Flood update

Still working on flood cleanup, and now that I have a new apartment, I’m also working on getting it ready for moving my stuff over (painting walls while it’s still empty, etc.) and getting the stuff ready for moving. Good things are happening: the cable company appears to not need to charge me for the damaged cable box as long as I have proof of the flood, and I got my laptop cord replacement today when they told me they wouldn’t even be mailing it until the 14th. Some things are still not so good: my camera is officially dead (my 10 MP, saved-up-two-bonuses-for camera…), all my brand new furniture now has water damage–functional, but little to no resale value for if/when I move again–and I’m worried about mold in the upholstery (but hopefully we got the couch and bed out of the water in time and the time sitting in the old apartment as it dries out won’t infest them). Thankfully, a lot of things can be fixed by a toss in the washing machine–and the nice thing about my washer is that it does two rinses if you want it to–though of course that can’t be taken care of until everything is moved.
On the bright side, it could have been a lot worse. The cats are okay. I moved them into the new apartment a couple days ago and they’re adjusting, though they still look confused a lot of the time. The only things I lost were just that–things–and they can be replaced. (I hope.)

If you live in the area and would like to/have time to help me move on Saturday, please drop me an email or a phone call. We’re still working out a time, but it will probably be around 11 am on Saturday. The more help the better, because this time everything’s loose and so I’ll need help boxing up, moving across the complex (and if you have any carts or, I don’t know, little red wagons, that would help out a lot), and setting things up in the new apartment. Any help will be appreciated.

Regarding business, if you’re waiting on a response from me hopefully I’ll be back in business by Tuesday. If you haven’t heard back from me then, please re-send your email, as it’s been a little nuts around here this week.

Taking the week off, kind of

If you don’t already know, I woke up Sunday morning to 4 inches of water across my apartment and Mogget marooned in the kitchen, unable to get past the water gushing in the front door. So due to the need to recover from the flood, I won’t be able to answer individual consultation emails this week. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

For the record, that’s twice in a month it’s been flooded, but this time it’s much worse. So far I estimate the damage to be anywhere from $2500 to $5000 worth. And of course my renter’s insurance specifically excludes any sewage backup or water damage. And the landlord claims they had no idea it was a recurring problem, claiming last month’s flood was from a broken sprinkler (it wasn’t–that was the last time it rained). It’s a significant design flaw that puts my apartment as the drainage system for the whole complex, basically. And now they’re saying that they’re doing ME a favor by moving me to another apartment–on the first floor–and they won’t even charge me to move! Isn’t that so SWEET of them??
On the bright side (if there can be said to be one), my friends banded together and came over to rescue me, or the damage would have been a lot worse. They got all the water out they could with me with brooms, which had to have been twice the volume the carpet guy sucked out later that day (which he said was somewhere in the range of 150-200 GALLONS of water).

Still, it’s catastrophic enough.

Guess who’s going to see a lawyer tomorrow?

Thoughts on freelancing, redux

I’ve really appreciated all the thoughts on freelancing so many people have offered in the last little while. I’m getting into my groove, and my office works more efficiently every day. There’s not a lot to talk shop about here right now, though, so I’m afraid it’s been a lot of filler lately. I think a lot about people’s advice and apply it to how it works in my personal situation–for example Scalzi’s financial advice to those who want to write full time applies just as well to freelance writers; getting debt completely paid down and out of the way is a huge priority (as it always has been, but of course when your income is more sporadic you tend to become more militant about it).

Knowing the market and being willing to write/edit for things not exactly in your specific market (in my case, children’s and YA fantasy specifically and children’s fiction and nonfiction more generally) is essential, especially as you get started, to be able to make a living. Being willing to take jobs when they come and doing an excellent job at them spreads word of mouth about your abilities and builds your business; eventually it may grow to where you can accept the jobs that are only in your field but even then it’s good to be diverse. Markets change all the time, as we all know these days! It’s good to have options.

