Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Freelancin’
I’ve been working on my first freelance contract this week – a proposal-writing gig for a friend of mine in the US who runs a networking and IT-support company specializing in service to non-profits. Lucky me! I have a good friend who already trusts my ability to communicate, and both his regular proposal-writers were too busy to take the gig.
I agreed to give it a whirl even though I thought I had no idea what to do. I mean, write – yes. I can write. But the work is technical writing in a field I’m only partly familiar with, in a business environment totally different from my regular job. And on top of that? My friend has never submitted a proposal of this sort to a client, so he didn’t have much to show me by way of past work.
Now, I was hoping that freelancing would bring me newsletter articles, web copy, a bit of blogging for some local business – but instead I got some *hard* writing work right out of the gate – which has turned out to be the best thing for me. The proposal isn’t finished quite yet – tonight I’ve probably got a couple hours of wrestling with it to get it polished for the company client tomorrow morning – but I’m already declaring this first experience a success. My friend’s offer of work not only got me researching and writing in a new field – but because his proposal is for a service-bid, it stoked the competitive me which helped put more energy into the work. And after years in the same government job, it’s good to be reminded that 1) I have skills and 2) they are not so limited as my bosses (these days) would have me believe. Confidence-boosting for sure!
Bookshed: 1Q84
I just did something I never do…… A crime against story-telling, really. But when the book is 920 pages longand there’s a plot summary online – is it really so bad to forgo the last hundred pages in lieu of slogging through the book?
I think the main problem with 1Q84 – the latest release by Haruki Murakami – is that it was originally published as three novels in Japan. For what I’m assuming were marketing and audience reasons, the English-version was released as one giant book – which makes for an uneven arc, and a lot of story repetition in each section. It’s the kind of thing that makes you wish you could have read the books in context – because the alternative world that Murakami creates – rife with magical beings, malevolent cable-service fee collectors, cult-leader prophets, and feminist murders – has lots to offer. But as a single – superlong – novel, it drags.
This Globe and Mail review sums it up best:
Whatever else about 1Q84, it is maximalist Murakami. With its animal allegories and echoes of folk legends, the references to everything from Alice in Wonderland to the Gnostic thinking of Carl Jung, the novel offers the most complete précis of its author’s lifelong preoccupations and eccentricities. For fans, the more is the merrier; for newcomers, the book may be a few oddities, and a couple of hundred pages, beyond the patience threshold.
Though even as a fan, my patience was sorely tested, to the degree that I’ve sought out the spoiler and can now move onto other things. This was obviously a new attempt for Murakami – at more than double the length of anything he’s previously published – and I find myself hoping that for his next work he will return to more condensed surrealism. A world created within 300 pages is frankly a far greater accomplishment than one which takes 920 to explain.
What life is all about…….
Things have gotten busy around the Urban Crow in the past two weeks and I’ve just decided to throw up my hands and go along with it rather than fretting too much. Birthday, tenant-move that went sideways (for us), yard sale coming up, freelance work due today, and because we got a good deal on a painting quote (early in the season doncha know) – we’re also going ahead with that. Not to mention gardening, and hosting a BBQ this weekend.
Totally not what I thought Brian’s 40th birthday would look like as we are full tilt dealing with everything at once since returning from our little holiday with friends on Mesachie Lake over the weekend (that was my gift to him). Between fixing the suite (Brian’s job) and getting everything ready to yard sale (my job) – we’ve got all our free time booked! On a more positive note however – by the end of this month we’ll have a completely refreshed suite, a newly-painted home, a ton of junk moved out of our house, and a garden that is summer-worthy.
Sadly, I am all out of writing energy this late in the day, so I will leave you with a few photographs of the last few days of activity:
On Wednesday and Thursday we got all the plants in that were waiting for the end of the fence construction. We’ve got more to do, but we think this is enough work for this spring!
On Friday, we travelled over to Mesachie Lake (right beside Cowichan Lake) and hung out with some friends from the island for the weekend. You can see from this picture that it was an amazing location and we had a fabulous time:
On Saturday, I baked Brian’s birthday cake – twice – because the first one fell and turned out to be undercooked anyway. This is the successful version and the first Angel Food cake I have ever made from scratch (lemon angel food cake with lemon cream – totally fabulous in the end):
And last night, Mica came home from school early and spent two hours making fajitas with all the fixings for Brian’s actual birthday dinner. Seriously impressed and thinking she should do that more often:
Flying Folk Friday
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPXheIrcKr0%5D
My band – The Flying Folk Army – played a show last Saturday for the first time in seven years. There are video tracks of the whole affair on YouTube – which I am tickled with. The last time we played there was no YouTube! (or social media of any kind).
For those of you remember Flying Folk Fridays at La Quena – I am sharing our ever-popular version of Rasputin to get your weekend started!
Now *you* can hire *me*!
I’ve got admit – lately I have felt more than a little dissatisfaction with my professional life. Not that I dislike what I do – writing and web management are my natural and chosen field – but after thirteen years I wouldn’t mind a little more variety.
When I dropped my workweek down to four days last fall, one thought was that the extra time would make taking on freelance work an option again. It’s been about ten years since I’ve taken on any writing or editing work, and in that time I’ve developed a whole new set of professional skills around social media planning and management – which I would love the opportunity to use outside of my regular work environment (it’s a tad bureaucratic at times). So! Instead of working five days a week at my (kinda boring) job, four days a week there and one day a week on my own seems like a good balance between stability and work-diversity.
Last week I dropped a line on Facebook to let people know I was hanging out my shingle – and pretty much immediately, a good friend contacted me with some work. It’s writing work I’ve never done before – but that’s the point! I’m flexing my wordly muscles! Clearly, I’m a little high on this first contract 🙂
You can check out my rate sheet above at the Slippery Fish link and learn more about the writing, editing and social media services I offer (included blog coaching). If you don’t see a communications service posted that you are interested in, please ask me! (I also have a portfolio available on request.)
Red Cedar 