My friend the bee fly: A mystery solved

I thought this was just too cool to pass on blogging about.

In September or October of last year, when visiting with Panama in the pastures at his new home, I saw a really strange little critter. It was about an inch long, fuzzy, and greyish in color. It had the shape and size of a bumblebee, but moved like a hummingbird, darting and hovering in midair. I also saw it drinking nectar out of little flowers in the pasture.

I'd wondered about the mysterious creature, but forgot about it for a while. The other night I thought about it for some reason, and decided to see if I could find out what it was.

My first thought had been that it was a tiny hummingbird. I looked it up tonight, and found that there are two kinds of hummingbirds that small: bumblebee hummingbirds, found in Mexico and the United States, and bee hummingbirds, a nearly extinct bird found only in Cuba (and the smallest bird in the world!). Obviously it couldn't have been the Cuba bird, and it didn't have the vivid coloring of the other one.

I also ran across pictures of hummingbird moths. These live in Colorado, apparently, but are way too big and colorful to be what I saw.

Finally, I decided to search for "gray bee." (See, this is where knowing how to milk Google really pays off!) Almost right away, I found this: a picture of a gray bee fly. Here's a picture of a similar bee fly. They look kind of grotesque when magnified to that size, but trust me, they look really cool in person.

The final test was whether they could move like hummingbirds. According to a description I found, bee flies hover and dart just like I saw. I'm thrilled — my mystery has been solved!

Research resources

An issue I've seen debated on other writers' blogs is whether researching your articles on the Internet is acceptable. Some writers say that it's not, because it perpetuates the problem of regurgitated content: existing content that is simply rewritten and republished.

While I see the logic to this argument, I think this argument can be applied to any resource used for research. If a writer picks out a magazine at the newsstand, paraphrases an article, and sells it to a content site, what's the difference from the Internet-based scenario?

The basis for quality work lies not in the source of the information, but in the individual writer's skills — how good they are at researching, and then weaving the information they find into a unique new article.

Many writers (like me) enjoy being able to do all their research and writing from the comfort of their own home, but that doesn't mean the quality of our work has to suffer. Here are my tips for researching your articles online:

1. Use multiple sources. If you have an English degree, you learned this one in college: The best way to not inadvertently plagiarize is to use many sources on the same subject. I was taught that for scholarly papers, you should have at least as many sources as you have pages. That means a separate source for every 250 words.

I think that should probably be almost doubled for good content writing — I typically have 3 to 4 sources for short (500 or 600 words) articles, and 5 or more for longer articles.

2. Find a slant. Think of a new way to approach the material. The individual facts might still be found elsewhere online, but by finding a new way of looking at the material, you add to and improve the available content on the subject.

3. Know how to use your sources. A lot of writers scorn anyone who uses Wikipedia as a source. Personally, I think Wikipedia is great for two purposes: as a source for background information or commonly known facts, or as a jumping-off point for more in-depth research. In particular, I've found the outside links listed at the end of each article to be extremely helpful.

4. Do more than just Google. There are ways to search more traditional sources without venturing away from your computer. Online databases such as EBSCO are a great way to access traditional and scholarly print publications, and may be accessible for free through your public library or school website (even as an alumni). Also, some public libraries allow you to "borrow" ebooks via services such as NetLibrary (which I also blogged about here).

This post was inspired by the news that my public library is now offering access to EBSCO and other resources. Even though I still have access through my school's website (more than three years after graduation!), I was pretty excited about this new resource. It just goes to show how easily technology can replace — and redefine — traditional processes such as research.

Tax relief update and more tax resources for freelancers

I'm staying on top of the income tax news this year, it seems: I've already blogged about 2007 tax forms for freelancers, and potential tax relief that could affect freelancers.

As an update on the latter, it sounds like Congress has worked out the details of a tax relief package. Everyone will be getting a rebate of at least $300 each, though it'll probably be summer before anyone sees the money — the IRS can't issue special rebate checks and process 2007 tax returns all at once, it seems.

The package is also supposed to provide "tax breaks for businesses," including "more generous expensing rules" for small businesses. Presumably this should all take effect for 2007 tax returns, since the goal is to stimulate the economy NOW, but I just don't see how that's going to work. Most of us only keep receipts for things we know we can expense, so I doubt changing the rules at the last minute will be very effective for 2007.

For 2008, though, it might be great — if they tell us soon what the new rules are. Which brings me to my second reason for this post: to share more tax resources I stumbled across.

* Tax Law Changes for Individuals — This page sums up all the changes in tax law that you should be aware of before filing your 2007 tax returns.

* Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource — This page contains numerous resources for small businesses and self-employed individuals, including a page for recent business-related tax news.

I'm hoping that when they make a more formal announcement about the current tax relief plan, the changes will show up in these places.

I also was interested to find that the IRS offers online lessons to help small business owners and self-employed individuals learn what they need to know about filing their taxes: running your business with tax requirements in mind, and running your business out of your home.

There seems to be a lot of good information on these pages, so I hope you find them helpful!

Business cards for writers

I'm not sure how, but at some point I got signed up for some jobseeker's newsletter. I haven't opted out because periodically they do have good articles. Recently they ran an articles about getting free business cards from VistaPrint.com to aid in a job search.

The article made me think of two things: business cards for writers, and my own experiences with VistaPrint.com.

