Tag: Work

Britain, Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Writing

Friday Links

“There is little chance that meteorologists can solve the mysteries of weather until they gain an understanding of the mutual attraction of rain and weekends.”
~Arnot Sheppard

Another big week. We had our friend Lark in town last weekend and through the start of this week, it was delightful to see her! Beyond that I had meetings, copy writing, and work enough to make me glad for the weekend. Although the weather has turned cold and rainy lately and shows no signs of stopping. The notoriously short British summer might have already come and gone, kittens!

The links this week are quick and dirty, please add anything you’ve read or seen worth sharing in the comments and let me know what you get up to this weekend!

photo westminster_zps6b25bc53.jpg

Interesting piece about complaining!

As a military brat, I find this fascinating. Cheese?

I think I could really get up the nose of a future Home Owners Association with one of these gorgeous things!

A world of only Facebook “likes” is a world we don’t want to live in.

They shall remain nameless at present but I have multiple friends with manuscripts being reviewed by publishers and would just like to refer them to these. When I am so lucky as to join them, I shall certainly take inspiration.

Correct, because it is excellent.

Word changes are interesting to me, not just how their usage shifts around over the centuries, but their pronunciation as well. Grammar Girl has a great list of a few such developments.

This gorgeous handbag line was featured in Liberty a while back and I’ve started seeing it pop up elsewhere, so clearly we need to help get the word across the Pond as well.

Brace yourself for our future robot overlords.

It’s Shark Week and the annual controversy is alive and well.

HONY is out of New York this summer…and amazing, important things are happening.

There’s a lot in this piece that resonates with me. I grew up a military brat and worked in a police department for five years, and in that time I do feel I caught a glimpse of this militarized cop mentality which concerned me. In this country, soldiers are not cops and cops are not soldiers, and there is a reason for that.

Freelance, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work, Writing

Friday Weeks (Making it after all, edition)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
― George Eliot

Big week! Huge existing projects, potential new projects, and scheduled meetups and meetings with people for even more potential new projects. Freelancing is an interesting business, there are some weeks that are very standard and uneventful but you get good work done, and others that just set you up for leaps and bounds of growth if you make smart decisions. Hopefully this has been the latter.

This weekend I’m meeting up with a bunch of academic friends (usually scattered from London to Cambridge, but convening in the capital for food and talk), editing and updating my recently expanded portfolio, and hopefully hitting up some new museum exhibitions with Jeff. We walk on the wild side, kittens. Here are your links, share anything else worth knowing in the comments, and let me know what your weekend plans are!

photo curvegarden_zpscf67d865.jpg

From my latest urban agriculture profile over on The Thrifty Homesteader.

The tumblr find of the week is a source of unending hilarity and delight to me. One feed, one singular purpose. (Also, he was all kinds of dishy back in the day, was he not? Insert a sort of humming, growl-y noise here.)

People. Fundamentally decent.

Even now I have Teddy, a well worn and well loved, formerly pink bear I got the day I was born. She was my best friend and partner in crime in childhood, and still beloved to this day. (When we were dating, Jeff once commented on the less than pristine state of her fur and had to spend a lot of time apologizing to make up for it. He may be my greatest, but she was my first love.)

An excellent piece on the importance of boredom, very thought provoking.

As of tomorrow it is officially summer. Would that I were not two feet too short to wear this dress in celebration.

This is my favorite headline to come out of the World Cup thus far.

One of my cousins recently got engaged in a spectacular fashion and a photographer was on hand to capture the moment. Unsurprisingly, since my cousin happens to be a model, the shots turned out gorgeous so you’ll forgive me if I shamelessly share them.

I already posted a PSA, but for those who missed it, online buddy Kim Curran’s fabulous new novel GLAZE is now available on Kindle for $.99! It’s only for two more days, though, so get cracking.

I am still supremely annoyed that we had to forgo Ascot this year, but the Fug Girls are providing the necessary hat commentary until next summer. When we WILL be going.

I sincerely love human beings seemingly innate desire to make functional things beautiful – though I doubt the wisdom of silver finger protectors to avoid harm coming from picking strawberries (possibly the world’s least dangerous summertime delicacy) out of a bowl.

Essie nail polishes are easily my favorite, but the story of the woman behind the company is just as good in my opinion.

Pretty pieces of custom embroidery.

Last week I shared a piece from the New York Times about Mormon activists facing church discipline. This week an exceptionally good post on one of the most famous stories of dissent from within the Mormon faith community, Nazis are involved.

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work

Friday (the 13th!) Links

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
– George Orwell

Happy Friday the 13th, kittens! Hope you’re celebrating and/or trembling in fear according to what brings you the most satisfaction.

It’s been a nicely un-frantic week in freelancing and I’ve been able to get caught up on a number of projects around the house, including a major reorganization of the flat which has given us a lot more space. Steady work with steady clients and just enough free time to start a new schedule after the Franklin House. Working from home is a constant juggling act but there are good reasons to do it…but I get ahead of the links!

