“LOOKING BACK” IS BEING EDITED AS I WRITE THIS
The history book, Looking Back – 1940-2005: History as seen through the eyes of those who lived it is now in the hands of the editor. This book has turned into my favorite project of all times—especially with the addition of 17 essays and 2 poems written by people who responded to my call for their personal stories.
Four subscribers to this newsletter will have their essays featured in the book. Some share memories of specific moments during the forties up to 9/11 and Katrina, while others cover a lifetime of recollections. An excellent assortment of events were covered, and some essays and poems were very touching as the writers recalled poignant moments like visiting the Vietnam wall for the first time and losing everything they owned to the wrath of Katrina. There’s one very touching story from a retired Air Force sergeant who helped in the mission to return the Vietnam POWs home in 1973.
The book will make an excellent gift for those in your families who have lived long enough to recall much of the information--especially Boomers who made history by their sheer numbers and influenced everything from education and family life to transportation and technology. They'll find much that will stir memories of their younger days growing up in America, including incredible recollections from the exciting and tumultous sixties.
I intend to make it my personal mission to see that youngsters are exposed to the book if I have to go to schools and read it to them, myself! It will certainly be more interesting to them than learning history from dry facts taught from a textbook, even if they have to put up with an old lady with a southern accent reading it aloud to them. I hope parents will share this book with their children and tell about their memories of the events that are covered in the book.
The people whose essays and poems appear in the book will, of course, get their own free copy as thanks for their generosity in sharing their thoughts with the world. To those of you who shared your memories: your contribution is tremendously appreciated. I don’t know if you realize how much enjoyment readers will get for years to come from your wonderful and heartfelt stories! You are the reason this country is so great!
Read more about Looking Back at the blogsite: http://lookingback1940-2005.blogspot.com.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
FIVE SURE-FIRE WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING
Below are 5 more ways to make money writing. All 25 projects that I’ve used to earn writing income for the past twenty-plus years appear in my book, Portable Writing, with instructions for how to produce them and how to market your skills.
News releases and press kits
Press releases pay huge dividends to business owners, so write one for your own writing business and use the published copy of it to generate new business. You’ll probably get some clients from people who saw your first published news release in your hometown newspaper. Always, always send news releases to your local or regional business newspaper, and to the business editor of the local paper.
Sometimes a client will approach you with a request for a press kit. This is simply a folder, usually personalized, that holds information on the business, including published articles, some of which you will have written.
Ghostwriting articles and books
Many business and professional people want to share specialized knowledge about their industry and they need a writer to produce an article for them. As a writer you’ll interview the expert and write the article, although you might be asked to do some research. In some cases you might be asked to write the query letter to a magazine or trade journal proposing your client’s article.
These same people will sometimes want a book published on their topic, so you could land a much bigger project. I’m just now reading, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, which shows a co-writer on the cover. It could be the name of his ghostwriter, or it may be someone who collaborated with Lee.
My husband grew up next door to the Iacocca’s and played with Lee’s younger siblings. I can guarantee that if it was me who had that kind of connection, I would have long ago made sure I had written him to let him know that I would love to be his ghostwriter. Make sure you use your connections, no matter how tenuous.
Trivia Newsletters
I’m sure you’ve noticed those little papers filled with trivia and jokes that cafes and family-style restaurants have on the tables or stacked by the checkout stand. Writers can produce these by simply typing up a sample issue that includes information on local history and tourist attractions along with some jokes and trivia. Leave plenty of room for ads, which you will sell to local businesses to pay for printing. Find out how many local eateries are willing to carry them, then get enough copies printed to distribute them to the restaurants that want them. Usually home-style cafes are more receptive to these little newsletters than finer restaurants.
Brochures
Almost every business needs a brochure to help market its products or services. Sometimes corporations need help writing a brochure, which can be multi-paged, but most businesses want a simple tri-fold. Learn to write strong, short blurbs that highlight products and services, but focus on stressing the benefits of doing business with your client.
This can be a flyer that’s folded in half or thirds with an eye-catching cover, or a well-designed multi-page brochure with great artwork on the front, but the main point of it is to get your client’s message across to people who might become your client’s customers.
Speech writing for local politicians and businesspeople
To write speeches, you’ll need to know the speaker’s style of speech. Does he speak slowly or fast? Does she pause often for effect? Is there a tendency to stumble over complex words? Get an idea of what the speaker wants to say and ask how many minutes the speech should fill.
When you finish writing, ask your client to give the speech out loud so that you can find any trouble spots and check the time, then adjust if necessary.