First of all, I think highly recommend getting yourself some business cards, even if you only write part-time or do all your business online. Business cards are great because clients are more likely to hang on to an attractive rectangle of cardstock than they are your invoices or old emails. Here are some of the ways I use my business cards:

* Handing them out to interview subjects
* Attaching them to invoices, contracts, and other paperwork sent through the mail
* Passing them out at events (I'll tell that story another time)
* Giving them out to anyone who might eventually become a client, or know someone who could become a client

As much as I think business cards are a necessity, I don't particularly recommend VistaPrint.com. Here's why:

* They charge you to upload your own design, even on their "free" cards.
* Their cards are slightly smaller and thinner than most business cards. The differences are slight, but they're striking when you're comparing them side by side with other cards.
* They charge for a nice finish on their cards. If you don't get the nice finish, your cards look like regular cardstock. If I wanted that look I'd make them myself!
* The "free" cards are only available once. After that, you have to pay, and they cost almost as much as higher quality cards do from other places.

For my current business cards, I used OvernightPrints.com. Here's why I like them better:

* They don't charge you to upload your own design.
* Their cards are full size and made of heavier stock.
* They offer a free U/V coating, which creates a professional shiny finish. Even without the coating, though, the finish is professional — satin matte, instead of shiny.
* They offer small quantities, something that not all print shops do.
* Their prices are pretty reasonable: for one-sided cards, $9.95 for 100, $24.95 for 250, $34.95 for 500, and $39.95 for 1,000.

I'm quite proud of my cards (which were, by the way, designed by one of my clients). Here is a picture:



You'll notice the intesting job title on the bottom card. Those of you who have read my blog for a long time will remember when I decided to list my title as Literary Goddess. I ordered a small print run of these ones, which I give to friends and clients with a sense of humor, and a larger print run of the regular cards for the more serious clients.

Extinction, sex, and plagiarism

This has to be the weirdest instance of plagiarism that I've ever heard of.

I spotted this headline on NPR: "Ferret Article Allegedly Plagiarized in Romance Lit." Who wouldn't click?

Anyway, evidently the work of nature writer Paul Tolme has been spotted in the latest book by Cassie Edwards, a long-time writer of Native American romance. This was discovered by Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, a blog that reviews, well, trashy books.

The NPR story focuses on the plagiarism of Tolme's work, which he says is inserted nearly word-for-word as dialogue after the hero and heroine have *ahem* made love for the first time. The reviewers at SBWLTB (there's no way I'm typing the full blog title every time) noticed that the dialogue seemed rather stiff and scientific, which led them to discover the plagiarized source: an article Tolme wrote about black-footed ferrets.

Although the NPR story doesn't go into it, SBWLTB says that they perused four Cassie Edwards novels, finding lifted passages in all of them. The Wikipedia page on Cassie Edwards reads:

Her publisher, Signet, initially stated that they believed the passages were used under fair use and would not be considered copyright infringement. Two days later, however, Signet announced that they would be reviewing all of Edwards' books that they published to determine whether plagiarism had occurred. In an interview, Edwards said that she did not know she was supposed to credit sources, and her husband stated that Edwards gained ideas from her reference works but did not "lift passages".

Tolme says in the NPR interview, "Cut-and-paste plagiarism is pretty rampant, from what I hear, in colleges and high schools these days. It's a phenomenon of the Internet age." The problem with that analysis is that Cassie Edwards isn't some green college student, as in other recent plagiarism cases. Edwards has been writing romance novels since 1982; in other words, she ought to know better, at least in my opinion. Yet "she did not know she was supposed to credit sources"? How the #&$! does any writer get away with not knowing that?!

I actually read quite a few of her books when I first discovered the genre, back in middle school. (And yes, for the record, they definitely qualify as trashy books.) Now I'm regretting every one that I ever bought (at the tender age of 13), and wondering how much stolen content I feasted my eyes on.

Tolme is taking the entire thing graciously, to say the least. He claims he's not even angry, and seems more intent in using this opportunity to spread the word about the black-footed ferret's plight. (And he's not kidding — several minutes of that interview are filled with him discussing ferrets.)

I don't disagree with Tolme's motives. Educating the public about endangered species is important. However, so is integrity in writers.

A little late-night blogging

Last Sunday, I mentioned the inordinate amount of work I had to do in the next week. I'm very sorry to say that I didn't get it all done, which leaves me working at 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday night.

I actually was pretty productive most of the week. I divvied up all my tasks at the beginning of the week, and although I didn't meet every goal for every day, I still successfully carried a much heavier workload than usual (and without losing too much sleep, either).

Unfortunately, on Friday I completely lost my groove: After my riding lesson, I spent the afternoon with my mom, and then watched TV with Michael in the evening. Saturday and Sunday saw very little work, as well.

I have a couple of things I'd like to finish tonight, but I'm quickly losing steam. Even if I only finish the one assignment, I'll still be up for another couple of hours for sure. Ideally I'd like to stay up all night, finish both projects, and crash for a few hours in the morning, but I just don't know if I'll make it that long tonight. We'll see if the tea I'm guzzling right now helps at all...

Big news at the L.A. Times

News from the writing/publishing world: The Los Angeles Times got rid of their top editor, James O'Shea, because he was refusing newsroom budget cuts. Pretty much the same thing happened last year, when the L.A. Times fired former publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson for refusing to make newsroom layoffs.

According to the article, this is "the fourth time in less than three years that the highest-ranking editor or the publisher has left for that reason."

Journalists aren't exactly a highly-paid bunch, so I have to say I respect O'Shea and Johnson for standing up for their writers and other newsroom employees.