Missing you this Christmas… December 19, 2008
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Thought I’ve received a few, I regret that I haven’t sent Christmas cards this year. I don’t bake or go caroling, but for a number of years now I’ve reserved the Christmas cards for some special people in my life – mostly from my past.
Each year, the first in the box has been to my High School Chorus teacher, Doris Williamson. She was that teacher who’d believed in me more than I had in myself. She thought more of me then than I did of myself. She called me last January to check in – probably to say goodbye. In March, Mrs. Williamson lost her battle with Cancer. I’d like to send off a card to her husband, Richard, in keeping with the tradition by letting him know I’m thinking of her this holiday and I have so often through the year. I’d like for him to know how much she influenced me, and that I know how much she cared for me.
I pause a lot to think of those we’ve lost over the past year and in recent years. The people who do what they do because it’s in their nature, the Doris Williamsons, the Sensei Kris Rosenthals. These people probably didn’t know what influence they’d had over someone’s life. They just were who they were. Thank God for ‘em.
More and more, I turn to thinking of soldiers this season, too, and of their families who miss them. I wonder whether there can be any punishment worse than being away from your family. Does it get any worse than losing someone you love – to war?
I am grateful this year, as always, for my family and friends. Though the wallet’s empty, I know my family will celebrate together – that’s as lucky as anyone could hope to be.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
The Goose is getting Fat… November 22, 2008
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Thought I’d start getting ready for Christmas already, if that’s not too offensive to anyone – and, by the way, even if it is. I can’t beat the oncoming rush, so I’d better join it.
To anyone checking this out by way of ELANCE.com: Welcome! (The rest of you are certainly welcome, too.) I encourage you to take a look around, see whether or not I’m your type of writer. This is what I do, occasionally, and though my style here is a bit more casual than I’m inclined to be when introducing myself to a prospective buyer, it is real. This is me. Hi. Good news is: I clean up nice: I don’t use IM speak, and I try not to split my infinitives.
I’m so busy trying to pick up all this freelance work, though, that I’ve neglected my poor baby Blog. I haven’t dabbled (babbled?) here in about a month, and even that was half-assed. I wish I could fix that, and there’s no promise of freedom from that in the near future. The almightly dollar will have to play first string, I’m afraid. Even my critique group has suffered one Sunday a month.
When I’m not trying to make a quick buck, I’ve been overwhelmed with laundry, fluffernutter sandwiches for the kids, tug with Maggie, and reminders of Christmas – which leads me back to trying to make a quick buck. My husband’s government job isn’t much for overtime.
I leave you with this thought:
Fluffernutter.
33 days and counting...
New Project: Yay! October 25, 2008
Posted by melissalobianco in Uncatagorized.Tags: brainstorming, guide book, non-fiction, Writing
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Alright, now. I know it’s been FOREVER since I’ve last posted. I mistakenly thought that once the kids went to school I’d have more time to spend blogging and working and otherwise writing. NOT TRUE, says I. I was WAAAAAAAYYYY off on that assumption. I’ve worked, but more of it has been 1) of the research kind - the smoke and mirrors of writing that no one sees – and 2) of the brainstorming kind – the kind that no one cares about. I’ve always been prone to this sort of verbally loose kind of thinking, you know, where something comes in to your head and you have to get it out before it spends too much time bouncing around. If I’d spend more time writing it down and less time discussing it, analyzing it: maybe I’d be published by now!
But alas, I’ve come up with a new project and I’m going in headlong. I don’t want to journalize too much about the actual meat and potatoes of it for obvious reasons, but I would like to take time to work out my approach to it here, on this blog. Going through it one step at a time here, cliche though it may be, would probably serve me well. If nothing else, I will be able to see at any given point where this idea/plan I have will have succeeded or where it will have taken a turn for the doomed.
For now, I’m off to research my new idea. It will be a guide of sorts, a bit niche-y, an idiot-proof tool for a certain brand of consumers underserved to the particular area I will be approaching. I have a professional and educational background useful in this endeavor, and a unique understanding of the line at which the layman and the experienced professional part ways on the subject matter: beaurocracy seems to preclude the layman from crossing it. My job will be to smooth out the translation for the layman, and to make him confident enough to cross the line.
I’m working out the format and the full scope of the information that needs to be covered. I’ve begun my research, begun to gather relevent website references for inclusion in the ms, and begun visualizing my first signing.
A girl can dream.
So, off I go to work. Wish me luck!