My speech writing and the fact that I taught classes on color usage in marketing and advertising got me an offer as campaign manager for a local politician. I turned it down because, 1) I didn’t have time and, 2) I would have felt awful if he didn’t win—like it was my fault. By the way, he didn’t win and I could sleep easily knowing it definitely wasn't my fault.
Business writing is a great way to increase your income as well as to improve your writing skills. Learning how to write succinctly while getting paid isn’t a bad way to practice and improve your skills.
All of the above projects can make money while you’re traveling if you network and promote your skills in the towns that you visit, and you can still work with clients back home. For worldwide exposure, set up a Website or Blog, or get a friend to do it for you. If the Internet isn’t possible for you, then create a professional-looking brochure that you can hand out or mail to prospective clients. Tell them what you can do, how you can do it, and how your help can increase the viability and visibility of their business. That's what they want!
Kay Kennedy is author of Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom. In it you’ll find step-by-step instructions for producing the above projects and all twenty others. Visit Kay’s Web site: www.kennedyk.com
Below are 5 more ways to make money writing. All 25 projects that I’ve used to earn writing income for the past twenty-plus years appear in my book, Portable Writing, with instructions for how to produce them and how to market your skills.
News releases and press kits
Press releases pay huge dividends to business owners, so write one for your own writing business and use the published copy of it to generate new business. You’ll probably get some clients from people who saw your first published news release in your hometown newspaper. Always, always send news releases to your local or regional business newspaper, and to the business editor of the local paper.
Sometimes a client will approach you with a request for a press kit. This is simply a folder, usually personalized, that holds information on the business, including published articles, some of which you will have written.
Ghostwriting articles and books
Many business and professional people want to share specialized knowledge about their industry and they need a writer to produce an article for them. As a writer you’ll interview the expert and write the article, although you might be asked to do some research. In some cases you might be asked to write the query letter to a magazine or trade journal proposing your client’s article.
These same people will sometimes want a book published on their topic, so you could land a much bigger project. I’m just now reading, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, which shows a co-writer on the cover. It could be the name of his ghostwriter, or it may be someone who collaborated with Lee.
My husband grew up next door to the Iacocca’s and played with Lee’s younger siblings. I can guarantee that if it was me who had that kind of connection, I would have long ago made sure I had written him to let him know that I would love to be his ghostwriter. Make sure you use your connections, no matter how tenuous.
Trivia Newsletters
I’m sure you’ve noticed those little papers filled with trivia and jokes that cafes and family-style restaurants have on the tables or stacked by the checkout stand. Writers can produce these by simply typing up a sample issue that includes information on local history and tourist attractions along with some jokes and trivia. Leave plenty of room for ads, which you will sell to local businesses to pay for printing. Find out how many local eateries are willing to carry them, then get enough copies printed to distribute them to the restaurants that want them. Usually home-style cafes are more receptive to these little newsletters than finer restaurants.
Brochures
Almost every business needs a brochure to help market its products or services. Sometimes corporations need help writing a brochure, which can be multi-paged, but most businesses want a simple tri-fold. Learn to write strong, short blurbs that highlight products and services, but focus on stressing the benefits of doing business with your client.
This can be a flyer that’s folded in half or thirds with an eye-catching cover, or a well-designed multi-page brochure with great artwork on the front, but the main point of it is to get your client’s message across to people who might become your client’s customers.
Speech writing for local politicians and businesspeople
To write speeches, you’ll need to know the speaker’s style of speech. Does he speak slowly or fast? Does she pause often for effect? Is there a tendency to stumble over complex words? Get an idea of what the speaker wants to say and ask how many minutes the speech should fill.
When you finish writing, ask your client to give the speech out loud so that you can find any trouble spots and check the time, then adjust if necessary.
My speech writing and the fact that I taught classes on color usage in marketing and advertising got me an offer as campaign manager for a local politician. I turned it down because, 1) I didn’t have time and, 2) I would have felt awful if he didn’t win—like it was my fault. By the way, he didn’t win and I could sleep easily knowing it definitely wasn't my fault.
Business writing is a great way to increase your income as well as to improve your writing skills. Learning how to write succinctly while getting paid isn’t a bad way to practice and improve your skills.
All of the above projects can make money while you’re traveling if you network and promote your skills in the towns that you visit, and you can still work with clients back home. For worldwide exposure, set up a Website or Blog, or get a friend to do it for you. If the Internet isn’t possible for you, then create a professional-looking brochure that you can hand out or mail to prospective clients. Tell them what you can do, how you can do it, and how your help can increase the viability and visibility of their business. That's what they want!
