tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-316641222011-04-21T21:15:56.565-04:00My adventures as a freelance writer working from home. The lessons I'm learning along the way about life, love, family, and living your dreams one page at a time.Andreanoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-87147307297516867252008-04-18T16:05:00.003-04:002008-04-18T16:12:03.502-04:002008-04-18T16:12:03.502-04:00

I ask this because I became a writer out of my love of reading. Reading has been a passion for me for quite some time. My problem is that I spend to much time reading for work that I make little time to read for enjoyment these days. Bear with me, I'm coming to a point here.My other problem is the expanding hips that are resulting from time in front of the keyboard. I am considering joining an

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-24524072260289036742008-04-13T22:08:00.003-04:002008-04-13T22:16:48.224-04:002008-04-13T22:16:48.224-04:00

I'm not sure what has managed to take hold of my family this past week but we've all been sick, ill (tempered that is), or a combination of the two. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most pleasant person to be around when I'm not feeling well. You know the old saying "If mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Well, there haven't been many happy people in my house since about last

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-46494165408036548532008-04-06T12:54:00.005-04:002008-04-06T16:29:20.549-04:002008-04-06T16:29:20.549-04:00

Yup. You guessed it. I'm procrastinating. It's sad really that it takes an act of outright procrastination to get me to make a blog post like any other good writer does on a regular basis. What is such a horrible task that it drives me to bouts of mindless procrastination? It's a really good, excellent paying job on a topic that I'm interested in and have experience writing about.Crazy right?

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-21698561225778185482008-02-26T07:55:00.004-05:002008-02-26T08:02:23.248-05:002008-02-26T08:02:23.248-05:00

I've been trying to gradually move into Internet Marketing through some personal projects. It seems though, that every time I make the slightest bit of headway something comes up that requires immediate money and the scramble for paying clients rather than building up my own business. The bottom line has become that I am slowly but surely taking steps to spread my wings and branch out into new

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-73739217291758217582008-02-13T18:04:00.001-05:002008-02-13T22:09:42.221-05:002008-02-13T22:09:42.221-05:00

While I’ve never really considered myself to be a snob, it would seem that I have a reputation for being somewhat of a grammar snob. This does not by any means indicate that my grammar is infallible or that I am under the delusion that my grammar is perfect by any means. Only that I have a tendency to judge the writing of others by the quality of the grammar they use.It was pointed out to me in

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-91191739830304190812008-01-15T19:32:00.000-05:002008-01-15T19:47:13.160-05:002008-01-15T19:47:13.160-05:00

I often get these dazed and confused looks when I tell people that I work from home. They tend to get worse when I inform them that I am a writer. There's the dim bulb in the backs of peoples eyes that says "Oh you mean your unemployed". Yeah right. At any rate, to all of those who think that working from home means that we sit around all day in our bathrooms watching daytime television, talk

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-9343810215839024922008-01-10T20:32:00.001-05:002008-01-10T20:44:23.557-05:002008-01-10T20:44:23.557-05:00

Or so I've been told. The truth of the matter is that paying business often gets in the way of labors of love. As a result, works such as this gather dust in the corner while we go about the business of doing business and making money.Am I the only one?It is a new year however and my hope is that I will find some sort of balance between personal writing and business writing. In this balance my

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-52838511513762910842007-11-06T15:58:00.001-05:002007-11-06T16:10:28.493-05:002007-11-06T16:10:28.493-05:00

At least that's how the old (yes I'm really aging myself here) Eric Carmen song began. It has been a while since I've posted and many great and terrible things have happened in the meant time. I will not make vows of diligent posting in the future but I will try to be better about paying attention to my little writing blog. I have a few goals for the future of this blog and will work towards

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-4728084959727906252007-03-18T08:14:00.000-04:002007-03-18T08:23:09.756-04:002007-03-18T08:23:09.756-04:00

I know I've mentioned before that I will be dedicating a good deal of my time over the next few months to improving my personal writing skills. I have looked to many Internet resources for education and inspriation along the way and have found some to be more beneficial than others. However, there is one that I think is well worth mentioning and sharing. It isn't one site that is filled with

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-64350283263126090362007-03-12T19:19:00.000-04:002007-03-12T19:31:51.707-04:002007-03-12T19:31:51.707-04:00

I know we all have things that just drive us completely wonkers when reading them. I find that I can forgive a good many errors when it comes to writing. This is particularly true since I make so many. I can overlook run-on sentences, misspellings, and even sentence fragments in the good-natured way of writers. I can even overlook the occasional substituted word that gets by our weary eyes and

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-92205533406173632992007-03-11T09:43:00.000-04:002007-03-11T09:52:06.584-04:002007-03-11T09:52:06.584-04:00

We all reach a point in our lives and careers when we must decide to remain stagnate and go with the status quo or reach out for new things--to risk the unknown. I have always struggled with self-confidence as a person and a writer. Even when teachers were strongly encouraging me in school to really pursue my writing I always felt that I wasn't really good enough. I still struggle with the idea

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-88495253099141664012006-11-18T22:50:00.000-05:002006-11-18T23:02:26.015-05:002006-11-18T23:02:26.015-05:00

I am not the most even-tempered of people. I know, I know, there are probably shock waves going out all over the Internet with this admission. I try, however to remain professional most of the time when dealing with other writers and buyers. For the most part I manage to do so quite nicely. This of course, results in me often resorting to the serious sport of tongue biting. The problem with

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-71515099182527659732006-11-17T14:57:00.000-05:002006-11-17T15:10:20.374-05:002006-11-17T15:10:20.374-05:00

