A Good Enough Life

As I sit here dreading the cold I must brave to do my dinner shopping for tonight's feast of apricot pork tenderloin with cranberry peppersauce, mashed potatoes with butternut squash, green beans and something store bought for desert, I am still a published writer, still a rejected writer, still a writer. My mother, an intelligent attorney from Southern California, was here for 5 days for Christmas, I miss her! Ok, tangent. Writers do that. Our thoughts go from A-Z sometimes, but sometimes C to P to M plus 12. It's just the life of an artist. Speaking of, my friend HW Dugeon has the most amazing blog, I will post it one of these days - very inspirational. Demandstudios.com and I are still getting to know one another. At least they are still publishing my pieces, but I can't seem to find them on line - and this is a great missing link as writers love to see their final work as a reader would. It's like losing your great lost love to a competitor if you can not hold it in...

Hello fellow writers! Well, I started out great, then took the lazy way out, which given that today is Sunday seemed fitting. I was up with the sun at 6 am, with coffee, and an hour and a half into researching my next piece and drafts, I bailed. There are two pieces I have in to my publisher, DemandStudios.com, and they seem to be in limbo, which is probably due to the holiday week-end. I'm guessing they'll be approved and I can look forward to payment on Tuesday in time for New Year's, but until then, I'm not going to kill myself to produce new material. I had a newspaper that was really slow to pay, and thanks to a few of my mentors, some of them established writers I knew personally, others I just read about said "First rule of writing, of course after writing every day, is to insist on timely payment." Or just to insist on payment in the first place. Which brings me to a new feature on this blog: For new writers - TIP OF THE DAY:Do not write for a publicat...

Oh man, maybe I spoke to soon, braggin about the cha-ching of my PayPal account. Today, I got up before dawn as planned, coffee automatically greeted me, the house was deliciously quiet, snow laid out nicely outside, but all cozy inside-perfect writing weather. I planned on tackling "Wheelchair Accessible Hotels in Vilamoura", and low and behold - an easy, 30 word filler I had submitted to DemandStudios.com was rejected as my source didn't have enough weight. I completely understood their point of view, but ouch, getting a bounce over 30 words really stuck. I then suddenly felt afraid as I looked at my draft of "Wheelchair" and thought "am I crazy? I had never even heard of Vilamoura!" Two hours later, I was still editing, it was 8 am and the house was stirring. A panic swept over me as I was worried that now this one semi-decent piece would be shelved for the next several hours. Somehow, I pulled it off, in between kisses from my youngest son, 6 and q...

Well here it is Christmas Day and I am stuffed from food and fun with the family. But the real source of my joy is seeing my PayPal account fill up for the very first time, thanks to some new on-line publishing I've fallen into. The funny part is how out of my comfort zone the topics are. That I think is the mistake I made as a new writer, I didn't want to take on projects unless I was an expert in the subject. Didn't leave much. So with a more open mind, I've been on demandstudios.com , a website where you chose your assignments which offer a fixed fee, and away I went into "how much does it cost to build a three stall garage" to "Bird control devices". By being willing to take on topics I'm not familiar with, I'm broadening my knowledge, experience and pay scale. Now the research is needed, but the word counts - some as small as 50 words, some 400 mean I'm not writing a novel on the topic. So I can brave a topic I know little about, an...

Welcome to the first blog of The Published Writer! Are you an aspiring writer who wants to be published but can't seem to get anything but rejections? Are you a published writer in a rut and looking for a new audience? This is where writers can come together and create goals, share tips, and maneuver the world of publishing. I have been writing, receiving rejections, and getting published in various markets since 1996 and I've learned a thing or two along the way. During this time I had a literary agent shop around a non-fiction book proposal (it was rejected and I've shelved the project for now), written for newspapers and magazines, and hosted a once weekly radio show. I love media and am currently trying out new internet publishing sites with great beginner's success. So write in, post your dilemnas, and remember -keep writing! Best, Jenny Bioche