GETTING BOOKS PRINTED IF YOU PLAN TO SELF-PUBLISH

I’ve heard about Morris Cookbooks for years and had heard that they also print regular books, so I finally decided to order their kit to see exactly what is offered in the way of cookbook printing. I received three examples of their cookbooks (complete cookbooks, but all the same recipes) that include a padded notebook, padded hardcover that’s plastic spiral-bound, and laminated soft cover that is spiral bound. They are lovely. The cost for the soft cover is only a little over $2.00 per unit, and the notebook edition costs a little over $5.00 for each copy and includes a holder that you can stand on a countertop to hold it upright. Their work is extremely nice, as are the layouts of the books and the artwork. They furnish everything for the price, but you can make changes for an upgrade in price.

They provide a CD that has all the information on it as well as a step-by-step book that displays their covers, page designs, etc. in color.

The only downside I could find during my quick read through their how-to-book was that they put their copyright on it UNLESS you provide your own artwork, do your own setup and send it in camera-ready. Also, I don’t think it is a “print-on-demand” company, meaning they can’t print small runs immediately. Minimum order is 200 copies.

When I had 25 copies of a self-published cookbook printed four years ago, it cost about $5 per copy for a cover of card stock and a plastic comb binding. Then I had to go back and get 25 more printed! I did them simply as Christmas gifts for friends and family, but found there was a demand for them from others who saw them. So my total cost was about $250. I could have had 200 copies of the same book, better looking, for less than $500.

Morris is a viable source for printing that cookbook you’ve been thinking about writing and if you want to get their publishing kit to see exactly what they offer, you can order it for free from their website: www.Morriscookbooks.com. They’re set up to print for non-profit organizations, but they also do family and individual cookbooks.

I know there are plenty of printing companies that self-publishers use that have “print-on-demand” capabilities. I don’t know anything about the prices they charge, though, or even the names. The best way to find out about them is to network with other writers and ask those who have self-published who they use. I’ll write more about self-publishing as I learn more.

If you are thinking about doing a self-published cookbook or regular book, Morris should definitely be contacted for pricing before you choose a printer. The quality of books they send in their kit is exceptional.

NOTE: You should always check several sources of printing for pricing and offerings. I have never personally used Morris for a self-published book, so can’t recommend them based on personal experience.

GREEN RVING? YES IT IS POSSIBLE!

I know some of you are wondering, what is up with anyone who believes it’s possible to be a green RVer? Is she crazy?

No, I’m not (officially), and yes it is possible to be a nomad and still demonstrate concern for the environment. In fact as a group, we RVers are much more conscious of our natural world because we spend so much time in it. We appreciate the splendor that we see unfold beyond our windows as we travel, and many of us love to walk among newly fallen leaves, or take a hike when the leaves are just beginning to bud in the spring. Some of us even appreciate a fresh blanket of snow and frigid temperatures that nip at our noses. We tend to spend a lot of time outdoors enjoying nature’s beauty.

Few stick-house dwellers ever spend time just enjoying what nature has to offer unless it is during their too-short vacations. They’re too busy earning a living to pay for their homes, cars, and the kid’s piano, soccer, tennis, and cheerleading lessons, and then rushing them back and forth between home, work and classes/practice.While they may live in a gorgeous region of the country with beautiful mountains as a backdrop to their lovely homes, most don’t get much time to relish the view. I’d venture to say that most are just biding their time in unfulfilling jobs until retirement, when they plan to sit on the porch and suck in the view while they suck up cocktails. Some are even waiting for the day they can hit the road in their own RV.

Still, many of them are hesitant to dream of a life on the road because they think RVs waste fuel and pollute the air. They don’t want to be accused of contributing to the destruction of the environment. Frankly, I get r-e-a-l-l-y cranky when ALL RVers are accused of being polluting, fuel-wasting gas or diesel hogs. Sure, some can be accused of being mega-polluters, but so can everyone who drives a big SUV.

To those who accuse all RVers of being guilty of harming the environment, I want to ask, “What have you done for the environment lately?” Do you keep your thermostat turned up to eighty in the summertime and down to 68 during the winter? Do you turn it off at bedtime? Do you use solar panels or wind power to heat and cool your home? Many RVers do one or all of the above.

How big is your home? If it’s the average-sized house, do you know how much energy it takes to heat it as compared to a 300-400 square-foot RV? Lots more, I can promise. Plus RVers are prone to head to sunnier climes if the weather gets cold and rainy, cutting heating costs even more. The same goes for when it gets steamy and hot. We usually rush to cooler locations to spend the dog days of summer. And as a group, we tend to leave the windows open to capture fresh breezes.

Do you know how much water you use when you take a shower? RVers do. We have small fresh water and holding tanks, and even tinier water heaters. We know not to stay in the shower one minute longer than necessary!

Do you help clean up the environment by picking up litter alongside your community’s roadsides? In many RV parks, you’ll find days set aside for just that duty. Even if there’s no special day, a lot of active RVers (meaning those young and flexible enough to hike and bend over, then manage to get back up without help, and those strong enough to tote heavy garbage bags) organize groups or go out on their own to pick up trash along highways.

How many loads of laundry do you wash and dry each day? RVers have to travel light, so many own lightweight clothes that they can hand wash and hang in the shower overnight to dry. Few of us enjoy spending $2.00 or more per load at the Laundromat, so we wait until we have a FULL load before heading over to drop our quarters into bottomless slot machines that never pay out. Somehow, a clean load of laundry doesn’t have quite the same impact as a big, noisy payout on a slot machine!

What about the magazines and books you read? Do you go to the library to read magazines and check out books, or do you recycle your reading material by passing it on to someone else? Most RV parks have a place where guests can leave magazines and books they’ve finished reading, and pick up more that they haven’t read. This exchange shelf keeps our minds sharp by offering reading material that is sometimes not found at local newsstands, plus we get to recycle our onboard libraries.

Does every home in your neighborhood have an under-used swimming pool? Think of all the water that is wasted, the chemicals that are released into the environment, and if the pools are heated—well!!! We RVers usually find a nice, clean pool in the parks where we stay and can all swim or play to our heart’s content. And it only takes one set of chemicals to keep it fresh and clean.

What about the cleaning chemicals you use for your home? Again, RVers don’t have much storage space, so most learn to exist with only a couple of cleaning agents. Some even make our own cleaning solutions from natural products that we already have on hand—like vinegar and baking soda.

I don’t want this to sound critical of home owners. Certainly, I don’t mean to come across that way. Anyone anywhere can conserve energy and live a more “green” lifestyle, whether in a home, motorhome, or teepee. I know many house dwellers that go out of their way to help the environment, and I know some RVers who think nothing of littering, polluting, and otherwise damaging our atmosphere.

We RVers sometimes face rude comments when we pull into gas stations, especially when a vehicle pulls in just in time to see the total amount of gallons we’ve bought. However, they don’t realize that this may be a one-time fill-up before we park for several months.

Yes, RVs notoriously squander gas like it was flowing freely out of a gushing spring. However, the average RV is on the road for fewer than 6000 miles per year. People drive them for their vacation trip, or full-timers travel back and forth between a couple of favored spots. Neither of these types of RVers put a lot of miles on their rig. Very few of us drive our RVs daily! Who can afford to? And if you’ve ever driven a big rig, you know it’s not an experience most people would relish doing every day.