We do you know? I was recently reading in a forum where someone asked if there were any professional writers. Being the inquisitive soul that I am, I decided to do a little research. According to the kind folks at dictionary.com withouth whom I would be lost for words quite often, the very top, number one definition for professional is: following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-52444545729779729052006-11-14T00:15:00.000-05:002006-11-14T00:26:47.685-05:002006-11-14T00:26:47.685-05:00

I was hoping that blogging would help me develop a more finely tuned sense of discipline in my writing. When I first began this blog I had period of busy times followed by those that were not so busy. At the time, I thought that was the bane of the business so to speak. Recently I’ve found that I’m staying far busier than I had ever anticipated, as such, I’m finding less and less time to devote

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-22209190610994947082006-10-18T14:17:00.000-04:002006-10-18T14:34:39.469-04:002006-10-18T14:34:39.469-04:00

A recent bout of food poisoning (not I might add the preferred method for loosing five pounds) has had me reeling all week. Let's not even forget that we had scheduled and paid for our campground tickets and festival tickets months in advance so we also had a vacation (of sorts) planned for two days after the illness took control. Now that I've completely lost everyone. I found myself sick to the

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-1062986240686339942006-10-09T19:47:00.000-04:002006-10-09T19:54:06.607-04:002006-10-09T19:54:06.607-04:00

Tonights post is going to be short as I am sneaking to my computer without the knowledge of my children. I'm sure as soon as they hear the keys clicking they will be back. I have been fighting, begging, and pleading for time to work the last three days. It seems that everytime I start to work, write, or just check the weather it becomes an open invasion for the household to suddenly need me. As a

Andreanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-48560302006124029252006-10-04T10:41:00.000-04:002006-10-04T10:58:04.934-04:002006-10-04T10:58:04.934-04:00

First things first, I'd like to thank those of you who visit and comment. It's really kind of nice to think I'm not having long drawn out conversations with myself. I love the interaction and the insights I've gained and I appreciate many of the blogs that you all have as well. Now to the discussion that seems to be resonating throughout a good portion of the writing community--setting goals.

Andreanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-58343846437932722352006-10-02T16:07:00.000-04:002006-10-02T16:16:30.580-04:002006-10-02T16:16:30.580-04:00

Is it just me or does there seem to be profound lack of literary heroes today? There is no Sherlock Holmes, nor Henry IV or Macbeth, or so many others that over the course of my life have both in turn awed and inspired me to push towards greater heights. I particularly love the fact that most heroes, most real heroes at any rate, have some sort of flaw. I miss that. It seems that the heroes we

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-33685219005242924352006-09-30T07:30:00.000-04:002006-09-30T07:50:54.137-04:002006-09-30T07:50:54.137-04:00

Many of you may have heard of NaNoWriMo which is November. If you haven't, it stands for national novel writing month. The object of participating in thise event/friendly competition is that writers will unite and support one another (a very strong sense of community) in the goal of penning a 50,000 word novel during the course of the month of November. I tried last year and discovered quickly

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-72036474415625427632006-09-29T15:12:00.000-04:002006-09-29T15:25:53.265-04:002006-09-29T15:25:53.265-04:00

I don't know about many of you, but I am the original poster child for ADHD. It's hard to tell online, and through my writing, but if you've ever tried to hold a conversation with me, I'm sure the fact is painfully obvious. As a result, I'm easily distracted by any and every little thing. Housecleaning is one of those things that tends to distract me from my work. The problem is that with three

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-1841709652895051482006-09-28T11:05:00.000-04:002006-09-28T11:35:32.745-04:002006-09-28T11:35:32.745-04:00

I had intended on writing about something else today and will push that back until tomorrow as something I feel is more urgent has been brought to my attention. As a bit of a warning to you guys this is going to be a rant so if you're not in the mood for senseless musings about the ills of the world, we'll try to get back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. I was doing my usual bit

Andreanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-8680970393085578952006-09-27T08:38:00.000-04:002006-09-27T08:48:17.701-04:002006-09-27T08:48:17.701-04:00

I'm always pressed for time it seems. No matter how early I get up in the morning it seems we're always one step away from missing the bus or something gets skipped or overlooked in the getting ready for the day process. In addition it seems that no matter how much advance time I have for my projects, I always seem to come down to the wire in getting them finished. I was once, obsessively early

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-91888907589743992412006-09-25T20:11:00.000-04:002006-09-25T20:19:12.310-04:002006-09-25T20:19:12.310-04:00

Absolutely! I take back every negative thought I had about DH and his dealings with his illness. This crud has had me down for the better part of two weeks and even now, the very prospect of thinking, hurts my head. Yes, I will be turning in for the night very soon, but wanted to thank those that missed me and let you all know that I will be back soon. I've tried to participate here and there in

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-1843971363479913372006-09-14T20:25:00.000-04:002006-09-14T20:33:37.116-04:002006-09-14T20:33:37.116-04:00

This week was off to a wonderful start. Phenomenal even. I was going to actually be ahead of schedule on almost all of my projects. As it happens, life interrupted. My smooth sailing week was seriously interrupted when DH was home sick for two days. You would think that wouldn't be such a time trial, but trust me, it is a much greater disruption to my day for him to be home sick than the kids.

Andreanoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31664122.post-17345056786688440442006-09-13T12:24:00.001-04:002006-09-13T12:24:35.813-04:002006-09-13T12:24:35.813-04:00

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? I know that on occasion I find myself staring at a blank word document for hours on end, the prompt taunting me into action that rapidly gets erased only to have the blinking slash laughing at me again. It is a frustrating experience for writers, especially those of us that generally deal with tight deadlines and a need for the constant ability to come

Andreanoreply@blogger.com0