Kay Kennedy is author of Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom. In it you’ll find step-by-step instructions for producing the above projects and all twenty others. Visit Kay’s Web site: www.kennedyk.com
THE RISING COST OF FUEL - WHEN WILL IT STOP?
Yikes! RVers--what's happening to gas prices? Can we control the costs? Another question popping up among environmentally sensitive citizens is: Is it possible to "go green" and still RV?
Most RVers are being affected by gas prices, although you won’t find that information in RV magazines. They’re in business to promote RVing–especially to attract young, new buyers into the market–and negative thoughts about the cost of traveling aren’t usually expressed within their pages. In fact, almost all of the RV magazines (Escapees magazine is the one exception I’ve found) focus on the younger crowd who still have two incomes and take their kids out for weekends with their off-road vehicles.
I don’t think these “good news” RV groups and magazines are in touch, anymore, with retirees who find it a little more difficult to keep up with rising prices, or with people who are chucking the rat race and choosing a nomadic lifestyle on the road in their RVs. Some members of these two groups have to budget to maintain their lifestyles!
However, all is not doom and gloom for RV owners on a budget! We’re still traveling. We’re just choosing to stay put in one spot longer, and not travel from one end of the country to the other, then back within a six-month period. I can remember the days not long ago when gas was only a buck a gallon, and friends traveled completely around the perimeter of the United States on one long trip. However, they didn’t travel at all this fall, even though they usually make it down to Yuma for a couple of months or more each winter.
If saving on gas by traveling less is out of the question for you, maybe you would like to know what our family does to save money. Well, one way is by keeping our food costs down. We don’t buy more than we’ll eat in a reasonable amount of time. We buy what we need, use it, then buy more. We don’t have that much storage space in our RV to carry a huge surplus. We buy at farmer’s markets so we can get the freshest vegetables and fruits possible, and we buy what is in season. Sure it costs more, but we don’t have to buy more than we need at farmer’s markets. If we want one orange, we don’t have to purchase an entire bag full.
We time our travels with the seasons so we don’t ever need heavy, winter clothes. We don’t have room to store those, either, and they’re more expensive to buy than the lightweight, year-round clothes we need. A couple of sweatshirts and jackets for chilly nights and rare, cool days suffice. Following the seasons also helps keep heating and cooling costs down.
We can work camp where we’re staying if we’re so inclined. I’m not! I have enough to do with my writing career, but right now my husband works 2 days a week in the camp store. No commute costs, they furnish his shirts, and it’s just enough time to keep him out of my hair for a few hours.
Bonus: The job pays for our site! We make it okay, and we can travel when, and if we choose! Gas may keep going up, but we’ll figure it out because this is such a good life!!!
There are many ways RVers can cut costs, and still get to see the country in style. Don’t let the new, ”green” movement scare you off. The movement isn’t new to most of us–we’ve been environmentalists all along. RVers who have been at this for a few years can tell you that we consume less energy than most homebound Americans.
Few of us travel further than 6000 miles a year, and many of us travel far less than that. We make short trips to change the scenery and the climate. Stack that up against your neighbor’s big SUV, which doesn’t get any better gas mileage than an RV, but is driven daily for the commute to work, and on weekends for leisure pursuits. That is a waste of fuel! Most RVers (not all, I’ll admit) tow small, economical cars behind their RVs for local travel to sightsee, shop for groceries, and for other errands. Most RVers also use bicycles for short trips, which don’t use any fuel.
Many of us use solar power–which saves energy usage. Solar power is free once you’ve set up your system. Most RVers that we know believe in preserving the environment, because they enjoy its beauty. Most are very careful to avoid using excess water, and are cautious when disposing of waste water. And most RV parks have recycling bins for paper products and aluminum cans.
Some RVers go to extremes to avoid leaving their footprint on the environment, but even those who live a normal life within the confines of their RV manage to conserve energy when compared to a large home.
So go green! Go RVing. Figure out the best way for you to save money and the environment while seeing the USA. Do your part to protect our wonderful vistas by volunteering to pick up litter along highways, or in the park where you choose to stay. You can be tree-hugger (I’ve been accused of being one) and still enjoy the lifestyle and freedom that an RV offers. Believe me, you’ll enjoy the ride!