Sheer economics force RVers to conserve energy and travel fewer miles than if we had daily commutes to jobs, and limited storage space forces most of us to travel light and lean.

Some Americans have been environmentally aware for years, and others are now joining the movement, what with the new data on global climate change. It is possible to travel and enjoy your RV lifestyle and still keep your journey and home on the road “green.” It takes planning—just like at home—but it’s worth the effort if it helps protect our environment. When it comes down to it, it’s the only one we’ve got!

“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.

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

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.

Showy Snow

I just realized that I haven't posted any photos to the blog in quite a while. Well, here's one that shows why we love this part of Arizona--any time of the year.

Sun on fresh-fallen snow is delightful anytime and anywhere, but when it's on the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, there's nothing else like it! We always drive over when there's new snow simply to marvel at the surroundings and snap a few photos like this one. But there's no way to capture all the majesty and glorious beauty of even this limited view of God's masterpiece within the frame of a snapshot. This is one of the scenic spots in our country that everyone should see at least one time.

Now if I could only paint a picture like this ...

FULLTIME RVERS – WARNING ABOUT NEW LAW!

I just discovered information at RV Travel's Web site about a new law that was passed in 2005 that might have an impact on fulltime RVers. The Real ID Act was hidden in another act, which apparently was one of those things tacked onto another law to slip it through the system. It may pose a problem for those of us who don’t have an actual home, but who use a mail-forwarding address and don’t spend much, if any, time there.

The new law mandates that all states provide verification of identity when renewing a driver’s license or state-issued I.D. card. The problem appears crop up when renewing our driver’s licenses: we’ll need to be there in person to verify our identity. The law also mandates that we show proof of our principle residence address, which of course, fulltimer’s don’t normally have. We're driving our homes! To prove your residential address, you are usually required to provide a rent receipt or a copy of a utility bill.

We wanted to get a library card when we stayed in our home address area in Texas for a few months, and the library accepted a rent receipt from the RV park where we were staying. But it is unclear if states will accept this tenuous record as proof of our residence, especially if it doesn’t match the address on your license or I.D. card. Probably Escapees Club will provide something to prove our residence—but I’m not sure they have done anything about this yet. They do have a legal defense fund that members can contribute to that lobbies for RVers.

The verification process is supposed to begin in 2008, but it looks like states can extend the deadline to December, 2009, and many states have already said they’re not about to go along with the federal law. I think the states that have lots of RVers will probably fight this if it isn’t too late, because that’s usually what happens when their honest, taxpaying RVing residents are having their lifestyles (and sometimes livelihoods) threatened.


The problems that may occur if this law isn’t complied with is that we may not be able to board a plane or enter a federal facility. I’m not sure what that would mean for those of us who are retired military and have military I.D. cards. Maybe we won’t be able to renew those, either.

It will be interesting to see what happens when this law goes into effect. If you’re concerned, visit the National Conference of State Legislators Website to learn more.

SHOULD YOU MAKE YOUR BOOK AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK?

Yes, yes, yes! Especially if it is a non-fiction book! So many more of my books have sold as e-books than as hard copies! I was skeptical at first, but I’m positive I wouldn’t have sold as many books if I hadn’t offered it in e-book form, which is priced a few dollars lower than the hard copy.

Many people (like we RVers) don’t have space to store reference books like Portable Writing that we’ll want to refer back to often. Storing it on a CD or in our computers makes it much more accessible and doesn’t take as much room as a book. If you’re self-publishing, you can offer your book on a CD or as an ebook download, but make sure to learn how to protect your work from being copied and distributed by an unethical, opportunistic buyer looking for just such an opportunity to make money.

What if you do find your work being distributed illegally? Usually a letter to the perpetrator will scare them into stopping, and you may convince them to pay you the profits they’ve made (yeah, right!) I would have a lawyer write a letter to the guilty party, which will make it appear more official and maybe convince the perp that you are willing to pursue him or her through legal channels. It’s amazing how quickly an official looking letter can scare some people straight.

Should you take it further and file suit if you find your work being used illegally? That would depend on how widely it has been distributed and how willing you are to push it. It is expensive to pursue legal avenues, so I would want to be sure I would recover what I’d lost.

OFFERING FREE CONTENT FROM YOUR BOOK ON THE WEB

If you are trying to sell your book, why would you want to give part of it away free on the Internet? There’s one good reason. Before people buy your book, they want to know if it has anything interesting in it, and if your writing is enjoyable. In bookstores, potential buyers can pick up your book and browse through it, maybe read some of it before they buy. If they’re buying through the mail or over the Internet, they have no idea what the book is like if they don’t get a chance to hold it in their hands and at least read the information printed on the cover.

To sell more books, put a copy of one chapter of your book on your Web site to attract customers. Or at least, put a photo of the cover and include the Table of Contents and some information about what they’ll find inside.

Buyers can read two chapters of my book Portable Writing, which appears at: http://www.booklocker.com/books/2461.html. I don’t know how many books have sold because buyers could read an excerpt, but I suspect most of them have sold because readers got to preview it before shelling out hard-earned cash.

WEB SITES FOR WRITERS

The following are resources that might be useful to writers. The following Web sites were all checked by me, and I include comments about what I found there.

www.fundsforwriters.com

This site is loaded with links to sites where writers can find grants, contests, and fellowships, BUT you must pay for what you get. I copied the following from their Web site

TOTAL FundsforWriters - Our biggest and best newsletter
Writers claim it's the best investment they've ever made in their freelance careers. $12 a year for 26 biweekly issues containing 90+ grants, competitions, markets, jobs, publishers and agents seeking your work and all paying $350 or 20cents/ word and up.
I have not subscribed to the newsletter, so can’t comment on its usefulness. If any readers have a subscription, we’d all love to know if it is worth the price.

www.constant-comment.com

I went to this site expecting to find them buying writing on any topic, which would then be placed on their site. However, it is not up and running yet. I have no idea whether it has been up in the past, but it was listed in Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers.”
I will check back with this site after my book is finished, and hope to find that the information I found in Writer’s Digest is correct, which states that writers name their price for their work and place it on this site. Then, those in need of written material browse the site and pay for articles, etc. that they want to use. You are charged 35 percent commission on any work of yours that they sell, but it doesn’t cost anything to place your work on their site. And you get to keep 65 percent. It sounds good—almost too good to be true. That’s why I’ll check it again so I can let you know if it’s as good as it sounds—or you can check it out for yourselves.

www.literarylawguide.com/resources.htm

I was hoping to quote the first line of lyrics to a song that was popular during the sixties in my book, so I went here to find out how to go about getting permission, or find out if using this line would violate copyright law. I didn’t learn what I needed to know (darn!), but I found some articles on various subjects that might be helpful to some of you (and me, maybe).

I did find out that celebrities (like the ones who wrote the song lyrics I’m interested in) will often sue anyone who uses their name or likeness for financial gain. Since I was hoping to quote those lyrics and name their creators in the next to the last chapter of my book, I didn’t think using their names would attract more buyers for the book since I wouldn’t be using their name in advertisements, but these celebrities might think otherwise. I had thought their words might just provide a frame of reference for readers to the times I had written about.

