Life on Avenue Z

What keeps you from Thinking Big?

I don’t know if you heard, but I wrote a book. It’s going to be out in October, and my publisher plans a 1st run of 3,000 books. To me, this is BIG. The publisher thinks he may be able to package the book with another in their library, which means I should sell 1,500 [...]

My dirty little secret: I really don’t have 2,000 friends

Some of the biggest names on Twitter say in order to really participate on the site, you need to follow everyone who follows you. These people follow thousands and thousands of followers and deftly manage complicated lists to interact with as many as possible. And the more they interact, the more followers they get. And the [...]

Now, where were we? Ah, yes. The book.

When last we spoke, I was about to lock myself away in a condo in Palm Springs. My task: bang out an entire book on free and low-cost tools in a week. I arrived ready, with everything lined up to fly through the writing of the main part of the book. No problem, I thought. [...]

And away I go…

In about 24 hours, I’ll be loading up the car to drive to Palm Springs to crank out the book. Believe it or not, I am ready. I am prepared. I am exactly where I want to be. This weekend, I synthesized four complicated databases into one, categorized (and subcategorized) more than 200 free and [...]

How’s Your Work Environment?

Let’s talk about someone else’s drama for once, shall we? My executive suite falls between two partners in some kind of a financial business. These are two very, very angry young men without proper knowledge of their inside voices. “What the EFF? You EFFING hang up on me, your partner? You EFFING [this] and you [...]

Yet another reason to buy a cupcake

It’s just a little bit of metal, right? This gray/black whirring, whining, groaning box that holds every one of my clients’ files, my book, all my original writing, photos of my nephews… It’s not really evil, is it? Not intrinsically so, I suppose. Yet, the power it holds over me (over all of us, really) [...]

Book status update: Is the glass half full yet?

I signed the contract for Cheapskate Computing on Feb. 17, 2010, which means I’ve been working on this thing now for 34 days. It’s due May 1, which is 39 days from now. I’m now working 6-7 days a week, eliminating my social life almost completely and making my boyfriend’s life kinda miserable because I’m [...]

Lead me not into temptation

Last month the notable blog TechCrunch issued an apology to its readers: On Monday evening I received a phone call from someone I trust who told me that one of our interns had asked for compensation in exchange for a blog post. Specifically, this intern had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for [...]

Retreat! Retreat!

So, the contract is signed, and the book is begun. Holy smokes. The entire manuscript, complete with hundreds of graphics, dozens of contributions and about 200 pages, is due to the publisher May 1. That’s 54 days from today. Before I begin writing, I have to collect and organize an insane amount of data. I’ve been [...]

In Borders, do you think they might file alphabetically by first name, just this once?

Sitting in my inbox at this very moment is an email that may very well change my life. Or not. It’s a book contract, sent to me by a small publisher who approached me about writing the hard-copy version of The Cheapskate Freelancer tools and tips. He’s been a follower of this blog, that blog [...]