Our biggest fear: South Dakota's abortion ban passed!

A little over a week ago, I posted on a South Dakota law that was on its way to being passed, banning pretty much all abortions in the state. Today, I read an article stating that the law was, indeed, passed.

The articles also states that the law is in fact an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. Even worse, the law makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. In other words, women will be required to give birth to the offspring of their rapists and abusers. Good God, they might as well sign a law making women the property of men!

I am going to find out if I can do anything to help Planned Parenthood in fighting this law. I don't have money to donate, but perhaps my writing can be of use to them. All I know is that I have to do something.

Planned Parenthood has a page on their site that helps you write and send a letter to the governor of South Dakota - as well as your own state's governor - protesting the abortion ban.

You can also add your picture to Planned Parenthood's photo petition against the abortion ban.

Planned Parenthood is also accepting monetary donations in the fight against South Dakota's abortion ban.

While I wholeheartedly understand that not everyone has the money to donate (I know I don't), you can get involved at no cost to yourself by sending a letter of protest. I implore ALL PRO-CHOICE WOMEN (AND MEN) to FIGHT BACK!

My Glamour boy

Being the boyfriend of a freelance writer has its perks... Thanks to me, Michael has his 15 minutes of fame! (Well, his month of fame, technically.)

A couple of months ago, I answered an interview request on Writer's Weekly, and subsequently made it onto the mailing list of a Glamour writer. One night her email said, "Who are you going to bed with?" and requested a picture and explanation.

For the rest of this story, see page 52 of the April 2006 edition of Glamour: "Glam Cam" column!

The plague of the web

Thanks to Deborah Ng's job board, which I check daily, I was directed to this article about cheap content writing jobs.

I'm assuming the writer took this job with a story angle in mind, since I can't imagine any self-respecting professional who would accept $100 as a fair price for 50 articles. I know I avoid anything under $10, and even those I accept only if they are articles that can feasibly be written in 30 minutes or less.

Regardless of this writer's intentions, the article has a good point; I just prefer to look at it from a slightly different angle. The crappy-internet-content issue has to do with cause and effect: two dollars an article is just too little for a decent writer - one who will research and fact-check their material - to consider, so these types of jobs are left to writers who are not decent, who throw together a bunch of crap as quickly as possible. The employer certainly doesn't care that it's a load of crap, just as long as it pulls in keyword searches and sells ad space, so they have no incentive to pay the rates that would attract more conscientious writers.

So what do we do about this sort of thing? Well, nothing, other than avoiding these ridiculously low paying jobs ourselves. The internet is the epitome of what the United States of America was founded on: freedom of speech. And while I know that America is not the only country online - far from it - I don't believe that any country that claims to value the freedom of speech has any right interfering with what people publish on the web. True, some of it may be incorrect, poorly written, or offensive to some people, but that doesn't give us the right to censor it from everyone. We can sensor what we ourselves read, simply by choosing carefully which links we click on when using the search engines, but self-sensorship will have to suffice.

Having said that, I must admit that I am disgusted by anyone who would offer a couple of bucks per article, and I have been known to send irritated emails in response to such offensive job offers...

If it's not one distraction, it's another!

I've mentioned several times how distracting I've found it to have Michael home; even though I'm not taking care of him as much anymore, it's still difficult to focus on writing with him around. Yesterday and today, however, I did a few hours of work for one of my families - the first time I've worked outside of the house since before Michael's surgery. It was really frustrating to realize that I can now earn more with a few hours of freelancing than I do with a few hours of babysitting or other work (and I don't have a commute). However, it's equally as frustrating to be home for that amount of time and not get as much done as I know I can, simply because Michael is here.

However, I'll have another month to try out just freelancing, as one of the families I work for the most is going on vacation, and the other is having a baby. In other words, I have only my writing to depend on for the next four weeks. I hope March proves to be as lucrative as February was!

My one year freelancing anniversary

March marks one year of freelancing. Granted, when I started out a year ago I wasn't freelancing full time - I wrote an average of maybe three or four articles a month for the first six months. However, it's a worthwhile anniversary for me to celebrate, because it marks the beginning of my eventual escape from a horrible job...into the career of my dreams.

Just for fun, you can read my very first freelance article: "Tips for Straightening Curly or Frizzy Hair."

Looking back, I am happy to say I've come a long way. I've expanded my experience to include blogging, book and play reviews, press releases, and print and web-based articles on many different topics. And...I succeeded in shedding my day job! It really was a great year! :o)

Watching American values die...one Patriot Act at a time

What is wrong with our f___ing government?! I can't believe the Senate approved the Patriot Act...again! Someone needs to remind the chimp in charge of our country of the values the United States was founded on. Our Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the exact things that the Patriot Act allows! Canada is looking better all the time...

More of my work live on the web!

One of my new regular gigs is writing press releases for Review Place. One of my press releases, announcing Diet to Your Door's 5-star rating on Review Place, is already live on the web! Although I don't get a byline on these, I am allowed to link to them as writing samples; I'll add them to my online portfolio as soon as I have a chance.

I've also been writing brief reviews of local businesses for Judy's Book. At first the website was set up so that I couldn't link to my reviews, since viewers would have to be signed up and logged in to see my reviews. However, the site has been revamped, and that is no longer the case, so you can now see an archive of all my reviews. I will also add this to my portfolio, whenever I get a break in the gigs (or need to create a break and do something for myself)...