I finally went to a quote Web site and found something that would work. Check out the above website to find out if it has answers to questions you might have. There may be much more to the site than I discovered during my two minute cruise through it.

www.writerswrite.com

The above Web site contains good sources of information on self-publishing.

The magazine: Writer’s Digest

If you want to find the complete list of “101 Best Web sites for Writers,” it’s available in the June, 2007 issue of Writer’s Digest. I would recommend that you get a subscription to Writer’s Digest since every issue has something useful for writers. On the Web, www.writersdigest.com/newsletter for a free e-newsletter, or buy the current issue and subscribe with one of the enclosed cards.

Almost everything I learned at first about writing came out of several years’ of back issues of Writer’s Digest that I read at the public library.

LOOKING BACK 1940-2005
History as seen through the eyes of those who lived it

The book I'm writing on history, with contributions from several other writers, is coming along great. Several essays have already been sent in for Looking Back, but if you want to contribute something check the Web site: www.kennedyk.com, then contact me for guidelines.

History was the most boring subject I studied in school because I couldn’t understand how it related to me. I hadn’t been to any of the places history books spoke about, and memorizing dates and place names was meaningless to me.

Then I realized one day that I and my generation had lived through some of the most exciting, and at times appalling and frightening events in history. I’ve also come to realize that the one element missing in all history and civics lessons is personal accounts by people who had actually witnessed past historic moments.

It’s no secret that history is even less important to today’s students, perhaps because it’s still taught as a boring, lifeless record of the past.

That’s why I’ve gathered a group of writers and extraordinary citizens to help recount their memories of pivotal moments during the past sixty-five years along with their personal views on what happened. They and I were there, and we sometimes suffered anxiety over events like the assassinations, wars, politics, and civil unrest that, at times, threatened our democracy. We also shared moments of sheer joy as we watched the first man walk on the moon. We watched (and some of us participated) as the counter-culture rocked our safe, orderly existence, and then on 9/11, we were shattered by an attack that revealed our nation’s weaknesses and vulnerability.

History is not boring. It is exciting! We Americans are in danger of forgetting our past if we don’t all take responsibility for teaching our children about our wonderful history and our shared heritage of courage.

This book will be an important contribution to the collection of historical documents because it will be told from a personal perspective, emphasizing human emotions and consequences for every historic moment that we’ve survived. I hope everyone will buy a copy and share it with your children, grandchildren, and schools.

TODAY'S ARTICLES

• Make money writing with these five projects
• Internet hasn't been cooperating with me
• Subscriber gets first writing assignment
• History book in the works; now has a name
• Work-camping to earn extra money--great for your traveling partner while you pursue ypur writing goals.

FIVE WRITING PROJECTS THAT MAKE MONEY
By Kay Kennedy

This month, I decided to write about some of the ways you can make money as a writer. This information also appeared in February as a guest column in RV Lifestyles titled: Ten ways to make money while you roam, (http://www.rvhometown.com.)

If you’ve read the book, Portable Writing, then you already know about these methods of making money from writing. However, I’ve found that sometimes it takes reading something more than once for it to register. So below are five of the twenty-five projects I’ve produced that built my writing business and sustained it.

I was like most writers when I started out. I wanted to become a published writer and believed that nothing else would give me the credibility or confidence that I desired. So I got an article published, then a few more. Then a funny thing happened. First one business owner friend, then another asked me to write for their businesses. Why not, I wondered? Writing is writing, and business people in the late eighties were offering to pay $50.00 per hour, which was more for my time than I had been earning from magazine and newspaper articles. And I was being paid for research time as well as for writing.

I can’t even remember the first business assignment I received, but it was probably a ghost-written article for a magazine or a news release. Those first assignments led to more varied projects, plus as other business and corporate managers learned about me, business increased. Soon I had dozens of clients that wanted everything from brochures to newsletters for their businesses.

I once even had to use material written in German to research an article for a client. I don’t read or speak German, but I studied the photos and made out some words that were similar to English words. I was able to basically understand what the information was about. I then took the materials to my German aerobics instructor to see if she could help. She had been in the U.S. so long she had forgotten her native language, but she did figure out a few things that I couldn’t. I wrote the article, and my client was able to get it published. Not only that, she got a regular assignment from that article, which meant a regular assignment for me. Not bad for having to bluff it!

Don’t discount commercial writing because you don’t think you’ll like it. It can be as varied and interesting as writing articles for publication because that’s what you’ll find yourself often doing—producing ghost-written articles for publication. You’ll be supplied with the notes and research sources, so all you have to do is read, take notes, and write. It really pays much better than writing for most publications. Try it, you’ll like it.

Below are five different projects I produced that made lots of money, and that I enjoyed tremendously. Get a desktop publishing program and scanner and learn how to use them for an even more interesting writing career. Be sure to study books on desktop publishing that show good examples of the types of publications you want to produce so you can learn what looks good on paper.

The business of writing has made me happier than I’ve ever been in my life. It wasn’t what I planned, although I had always dreamed of doing it. Why I wasted the first twenty-five years or so in another career is beyond comprehension now. Writing is the ultimate career, the highest high. Being able to travel while I write is the greatest lifestyle I can imagine. I hope you can all come to understand and enjoy this rare pleasure.

As I write this, there are two other writers that I’m aware of staying in the same RV park we are. Both of them travel and write.

Five more money-making writing projects will appear in next month’s newsletter.

1. Business & corporate newsletters

Very often, business owners and corporations will want to send newsletters to their customers. Sometimes all they want is a one-page typed message, other times they want a nice 4-page publication with photos.

Corporations most often are looking for someone to produce articles on specific subjects, but sometimes they want a project manager who will design, write, layout the pages and get the newsletter printed. You can pick which types of projects you want to do, then approach business people and corporation communications department heads and let them know what you can do.

I worked with corporations and small businesses doing whatever was needed because I enjoyed both writing and design duties.

2. Subscription newsletters

You may have a great idea for a newsletter that you want to write, produce and send to subscribers. While many newsletters are now sent through the Internet, there’s still a strong market for traditional publications that people can hold in their hands and read at their leisure. This is especially true among older readers. Or you might create a newsletter that can be sent both via email and in traditional paper format.

Come up with a great idea, purchase a targeted mailing list and send subscription information to them. Ideas for what might appeal to readers can include: bird watching, with photos and information about birds you’ve spotted and where you’ve found them; good books you’ve read in a specific genre (for instance, romance novels, biographies, inspirational stories, spiritual books.) Your reviews will interest readers if you write well about your subject and present it in an interesting format.

3. Specialized Business Newsletters

Many businesses purchase generic newsletters to pass out to customers. You can write and produce this type of newsletter, then market copies to the businesses they cover. For instance, real estate agents often hand out newsletters that feature articles like: decorating and gardening tips, creating curb appeal and staging your home for sale. Accountants pass out newsletters that focus on items of interest for their clients, such as tax tips, year-end money-saving ideas and small business advice.

How do you get information to use in your newsletter? Ask professionals in the business to give you ideas, and then research the information. Or you can ask a business owner to supply you with the information you need with the promise that you’ll give them a certain number of free newsletters to give to their customers.