Gas prices aren’t likely to drop, or if they do, it will only be by a few cents for a short period. Think you can’t afford to travel? You can’t afford to be held hostage by high gas prices if you’ve always dreamed of someday RVing. Sacrifice where you can to find the money to buy gas, and seek out ways to economize so you don’t jeopardize your freedom–or the environment.
Yikes! RVers--what's happening to gas prices? Can we control the costs? Another question popping up among environmentally sensitive citizens is: Is it possible to "go green" and still RV?
Most RVers are being affected by gas prices, although you won’t find that information in RV magazines. They’re in business to promote RVing–especially to attract young, new buyers into the market–and negative thoughts about the cost of traveling aren’t usually expressed within their pages. In fact, almost all of the RV magazines (Escapees magazine is the one exception I’ve found) focus on the younger crowd who still have two incomes and take their kids out for weekends with their off-road vehicles.
I don’t think these “good news” RV groups and magazines are in touch, anymore, with retirees who find it a little more difficult to keep up with rising prices, or with people who are chucking the rat race and choosing a nomadic lifestyle on the road in their RVs. Some members of these two groups have to budget to maintain their lifestyles!
However, all is not doom and gloom for RV owners on a budget! We’re still traveling. We’re just choosing to stay put in one spot longer, and not travel from one end of the country to the other, then back within a six-month period. I can remember the days not long ago when gas was only a buck a gallon, and friends traveled completely around the perimeter of the United States on one long trip. However, they didn’t travel at all this fall, even though they usually make it down to Yuma for a couple of months or more each winter.
If saving on gas by traveling less is out of the question for you, maybe you would like to know what our family does to save money. Well, one way is by keeping our food costs down. We don’t buy more than we’ll eat in a reasonable amount of time. We buy what we need, use it, then buy more. We don’t have that much storage space in our RV to carry a huge surplus. We buy at farmer’s markets so we can get the freshest vegetables and fruits possible, and we buy what is in season. Sure it costs more, but we don’t have to buy more than we need at farmer’s markets. If we want one orange, we don’t have to purchase an entire bag full.
We time our travels with the seasons so we don’t ever need heavy, winter clothes. We don’t have room to store those, either, and they’re more expensive to buy than the lightweight, year-round clothes we need. A couple of sweatshirts and jackets for chilly nights and rare, cool days suffice. Following the seasons also helps keep heating and cooling costs down.
We can work camp where we’re staying if we’re so inclined. I’m not! I have enough to do with my writing career, but right now my husband works 2 days a week in the camp store. No commute costs, they furnish his shirts, and it’s just enough time to keep him out of my hair for a few hours.
Bonus: The job pays for our site! We make it okay, and we can travel when, and if we choose! Gas may keep going up, but we’ll figure it out because this is such a good life!!!
There are many ways RVers can cut costs, and still get to see the country in style. Don’t let the new, ”green” movement scare you off. The movement isn’t new to most of us–we’ve been environmentalists all along. RVers who have been at this for a few years can tell you that we consume less energy than most homebound Americans.
Few of us travel further than 6000 miles a year, and many of us travel far less than that. We make short trips to change the scenery and the climate. Stack that up against your neighbor’s big SUV, which doesn’t get any better gas mileage than an RV, but is driven daily for the commute to work, and on weekends for leisure pursuits. That is a waste of fuel! Most RVers (not all, I’ll admit) tow small, economical cars behind their RVs for local travel to sightsee, shop for groceries, and for other errands. Most RVers also use bicycles for short trips, which don’t use any fuel.
Many of us use solar power–which saves energy usage. Solar power is free once you’ve set up your system. Most RVers that we know believe in preserving the environment, because they enjoy its beauty. Most are very careful to avoid using excess water, and are cautious when disposing of waste water. And most RV parks have recycling bins for paper products and aluminum cans.
Some RVers go to extremes to avoid leaving their footprint on the environment, but even those who live a normal life within the confines of their RV manage to conserve energy when compared to a large home.
So go green! Go RVing. Figure out the best way for you to save money and the environment while seeing the USA. Do your part to protect our wonderful vistas by volunteering to pick up litter along highways, or in the park where you choose to stay. You can be tree-hugger (I’ve been accused of being one) and still enjoy the lifestyle and freedom that an RV offers. Believe me, you’ll enjoy the ride!
Gas prices aren’t likely to drop, or if they do, it will only be by a few cents for a short period. Think you can’t afford to travel? You can’t afford to be held hostage by high gas prices if you’ve always dreamed of someday RVing. Sacrifice where you can to find the money to buy gas, and seek out ways to economize so you don’t jeopardize your freedom–or the environment.
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