it turns out, I’m not doing much work this Christmas season after all. I’m doing some interviews for a magazine article that isn’t due until early February, but that’s about all I’ve got going on. I had all these good intentions, and yet without following through on them, well, you see where they’ve taken me: not very far.

And here’s the real admission: I’m not even feeling that bad about it. I’m so tired that I haven’t even had enough energy to put together a bunch of pitches for new projects, either, which I also said I was going to do. I think I managed to come up with two, and then I stopped. A former coworker contacted me about doing some SEO work, and I told her, “Maybe.” My brain was interested, but my body was saying, “Oh, please, please just go take a nap or something.”

I’ll probably regret this when I don’t have any serious paychecks rolling in next month, but for now, I think I’m just going to go curl up on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

Seed.com

Anyone signed on to write for Seed.com? I just discovered them, after reading about a NYT person who went to work for them. I signed on so I could peruse the available assignments. I’m wondering what the finished products are going to be like….