4. Advertising newsletters

I’m sure you’ve been into stores and picked up publications that are free. They’re full of advertising, but they also hold a few articles of interest to customers. For instance, a garden shop or landscaping business will give out newsletters with gardening tips. A grocery store might offer one featuring articles about selecting grocery products with maybe a couple of recipes.

You can work up a dummy publication featuring gardening articles, then approach garden and related businesses and ask them to buy advertising in it and to stock them for distribution. You’ll have to decide up front how much space to devote to advertising and how much to content. Usually, a split of 80 percent advertising and 20 percent editorial content is sufficient to get readers’ to pick the piece up.


5. Write weekly ad-columns for businesses

This was one of my favorite projects to produce because I started with interior decorating—a subject I already knew well. I produced a sales letter with a sample column and information that stressed the column’s exclusivity. The person who ordered first from any specific area had exclusive rights to use the columns, but they could put them in only one newspaper and had to provide me with the name and location of the paper. I then mailed out thirteen columns that I had written for them to use under their names.

My customers purchased advertising space in the newspaper for a quarter of the year. The columns usually appeared with a border, and at the top they would put their “byline” and photo and at the bottom they would include their business name and address. Their readers usually didn’t realize they were paid advertising although the information was subtle advertising for what they could do. There are many other professionals besides interior designers who use these columns regularly, including jewelers, veterinarians, chiropractors, real estate agents and others. If you’re already familiar with an industry, write some columns on the subject and start approaching local business owners.


The newsletter projects may sound like they’re all the same, but they are definitely not! Every newsletter design is different, as is the content. In some instances you’ll come up with the content, in others it will be supplied to you. They are all marketed differently, too. Study the ideas and see if you can create your own marketing concepts to sell your idea for a corporate or business newsletter and weekly business column, or for the subscription or generic newsletter you’ve created. Read Portable Writing to learn how I marketed these projects.

Portable Writing is available by going to: http://freelancewriter.booklocker.com/ to read a 2-chapter excerpt and/or to order the book. It’s available in paperback and as a downloadable e-book.

Internet fails to cooperate

While you’ve been wondering where this issue of the newsletter is (I’m probably dreaming here, but you have been anxiously awaiting it, haven’t you?) I’ve been having lots of problems getting online. We’re staying the same place as last year, but this year little gremlins seem to have stolen our Internet signal. What used to take minutes now takes hours to achieve. So I apologize for sending this so late this month.

What’s disturbing is that I’m also completing research for my book on history, and my connections to the Internet move at glacial speed. I find that by the time I finally bring up a page I requested, I’ve forgotten what it was I needed. This could be attributed to advancing age, but I prefer to believe that no one can remember details for as long as these connections require. Yep, that’s what it is! I’m sure that’s it.

Subscriber has first writing success

One of Portable Writing Newsletter's subscribers has just been offered a twice-monthly column in a Southwest Texas newspaper. He has also approached his first national magazine with a query letter proposing an article, and as part of his creative writing class at Sul Ross University, his manuscript of a research/interview piece is being submitted to Oprah Magazine. In addition, his essay will be published in my upcoming history book.

A former Prosecutor for the Buffalo New York Adult Drug Treatment Court and an ordained minister, Rev. Barry Zavah has been inspired to spread his creative wings while taking the creative writing class while he's in the Big Bend area of Texas for the winter.

For those of you wanting to get published, take a class, meet with other writers (published or not), or read an encouraging book on getting published. Whatever it takes to get you inspired to jump into the writing arena--do it today. You'll be glad you did!

History book progresses

The history book I’m writing now has a title. It is: “Looking Back 1940-2005: History as seen through the eyes of those who lived it.” There’s still time to submit your essay if you want your thoughts included in the book. Don’t forget your short biography along with any projects you want to promote.

I have now received six essays, with more promised. The book could use some memories of World War II and the fifties, if any of you have been around that long. I have, but was too young to remember the early forties. I remember plenty about the wars fought since then, but not of World War II. It would also be nice to have one from someone who was involved in the counter-culture, protest scene in the late-sixties and early-seventies.

The deadline for submissions is April 30th. I hope to get the book to press in June for early summer release.

My husband has decided to get out of my hair a couple of days a week and is working at the trading post here on the preserve. That gives me two uninterrupted days to work at the computer, but the annoying background noise of CNN and other racket infringes on my quiet writing time on the other five days. Oh well, nobody said the writing life was going to be easy.

Work-camping while traveling

That brings up a point I should make about working on the road. If any of you are anxious to RV and write but you lack the funds to jump into RVing, you can always find work-camping positions to pay for your travel and site. Many RVers have retired early and now plan their travels according to where they find work-camping positions. There is a subscription publication that lists thousands of work-camping jobs available each year—Workamper News, http://www.workamper.com. Just don’t work so much that you don’t have time to pursue your writing goals.

We subscribed to Workamper when we first started RVing, and after we decided we wanted to spend the summer near Boston we simply looked in Workamper News and found a place near where our relatives live. I can’t remember whether we called the park, then sent a listing of past jobs, or just mailed them the information, but we both got hired by the premier campground in New England. Normandy Farms has won Good Sam’s campground of the year several times, including the year we were there although I doubt we helped their cause.

I worked in the store and Joe was a ranger who worked at the entry gate admitting people after they had checked in. We got free tours of the Boston area (anything offered to guests for a price was free to us!), plus we got our campsite and earned minimum wage. Okay, we didn’t make a lot at these jobs, but it is more money than we would have had otherwise. We also had plenty of free time to get with our relatives. I worked with mostly teenagers, and I couldn’t believe how smart, hard-working and conscientious they were. All in all, it was a wonderful experience.

You don’t need any related experience to work in most RV Parks. Workamper News lists dozens of other types of jobs such as at amusement parks like Disneyland, Disney World, Silver Dollar City, etc. They also list jobs like gas line inspectors, construction jobs, and others that require short-term commitments.

I don’t know if Workamper News lists any nursing positions, but RNs and others in the nursing field can sign up with temporary agencies that specifically cater to them and find positions that last for thirteen weeks in various locations across the country. We’ve met nurses who travel in RVs, following the seasons and staying in locations they want to spend time in. Look in Nursing Journals for ads for these agencies.

One agency recruiting traveling nurses is Access Nurses of San Diego. The company filmed a reality TV show on traveling nurses working in Southern California that can be viewed at www.nursetv.com. A local article in Phoenix featured two nurses who have spent time in San Diego, Phoenix, Boston, Denver and other hot travel destinations. Pay is higher than for staff nurses, plus travel and living expenses are often paid.

Economical RVing

The costs of RVing vary. We just met a single man who traveled to Central America who says RVing costs him an average of $1000 per month, including when he took his 16,000 mile-plus, 343-day journey. That amount included gas, food, and everything else. Jim Jaillet’s book, Panama or Bust details his trip (www.panamaorbust.com.)

If you don’t owe other debts, it’s definitely possible to travel as inexpensively as he does. Traveling in an RV is as inexpensive as living in a house or apartment and paying utilities and other costs. Often, it’s less expensive. If you like to eat out often, go golfing everyday and spend money like we do, you can spend as much as you can make. Trust me on that point. So as an RVer, you can live as expensively or inexpensively as you want.

