Books you should read

Man, I am so behind on this blog!

Insert litany of excuses here: freelance projects, blah blah blah, visit from family, blah blah blah, preschooler out of school, blah blah blah, more freelance work, blah blah blah, not feeling well, blah blah blah BLAH.

Anyway, my apologies. I don’t even have anything particularly profound to offer you today, except that I just read two amazing books, and I’d like to recommend both of them.

One was The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a fictional account of the uneasy relationships between white well-to-do Southerners in the early 1960s and their African-American domestic servants. My mother-in-law bought this book in hardcover because she started reading it and enjoyed it so much, then she brought it to me. I devoured it and then wished I hadn’t read it so fast. One of the things I appreciated most about the book was that it didn’t attempt to whitewash the situation that existed just a few decades ago. Many white families in Mississippi did have African-American maids who occupied an unusual role in the family dynamic: they were both members of the family and yet not members of the family at the same time. Stockett didn’t try to apologize for the negatives, nor did she excise the positives either.

The second was Outcasts United by Warren St. John, a fellow Birminghamiam. It’s a non-fiction account of an Atlanta suburb that became the destination for numerous African and Middle Eastern refugees and eventually became the home to a very unique youth soccer program. I was impressed by how well-reported this book was. That might not be the sort of thing that the average person would notice, but as a journalist, I could tell how much time and effort went into this book. It was worth it.

So if you’re looking for something new to read, and either of those books appeals to you, I urge you to check them out.  And if you have any recommendations for me, let’s hear ‘em!

Alabama doctor headed to Washington

The AP is announcing that President Obama may be tapping a doctor from my home state of Alabama as the next surgeon general of the United States.

The news isn’t official yet. And I will admit I don’t know much about this particular woman, and I’m sure we’ll learn more about her soon during the confirmation process. But I always like it when people from the South get a chance to show off the good side of the South– not just the bad side. I hope that Dr. Regina Benjamin lives up to her billing because there are a lot of us who would like to be proud of her achievement.

I admit it: I’m a bit of a Southern apologist. I’m fully aware of our rocky history. This region is responsible for some truly horrible episodes in our nation’s history, and I make no excuses for that. This region has also birthed some real yahoos out there. We’ve produced our share of John Edwardses and Mark Sanfords. But there are also good people doing good things in the South every single day. There are scholars, and writers, and physicians, and scientists, and educators, and engineers and all sorts of thoughful people in the South. I’d like a little recognition for that.

And oh yes, we wear shoes and use the Internet, too.

Specialty Buzz feature on me

How often does a writer get interviewed herself? I think I’ve been interviewed by another writer maybe three times in my whole life. Usually I’m the one asking questions!

But I recently got the chance to be on the other side. Fellow freelance writer and blogger Jennifer Escalona contacted me a couple of months ago to ask if I’d be willing to answer a few questions about my freelance career. So this week, I’m the focus of her regular Specialty Buzz feature! Check it out at The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer. You can read all about how I’ve specialized in health care writing. And if you have advice, tips or other guidance for me, please let me know. I may specialize in health care writing, but I certainly don’t consider myself an expert. I know I still have a lot to learn.

Words I just don’t like

I’m feeling cranky because I don’t like certain linguistic inventions that I keep spotting all over the Internet. Notably, I’m not a big fan of the terms “webinar,” which is a snappy little name coined to describe a web-based seminar, and “webpreneur,” a designation for an entrepreneur who makes his or her living on the Internet or from some Internet-based product or initiative.

Yeah, it probably makes me an old fogey. But I still don’t like them. I think that, at some point, you can take things too far, and those are both prime examples. Sure, it’s worked for some words or concepts, but I think those are examples of taking the cutesy little “web-” prefix and attaching it to a word or partial word to make a new term that’s just silly, not informative or catchy.

“Webpreneur” really bothers me more than “webinar.” I mean, can you imagine yourself chatting with an acquaintance at a cocktail party and saying “Oh, yes, I used to work in hospital management/information technology/academia/bottlewashing but I decided to chuck it all and live out my lifelong dream of becoming a webpreneur”? No, no, no. If you really can imagine yourself doing that, power to you. If you can take yourself seriously doing that, then you’re a better person than I am. But I have to tell you that I may roll my eyes behind your back when you excuse yourself to get another cosmopolitan/mojito/insert-name-of-trendy-drink-here.

Also, you may have noticed that one major “web-” word–”weblog”–eventually just shed the “web-” and become just “blog.” I gues it wouldn’t make much sense to say that you’re a “preneur” but for God’s sake, is it really that hard to say that you’re an entrepreneur, period, end of story? And then if someone asks you for more details, you can tell them about the web part? Sigh.

Okay, rant over. There are people I like and respect who use these words, so I’ve made my issue known, and now I’ll stop because I’ve said my piece. I feel a little better now.

Get going already

So….I took most of last week off. You can do that when you’re the boss.

The week before last was crazy. I got a last-minute assignment from a regular client, in addition to two regular assignments that I was already trying to finish. I was making scores of phone calls, sending out frantic emails, biting my nails, trying to write rough drafts of articles while waiting on phone calls, the whole nine yards.

Last week, however, was the week of the Fourth of July. Most holiday weeks are slower anyway. Lots of people take some vacation time, which makes it difficult to reach people for interviews or media requests. Knowing that, I decided to take advantage of the slower week to just catch my breath. Frankly, I needed the recovery time. I felt sort of muddled after cranking out a bunch of stuff the week before. (Hmmm. Is “muddled” the right word? Maybe not. What’s a word that combines “tired” and “slightly brain dead” and “winded”?)

Of course, the downside of taking some time off when you’re a freelancer is that you don’t generate any income for yourself. I didn’t make any money last week. So this week, I’m trying to get back into gear, to use yet another cliche. It’s like returning to work from vacation. Actually, it’s not like that. It is that. It’s a Monday on steriods.

Pass the Diet Coke?

Gannett cuts more jobs

Gannett’s cutting 1,400 more jobs, the Associated Press is reporting today. Most of the layoffs will be announced by July 9.

Ack. I hope none of my old buddies at The Desert Sun get laid off this round. A lot of my former coworkers have gone on to other jobs, but I still know a fair number of people there–and they need their jobs.

I won’t lie. Sometimes I really really miss working at a newspaper. There is nothing quite like working at a newspaper when major news is breaking, or when you’re getting to put together a huge series that really tells an important story. There are days when I pick up The Tennessean, our local newspaper (also a Gannett-owned paper), and I think, “I wish my byline was there.” I do like the freedom that freelancing allows, but I miss seeing my name and my words on A1.

But at times like this, I’m kind of glad that I don’t. I’d be bracing for layoffs myself. I read the letter about the layoffs on the Poynter website, and it just depressed me. I don’t know why, exactly. It’s not like this sort of thing is a new phenomenon in this economy.