Having a separate office space where I go to work has been a huge help in this transition. Separating work space and sleep space, especially–not allowing the work to be done in the bedroom, even if it might occasionally invade the couch or the kitchen table–makes a huge difference in quality of life. This applies to both "at the office"–removing distractions from "home" that would make me feel like I should be doing laundry/washing dishes/vacuuming/cooking–and "at home"–removing work-related distractions that might otherwise invade the ability to get a good night’s rest, even if it might prevent me from watching all of Sanctuary without having to hit pause. 🙂

At first getting out of the house helped because it helped re-create the feeling of coworkers, but I found it cost more in time than I really wanted to spend, especially because I have such a nice workspace right here. What I find interesting, though, is that because the office is my editing space, I have to do my writing in other locations: on the couc
h, at the library, at a friend’s house. This is also an important mental separation of space that’s very important, because when I remove myself from my editing space, I can remove myself from my editing brain, if for only long enough to write a couple thousand words.

Anyway, further discussion on life as a freelancer welcome!

Here’s a pretty-looking milestone

I’m still working on painting my apartment, which is a slow process when it’s not your first priority. I just got a nice chocolate brown leather chair–SO very comfy–and ottoman for a steal on clearance at a local furniture store outlet. I also found an end table that matched perfectly with the dark cherry shelves I already have, which works perfectly with a lamp I’ve loved since I got it secondhand when I moved to Seattle. It’s all coming together!

The couch now kind of pales in comparison–it’s a nice enough couch, but it’s getting old. I’d like to replace it with a leather one that matches the chair, but of course that will take time to save up for. But leather is the way to go when you have cats!

I’d post pictures of my office, but I have yet to declutter it from all the things that should be on shelves in the closet (a happy thought indeed). Someday I’ll show you–it really is a nice place to work, but I don’t like to be reminded how much work there is left to do in there!

So I get a knock on my door this morning…

And it’s the assistant manager. She lives upstairs, and earlier this morning she was walking by and saw two black cats on the stairs outside. She did a double-take and said, “Wait a minute! You guys aren’t supposed to be outside!”

 

Turns out that my cats had somehow knocked out the screen door to the patio (I’d forgotten to close the glass door, which I never do–I’m on the first floor and anyone could walk in) and made a prison break. She shooed them back inside and put the screen door back on. Who knows how long they were out there—and they didn’t even go anywhere. Nice prison break! Stayed right where the guards could find you.

Writing progress, jonowrimo

33,650!

I can’t find the progress bar I used to use. I’ve searched as much as my borderline-migraine brain will let me. I give up, and I’m going to bed. It’s enough that I just wrote two chapters more, and that we’re finally *getting* somewhere in the story!

I think this is it

I don’t really need a two-sided card–and in fact, as an editor I prefer getting 1-sided cards because I can make notes on the back of the cards. I’ve been tweaking with my business card, and I kind of like just going with the iconic feeling. What do you all think of this?

 

Note that there’s a little bit more of a margin than I really want on the actual card because the jpg has to allow for trim tolerances.

What do you think?

(Friends-locked due to not wanting to post my phone number everywhere)

For the info side of my card:

And two options for the other side:

I really like that shot, but I kind of like the second one, which I used a stained glass filter on, because then it’s not so much about those particular books as it’s about books, books, lots of books, you know?


ETA: What do you think of this for the front?

ETA again: added a square to the picture side to separate out the text. Better?

A picture poll

Thanks for all the advice. If I go with one of the service I’m looking at, I have the option of including an RGB photo and can pull in my own for not all that much money. I’m thinking this might make the card look nice without adding foil or raised type. So, if I go with that option, here’s a poll for y’all.
Sorry for the spamming, if you got multiples of these–it should be working now!

Business cards

I know many a writer who has really interesting business cards. I might keep more toward the staid side, but at any rate I’m in the market for some. For those of you have had a need to get a business card of your own, where did you get yours? I’ve heard that there are some good relatively inexpensive places out there especially online, but of course I don’t want to have a generic business card, either, so I want a service that will let you customize. Yet it’s really important to have one to pass along, so I’m looking for good, professional-looking options.
Of course, I could just design them myself and go down to the local Kinko’s and have them print them on card stock and cut them. But I would think it would be easier to go through a business-card service (maybe Kinko’s has a template you can use when you design so that you have the right dimensions?), especially if I can customize the content pretty easily.
Suggestions welcome!