A LITTLE GRAMMAR, A LITTLE PUNCTUATION

Some grammatical mistakes appear in writing every day. Newspapers reporters and editors are rushed, so mistakes slip into print. And some people get in a hurry or have forgotten what they learned in school, and make errors. The following are some of the most common mistakes in usage along with guidelines that I’ve collected. Hopefully, they’ll be useful to some of you.

Excess phrases

Recently, I’ve been writing about using excess words in writing. The column on the left holds commonly-used phrases that contain unneeded words; the one on the right has the shorter and simpler choice to avoid excess words and make your writing clearer:

I am of the opinion --- I believe
as a result of --- because
at the present time --- now
before long --- soon
due to the fact that --- due to or since
for the amount of --- for
inasmuch as --- since
in connection with --- with
in lieu of --- instead
in order to --- to
in regard to --- about
insofar as --- because, since, as
in this day and age --- today
in view of the fact that --- since
prior to --- before
with the exception of --- except


Some excess words that are often used appear below:

Where are you going to? Should be: Where are you going?
What is the reason for your absence? Should be: Why were you absent?

That is a word that can be eliminated in some instances.
Omit that when a dependent clause follows immediately, as in “His secretary said he had left for the day.”
Use that when a time element occurs between the verb and the dependent clause: “His secretary said earlier that he had left for the day.”

There are more rules referring to using or eliminating the word that, but uses are not as prevalent as those listed above. If you are in doubt about whether to include that or not, it’s best to include it.

Problem words that are easily confused when we’re not focusing on what we’re doing.

their - possessive form of they. It means belonging to them.
they’re - contraction of they are.
there - in that place.

example: “They’re in there, but their kids are in the car.”

its - possessive pronoun: The dog eats its food before going outdoors.
it’s - contraction of it is: It’s time for the dog to eat.

example: It’s going outdoors after it eats its food.

accept - to receive something: I accept your offer for a ride.
except - to exclude something: The entire gang is going, except for Ann.

affect - a verb, means to influence: How did the news affect you?
effect - a verb, means to cause: What effect did the news have on you?
Effect can also be used as a noun, which means result, as in:
The news had little effect.

The choice of words:

A is used before a word starting with a consonant sound.
An is used before a vowel or a vowel sound.
That’s why an is used before RV, as weird as that may seem, because the letter ‘R’ is pronounced like the word ‘are,’ a vowel sound.
‘A’ is used before trailer or motorhome, words starting with a consonant sound.

Less/fewer: Generally, less is used for quantity and fewer for number.
The bucket holds less than a gallon. The bucket holds fewer than 20 pears.

That/which/who/whom: Use that and which when referring to inanimate objects and a person or animal without a name. Use who/whom when referring to a person or animal with a name.

Between/among: Between is used when referring to two items or people. Among is used when referring to a group of items or people.
The final choice for winner was between Ann and Jim.
The winner was chosen from among all of the students.

Keep writing simple

Remember, writing is for readers, not the writer. Make it simple, make it clear, and avoid wordiness and pompousness. If you want to get something published, you cannot write to prove how well educated you are. Know your audience! You must write so your reader can understand it without having to grab a dictionary to decipher what you’ve written. Write like you talk. If you’ve used a long word, see if you can’t find a shorter one, or even two short words to take its place. Use your thesaurus!

If you think that you can’t possibly write simply (at the seventh or eighth grade level) consider that the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is written at the 5th grade reading level. Many award-winning novels have been written for the average reader, which is about the 7th grade level. Today’s best-selling non-fiction writers write for the basic reader because they realize they want a quick read that is easy to understand.

Avoid long paragraphs and sentences. Long blocks of type are boring, and long sentences can become too complex for some readers to understand easily. Readers may have to read it twice to understand what you’ve said, and you might lose them at that point. If you regularly create forty word sentences, reword them or use two sentences in their place.

Avoid using the passive voice. For instance, write: John washed the car. Avoid: The car was washed by John. Active verbs are always more interesting than passive.

Punctuation and quotation marks

Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks.
Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation marks.
Question marks and exclamation marks go where they make sense. For instance:
Put them outside the quotation mark if they punctuate the sentence that contains the quotation.
Put them inside the quotation mark if they punctuate the quotation, only.

If you are writing a quotation that is more than one paragraph long, don’t use closing quotation marks at the end of each paragraph. Instead, start each paragraph with a quotation mark and use a closing quotation mark only at the end of the final quoted sentence.

If you use a quote inside a quote, set off the inside quote with single quotation marks. Marie remarked, “And he told me ‘I just can’t do this anymore.’”
“‘We’re going to the beach,’ is what she told me,” said Jim.
He told me, “We learned the words to the poem ‘The Raven’ today.”

Comma usage

Set off a person’s name when they are being addressed in a sentence: “Jeannie, what time will you return?”

Use a comma to introduce a quotation: Mary said, “Last week I went to the movies.”

In a series, most people tend to leave off the last comma, but include it unless the last two words are considered as one unit. For instance, “For breakfast, we had biscuits, gravy, and bacon and eggs.” If you write a series of names, such as: “Mary, Jane, John and Sally,” are John and Sally a couple? If not, separate them with a comma for clearer meaning.

Use a comma in a series of adjectives that are equal in rank.

In this instance, omitting a comma can sometimes cost money. For instance, a will was written as follows: “To my daughter and sons: Mary, John and Mike, I leave the sum of $15,000.” The lawyer gave each child $5,000, but Mary challenged the decision, claiming the will specified that she get one-half and John and Mike share one-half. The judge ruled in her favor, so she got $7,500, and John and Mike split $7,500. If the will had been written: “To my daughter and sons: Mary, John, and Mike, I leave the sum of $15,000,” each child would have gotten $5,000.

Always use a comma to prevent confusion. For instance: “The box fell on top of the dog and the cat was already running for the door.” Put a comma after dog. Otherwise, readers might be wondering if the box fell on both the dog and the cat.

Use a comma to set off an explanatory clause. “The minister, who was from Missouri, conducted Sunday’s service.”

A comma can be omitted following an introductory clause unless it would slow comprehension by readers in a sentence like, On the dock below, the passengers gathered to board the ship. If not included in this sentence, it could look like the dock was below the passengers!

You really don’t need to use as many commas as you were taught in school. In most cases, eliminate commas if they don’t clarify the meaning of the sentence.

Prepositions

The last grammatical problem I’ll cover is the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence. Remember in school how teachers would squawk if a student asked something like, “What am I doing this for?” What did the teacher want to hear? “For what am I doing this?”

English teachers were fanatics about sticking to the rules, but the truth is: there is no rule in the English language that says you can’t use a preposition at the end of the sentence. There was a rule against it in Latin, which the English language comes from, but the rule did not carry over from the Latin language. So put your prepositions where they sound best and thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to wrestle with a sentence that ends up saying something like: “I’ll give you this money as soon as you tell me for what you plan to use it.”

For Pete’s sake, just write: “I’ll give you this money as soon as you tell me what you plan to use it for.”

Happy writing!

To Outline or Not?

Remember in school how we had to learn to outline, then would have that exercise in class where we would have to outline something we weren’t interested in writing in the first place! Well, the time has come to put that skill into practice—maybe.

Sometimes I make an outline and sometimes I don’t. When I started the book, Portable Writing, I made an outline of what I wanted to cover in the book because there was so much material I wanted to include. All of the projects were taken from my experience, or those of some of my friends, and I knew I could easily forget something if I didn’t make an outline. It’s lucky I did! Immediately after I wrote the outline, I had an emergency health problem that laid me low for three years. During that time, I completely forgot about my book idea and the outline.

Finally, a little over three years after my health scare, we started traveling in the motorhome again and I found my outline safely tucked away. It was like running across something I’d never seen before. I thought to myself, ‘this is a great idea for a book,’ and began writing it right away. The book took longer than it probably would have if I had started it in 1998, when I apparently wrote the outline, but I finally finished the book in 2006. Without that outline, it would never have been done.

That’s not to say that I stuck to the outline. I realized after writing a couple of chapters that I wanted to reverse the order and put those in the back of the book. And most of the time I just typed away, only referring back to the outline after I was finished with a chapter to make sure I had covered everything. It also help when it came time to write a proposal to submit to publishers.

Now that said, I didn’t make an outline for the new book I’m writing on history, other than a list of historic events during the past 65 years that I could recall off the top of my head. That’s what I mailed to those of you who requested it. It’s definitely not an outline, just a memory jogger. With this book, I simply sat down at the computer and started typing, starting with the forties. You can’t outline memories and emotions. That just seems too sterile for the subject matter.

Should you outline your idea for a book? For my first book, Make Room for Success, 1992, I don’t recall if I made an outline or not. I probably wrote some notes down so that I would remember to include certain points or illustrations. And I’m sure I had clippings in a file from previous articles I had written to make sure that information was included.

For the novel I’m currently working on, I made a list of main characters and their personality traits as well as some memories from my career as an interior designer and from RVing that could be used in the book . My lead character in the novel is a young interior decorator living in a place I never lived who gets a chance to travel with her aunt in an RV and encounters a mystery. But to say I wrote an outline would be wrong. I’m not even sure how the mystery will be solved yet. It will evolve as the writing of it evolves.

Sometimes I feel better just jumping into my subject matter and typing as fast as I can before my idea flees. Maybe I’ll make some notes to include somewhere in the article or book, but other than that, an outline becomes a distraction rather than a help.

But is it an important tool to have in your arsenal? Yes! My English teachers didn’t waste their time, but I’m betting they would be horrified if they saw how regularly I ignore that particular lesson.

TODAY'S ARTICLES

--Here’s a chance to get your work published
--More on meeting your editor’s word count
--Desert treasures around Yuma

A CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

A United States history of the past sixty years is now in the works. In it, I hope to include short articles (two paragraphs to two pages) from a variety of writers of their memories of some of the most historic moments, and how those events affected them.

During the past sixty years we’ve witnessed the end of World War II and survived the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and now we’re embroiled in the Iraq War. All of those conflicts had an impact on every one of our lives whether we were alive then, heard about them from older siblings and parents, or lost a loved one as a result of one of the wars.

Many of us lived through and were affected by the assassination of President Kennedy plus his brother, Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King. We’ve also lived through the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights struggle and the anti-war and free-love movement during the late sixties and early seventies. We’ve witnessed the introduction of computer technology and time- and labor-saving machines that make our lives easier. A few of us even remember life before television and cell phones when we gathered in the kitchen or living room to listen to the radio, and talked to friends and family members on party-line telephones with rotary dials!

Those whose contribution is used in the book will receive a free copy after it is published as well as a short biography in the book to help promote your own writing projects. I have some guidelines as well as a list of memory joggers for anyone who is interested in contributing. If you would like to contribute, send an email that requests guidelines to: portable.writer@yahoo.com.

MEETING WORD COUNT RESTRICTIONS - part II

Recently I was asked to write an article for an online ezine. While I wasn’t given a maximum word count, I have written enough online articles to know that they should be short. Readers are not patient enough to read long, wordy articles online. I wrote about the topic as succinctly as I could and was appalled when I did a word count and found that the article held more than 1500 words!

After doing some selective butchering, I finally got it down to 900 words. How did I do it? First of all, I had included more details than were necessary for the article. The piece was meant to be an overview of the subject, not a detailed manuscript. I whittled it down until it held only the amount of information that would get the message across. Even that was too long, so the article was broken into two parts for the ezine.

Try shortening some of the articles you’ve written, whether they’ve been published or not. The more practice you have at cutting manuscripts down to size, the better your writing will become. And who knows, some of those manuscripts you’ve written but never been brave enough to send to a publisher might suddenly look a lot more sales worthy.

Stephen King, well-known horror fiction author, cuts up to ten percent of his manuscript by removing extraneous words and has been quoted as saying, “Only God gets things right the first time.”

So remember, it only makes your manuscript better when you learn to eliminate unnecessary portions and tighten up the remaining words and sentences.

TREASURES IN THE DESERT

When you mention the word treasure in the same breath with the state names of Arizona and California, most people associate it with gold, silver and other priceless metals and gems. However, not all treasures are there for picking up. Some should be collected as experiences to be enjoyed. Obviously, I’m talking about the landscape here.

Just west of Yuma (about fifteen miles) along Interstate 8 are the Imperial Sand Dunes. These dunes hug the highway and spread for several miles on either side. They have been sculpted by the wind and weather over centuries and are beautiful to see—especially at sunset or sunrise.

Early twentieth century travelers across the desert couldn’t maneuver their vehicles through the deep, shifting sand, so plank roads were built to accommodate the earliest automobiles. Planks were laid side by side through long stretches of sand so that cars and trucks could traverse the Dunes, although the ride would have been a bit bumpy. Remnants of the plank road still exist in the Dunes, and are protected for future generations to marvel at and enjoy.

RVers can park overnight in several locations through the Dunes, in spots designated by Bureau of Land Management. Many recreational RVers have discovered the area, so each weekend or holiday the area is packed with RVs hauling off-road vehicles. If you treasure the desert for its peace and quiet, you may be disappointed by the loud roar or these modern day explorers and their all-terrain vehicles.

About five miles west of Yuma, a one-mile road leads to Algadones, Mexico, a small town on the border. You can park on the U. S. side of the gate and walk into the town, where you’ll find great buys on a variety of goods, including prescription drugs, eyeglasses and dental procedures. I’ll tell about our visit to Algadones later, as well as our journey to that favorite wintertime shopping mecca of RVers—Quartzsite.

In Yuma proper is the Yuma Territorial Prison, which will provide you with a glimpse of what life was like for outlaws unfortunate enough to have been caught in the late 1800s. It wasn’t pretty! The tiny cells were likely hot enough to bake bread during the summer. The prison was constructed by inmates and housed up to 350 prisoners between 1876 and 1909.

My uncle likes to tell about his train stopping in Yuma when he was a young Navy recruit on his way to San Diego during the closing days of World War II. He says he stepped out onto the platform of the station and saw nothing in all directions but sand. Things have certainly changed! Surrounding Yuma today are lush green, irrigated fields that help feed the nation.

Just north of Yuma along the Colorado River are Mittry Lake Wildlife Area and Imperial Wildlife Refuge, great locations for bird watching and fishing. Great numbers of water fowl make this their winter home, too, in addition to the thousands of human snowbirds who flock here as soon as the weather turns frosty up north.

Kay Kennedy travels in a Class-C motorhome with her husband, Joe. They have been full-timers since 1992 and have traveled in Canada, parts of Mexico, and in every state except Alaska, North and South Carolina. Her articles have appeared in Business, Interior Design, Senior and RVing magazines and she is author of two books, the most recent: Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom. Visit her Web site at: www.kennedyk.com.

MEETING WORD COUNT GOALS

One of the scariest things writers hear is that they’ve got an assignment, but the article must be no more than 1000 words—or whatever number is required. My first assignment absolutely paralyzed me for days. I was pretty sure I could never limit myself to 1000 words.

Finally, I just started writing. First I outlined the article, listing points I wanted to cover. I’m pretty sure the outline numbered around 1000 words. Never mind that it didn’t contain complete sentences!

Then I wrote the article, covering everything listed in the outline. When I thought I was finished, the computer’s word count was a whopping 1600 words. Hey, it sounded great to me! How could I cut the fabulous masterpiece that I had given birth to, and nurtured to maturity? Okay, so maybe it was a morbidly obese piece!

Since I knew 1600 words would never fly, I had to figure out a way to strip the article down to its bare bones.

As I read the article, I spotted areas where I used extra words to say things that could have been put more simply. Then I noticed sentences that didn’t appear to be all that important, so I eliminated them. Next I spotted some connecting words like the, that, of, by, and for that weren’t necessary for the article to be understood.

Example: The book that I am carrying is so heavy that I think that I might drop it. The word that isn’t needed anywhere in this sentence. You wouldn’t use it if you were saying the sentence out loud, would you? What a tongue-twister! And I'm is less formal and stilted than I am. Change the sentence to read: The book I ‘m carrying is so heavy I think I might drop it. You can eliminate more words by saying: The book I’m carrying is so heavy I might drop it. What does the word think do for the sentence? It’s not necessary.

If you still need to get rid of a few words, look at the above sentence again. Do readers really care whether you might drop it, or that you might have to hand it to someone else to carry for you? Do you even need to explain that you are carrying it? Why not say This book is really heavy! Now you’ve cut 11 words! That might not seem like much against the 600 you may need to cut, but it’s still a start.

You’ll probably find several sentences like the one above that can be shortened without losing the meaning. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the obvious excess words and sentences, read the article out loud. Does it read well? Does it flow? You may notice some areas that need to be reworded to make the message sharper, clearer. While you’re doing that, you will probably eliminate more words.

Your final copy will have much more vitality, which will make it more interesting to readers. Maybe you will have eliminated a sentence or paragraph that you thought you couldn’t do without and that you ache for--like an only child who's moved away—but your readers won’t know the difference. And your editor will be grateful that you turned in an article that tells the story, yet sticks to the word count that was assigned.

ARTICLES TODAY

• Networking during the holidays
• Check the Grammar Lady
• If it's Thursday, it must be Texas

NETWORK WHILE YOU’RE SPREADING HOLIDAY CHEER

I thought this might be a good time to cover networking, since most of us will be out attending parties, dinners and other celebrations during the upcoming holiday season.

First, let me say that I don’t believe in pushing my writing business down the throats of every social contact I make. However, I also don’t believe that opportunities to make contacts should be ignored. If the opportunity to network presents itself to me, I’ll take a low-key approach, but I will take it.

So, when you walk into a large gathering where you may not know some of the other people, how do you make the most of the time spent there? When you meet someone new, what’s the first thing they ask about you? What do you do? or the variation for retirees, What did you do when you worked? People are always looking for a connection to others—maybe a shared occupation or experience.

The next time you’re asked what you do, be prepared. “I am a freelance writer.” You can say that now that you’re retired, you’re working at becoming a writer, or that you’ve begun writing in your spare time if you have another fulltime job. It doesn’t matter what you say, as long as you mention your new career. If they ask what type of writing you do, you have an opening to mention that you can produce a variety of projects such as writing biographies for clients or creating brochures for small businesses. Whatever it is that you want to focus on, mention it.

People will most likely be interested in hearing more. Have some cards with you to hand out to those who are curious. If they’re not interested, you haven’t lost anything.

Now, one of several things might happen:
1. They may say “That’s interesting. I’d like to learn more about it.” Then you can suggest getting together after the holidays for lunch or coffee. This encounter may lead to work for you or it may lead to a friendship with a kindred spirit.
2. They might ask for more information, in which case you can quickly fill them in or make plans to meet somewhere later.
3. They might actually say, “Gee, I’ve been looking for someone to help me ...” or “I have a friend, relative, business associate looking for someone with your skills.” In that case, hand them you business card and get theirs so you can contact them later.
4. They’ll say, “H-m-m-m” and walk away. Okay, these people may decide you’re the most boring person on the planet because you’re a writer, or they may want to digest what you’ve said and will come back over later to talk more about writing.

While you might leave the gathering with no positive feedback, chances are you will make an impression on someone. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve met people who didn’t seem that interested, but that sought me out later for a project or to recommend I call someone who needed my services.

As I write about this, I can remember a conversation from when I first married that, at the time, horrified me. A family member was talking about having joined the country club and taken up golf to meet prospective clients. He said he got so impatient when golfing partners only wanted to talk about golf or football, and he wanted to talk business. I thought that was a ruthless approach to finding clients, but later I realized he was basically right—he just had the wrong approach. However, he did become VERY successful, so maybe he changed his approach, or maybe he achieved success in spite of being pushy and impatient.

There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of social activities to boost your business, but that shouldn’t be your only goal. Don’t go into a situation expecting to blatantly promote your business. Do go in with an open mind, and a willingness to bring up what you do if someone seems interested. And always go in with the goal of helping someone else achieve their goals.

Actually, if I’m at a gathering, the host usually introduces me to people with the phrase, “She’s a writer.” They might mention more. Usually, someone or several people will seek me out to find out more. Sometimes it’s because they want to do the same thing—in which case I offer my help. Sometimes, someone approaches me that wants to know if I can write something for their business, or a personal memoir.

Most people love to help people. It’s inbred, in our blood.

And maybe that’s a good lesson for all of us to remember this holiday season. Perhaps you can’t give time or money to help someone less fortunate, but you can always give someone a leg up by recommending they call you later, or suggesting they call a friend who might can help them achieve their goals or dreams. People don’t always need a handout; they may simply need a helping hand up.

What goes around, comes around. Every time you help someone else, it will eventually come back to you. Look at life that way, and your in-basket will always be overflowing.

HELP FROM THE GRAMMAR LADY

I just discovered a Web site that you might find useful. It is at www.grammarlady.com, where you’ll find grammar courses and helpful tools to make your writing stronger, smarter, richer. An extremely useful program can be found at www.whitesmoke.com. It offers a dictionary, thesaurus, spell and grammar checker and more to help increase writing skills. You can download a copy for a trial run before purchasing. I currently use the one that comes on Microsoft Word and it has problems, such as outrageous suggestions at times. Whether White Smoke is any better, I don’t know, but it may be worth checking out.

IF IT’S THURSDAY, IT MUST BE TEXAS!

Okay, I’ll admit we’re not traveling so fast that it’s a different day, different state. We are in the state of Texas, which is impossible to cover in our RV in a week, much less a day!

We’re now parked at Lake Conroe in a beautiful RV resort on the lake. It’s just an hour or so north of Houston. The weather has been quite warm, but the humidity has equaled or exceeded the temperature on many of the days. Today when I got up it was seventy degrees, but it’s supposed to drop to 30 degrees by tonight. In fact, it's dropped 20 degrees in the past hour! You gotta love how the temperature can swing that far in one day!

When we lived in north Texas for a couple of years back in the sixties, we used to believe that the only thing between there and the North Pole was a barbed wire fence. The wind blew constantly, and many of the buildings on the Air Force Base closed at 40 mph. so many, many days we couldn’t go to the movies on base or even to get groceries at the commissary. So we hunkered down and watched the sky, which was easy there since trees were few and far between. Occasional tornadoes poking out of that vast sky gave us one frightful experience too many, so we were thrilled when we got orders to go to Hawaii.

Here at Lake Conroe, trees are dressed in all their fall splendor, we have views of the lake, and we’re close to civilization—all things that make us happy. Still, we’ll be heading out as soon as we receive our mail next week. Cold weather doesn’t thrill us at all. We’ll probably stop in the hill country for a couple of days before hitting the highway for the long trek across west Texas.

Don’t forget to order writing books for Christmas for your friends and family who want to become published or well-paid writers. You’ll find the largest selection of books on the art of writing and making money at http://www.booklocker.com. Select freelance writing and click, and it will take you to those books.

Also, http://www.amazon.com has a good selection of books. I often order from them when we’re too far from a large town to go check the bookstore. I’m assuming that all of you know that you can just click on the link here to take you to their Web sites—no need to type in the urls.

Since I may not get another chance to make posts on the portable writing newsletter blogsite (http://www.portablewritingnewsletter.blogspot.com) while we’re traveling, Happy reading, Bountiful writing, and a Wonderful Holiday Season to you all.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT WORD

How do you find the right word that means exactly what you want to say? It’s easy! Just pick up a thesaurus and look up the word you’ve used. You should find several words that mean the same thing, or almost.

Most new writers think they’re supposed to know all about writing and shouldn’t need help with grammar, spelling or finding a synonym. However, that’s just not true. Most writers, no matter how long they’ve been at it, have problems. It is impossible to keep every rule and word available in your mental filing cabinet. Oh, it may be there, but it may take awhile to access it.

So why obsess about it? You can quickly find the best word to use in your thesaurus. You’ll save time and increase your profits by doing this quickly instead of sitting and racking your brain for the right word.

I once worked for a magazine that insisted their writers and editors use a thesaurus. It didn’t take long to find out why. They wanted us to be able to say cute, sweet and precious in as many ways as possible. That’s the kind of magazine it was. And we had to include these words many times in each issue. I finally got to where I thought I would gag if I ever had to say those words in any form again. But I could see why it was done, so I quickly learned to rely on the thesaurus.

All writers find that sometimes it’s necessary to use the same word over and over again throughout an article. I used to write a lot of business articles, and it was important not to use the word business over and over again. It doesn’t look professional, and it’s boring. So I used enterprise, industry, and all the other words I could find that meant essentially the same thing. For business man or woman, I could use entrepreneur if I was talking about the owner. There is a limit to words that work, but simply replacing business a few times helped make the articles more interesting.

Learn what tools work best for you and use them. Don’t forget the dictionary, too. You may think you know how to spell a word, but if you don’t use it regularly, you might have forgotten. Or you might not remember its exact meaning.

We have a general dumbing down of American, as you can see by watching any network news program any day as supposedly smart people use the wrong word or pronunciation. It tends to make us all sloppy and lazy. After all, if these people can’t say it right, who is going to know that we haven’t, either? Your editor, that’s who!

There are lots of rules that we’ve all forgotten if we haven’t been in school for awhile, so it’s important to always remember that anyone can make a simple mistake. Any of us. Sometimes I make really stupid mistakes. Hopefully, I catch them every time before they’re published, but realistically I know some may slip through. I’ll misspell a simple word that I definitely know, but if I’m in a hurry, I may make a typo. Or, I hate to admit this but I might simply not be thinking.

Don’t obsess about mistakes. Use your spell and grammar checker on the computer to check your work. If you question this tool’s suggestion, don’t use it automatically. I’ve found that they are not always right! If one comes up, look again at your word to make sure you haven’t made a typo, such as three letters in a row instead of two, or something else that isn’t easily spotted. If it looks okay, then look the word up in your dictionary. It may be the low-tech, old-fashioned way, but this remains your most trusty tool.

Photo on right: Musicians play for crowds of festival-goers in Mountain View, Arkansas.


Photo on left: Curtains decorate the inside of an outhouse which is lined up to try and outrun its competitors at the Beanfest and Championship Outhouse Races.


100 MILES TO EAT BEANS AND WATCH OUTHOUSES RACE EACH OTHER?

We recently attended the Beanfest and Championship Outhouse Races in Mountain View, Arkansas. How many people can say that? Well, it turns out, a lot of them. Probably millions! Especially RVers and musicians.

The last weekend in October each year sees the town holding its fall festival, and there are few places that can match it for fun and festivities. Mountain View is a small town, 2500 friendly people or so, that is big on charm and fun. Since the 1960s, crowds have been flocking to the community for festivals such as the one mentioned above and the Spring Festival in mid-April.

Musicians gather around the Courthouse Square to jam and sing on the lawn, porches and sidewalks. During festivals, they even get together in the streets surrounding the Courthouse. You see, Mountain View is the folk music capitol of the world!

You won’t find rock and roll or rap. What you will find is the traditional mountain music that original settlers brought over from Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. You’ll also hear some folk music like the songs that were brought back to popularity during the early sixties.

The reason this town is the gathering spot for this type of music: When Jimmy Driftwood, a local school teacher wrote, then performed “The Battle of New Orleans” for country music moguls in Nashville, it was recorded and became a colossal hit. Jimmy traveled the world and performed this song and others he wrote along with other musicians interested in folk songs and music based on history.

About this time, Jimmy realized traditional music and old crafts needed to be preserved. He gathered up a bunch of musicians from Mountain View, many of whom had never been outside Stone County, and took them to Washington D.C. to perform for Congress. His goal: to get a few thousand bucks to build a folk center where tradition could be preserved. He came back to Mountain View with a few million dollars, enough to build the Ozark Folk Center and install a new water system for the town.

The Ozark Folk Center now sits on a mountain top in Mountain View. There you’ll find craftspeople dressed in old-fashioned clothes demonstrating traditional crafts, and musicians performing on stage in the theater. The Center also holds workshops on traditional music, including bluegrass, where students are taught how to play instruments like the mountain dulcimer, the hammered dulcimer and the autoharp.

But in October, most of the action is downtown! Musicians surround the downtown Courthouse playing all types of traditional music, and outrageously decorated outhouses line up for hilarious races while crowds cheer them on. Dozens of cooks come from all over to prepare their special recipe for beans, which are furnished by the town. After being judged for the best taste, the beans along with cornbread are served free to festival goers.

There’s always something going on around the Square in Mountain View, so anytime is a great time to visit. The views from surrounding mountains are breathtaking. Mountain View is in north-central Arkansas, below Mountain Home and in the Ozark foothills. Several RV parks dot the area as well as motels, bed and breakfasts and inns. You'll leave town full of beans and warmed by the friendly hospitality of these humble, talented mountain folks.