13th or not, it’s still Friday so find your weekly dosage below. Add anything you think the minion coterie needs to know and let me know what you’re up to in the comments!
photo boats_zps192f20a7.jpg

Celebrate this most superstitious of days with some new superstitions.

For the things you never knew you needed.

The World Cup is on, but there’s a pretty horrible underbelly to one of the world’s biggest sporting events. A Brazilian non-profit journalism group investigated the alleged rise in sex trafficking prior to the games, and turned their investigation into a powerful story along with Buzzfeed. Prologue, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Janssen over at Everyday Reading has released her summer reading list. Go forth and stock your Goodreads, minions!

Interesting read on the internet, brain chemistry, and motivation.

Seriously everyone, STOP with the “love locks!”

Friend and Friend of the Blog, the redoubtable Caitlin Kelly over at Broadside, has put together a fantastically good post on the pros and cons of freelancing. If you’re considering freelance work (and these days that’s up to 1/3 of American and British workers), you need to read this.

First issues of famous magazines.

Printed cartoons are near and dear to my heart, and I remember tearing through the massive Sunday papers to get at the “funny pages” as a kid. Well, if you’re still reading them, Stephan Pastis (who draws the strip Pearls Before Swine) has had a new looking going on lately…and the story behind it is amazing. I’ve written before of my love for Calvin and Hobbes, without exaggeration I consider it a major hallmark of my personal childhood and one of the best depictions of childhood ever created.

Stand back, kids, this might be the dish I try and conquer for #6 on my list!

This looks like the most delightful, summery dress.

Tavi Gevinson has grown up from the Style Rookie to be, well, a lot of other things. She’s the kind of young woman that makes you wonder what you’ve accomplished in comparison, but I admire a lot of what she’s done so far and think she has a long and interesting career ahead of her.

These Aled Lewis pillows are giving me life: horse speaking wisdom, woodland Agatha Christie realness, and…caption this one in the comments for me.

Having just got through a period of unusual exhaustion, I can openly confess to doing at least half of these and I can see that they’ve definitely contributed.

A development that, in my opinion signals the end of the so-called Mormon Moment: two Mormon activists are facing religious discipline for their involvement in communities and causes. Not everyone will be interested, but if you are at all intrigued or follow intersections of religion and feminism/gender issues particular, this is a story worth reading up on. (Here’s another primer on this history of excommunication in Mormon feminism, for the curious.)

Britain, Expat, Freelance, History, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work

Friday Links (Farewell, Ben Edition)

“Remember that time is money.”
– Benjamin Franklin

It’s the end of an era, kittens, my last day at the Franklin House. It’s been a good ride and I’ve been able to learn a lot about this industry and meet some truly fantastic people who you are definintely going to be hearing more about in the future (some of us may or may not already be planning summer barbeques together). On the freelance front, work is picking up with some new projects, but I get to pay another round of taxes (blech). Here are you links, let me know what you’re up to in the comments!

Fascinating look at how news organization manage their social media.

This is brilliant (PS, congratulations to Georgina who just got a cultural heritage and education job at Kensington Palace), but I watched the entire vid with wide eyes imagining what would have happened had they dropped that thing.  This are the dark places a history person’s mind goes.

I bow to others’ wisdom, is this the most Canadian headline ever? Caitlin Kelly, please advise!

Color me mesmerized… I love ballet. I haven’t yet converted Jeff to it like I have the opera, but I have high hopes.

Speaking of the ballet, here’s a great profile on a dancer who is making history.

This girl is only six years old, but she kindly invites the haterz to eat it.

There is (yet another) reality television show for me to hate, but now with the added bonus of making me want to bury my head in the sand as an adopted Londoner. It’s called, “I Wanna Marry Harry,” and it’s dreadful. We may not have inherited rank in America, but really, countrymen? Really? The only redeeming side effect for this embarrassment is the Fug Girls’ incredible recaps. They watch, so you don’t have to. Because you really, really shouldn’t.

One last bit of royally themed goodness: emeralds. (Whispered in a voice not entirely unlike Smeagol’s.)

In case you had any doubts on the matter. But have we not all of us, at one time or another, developed resentment at a public dance? And as for being in a garden and being astonished!

This child has a future. In the J. Crew children’s section.

If you watch Game of Thones and have not yet seen Gay of Thrones from Funny or Die, I urge you to rectify this shameful lapse. (Standard warning for pearl clutchers, there is language and they discuss…well, everything that Game of Thrones does. Which basically ancient Rome on a really hedonistic day.)

Big news from my buddy Teri, the outrageously talented and designer over at The Lovely Drawer has launched her Etsy shop. Check it out! (Also, if you’re not following her blog, you should be. Not only does she keep you abreast of design and the good things in life, she’s unbelievable generous with beautiful free offerings.)

Pleases me, this does.

Hm, you mean that the ability to nurture children isn’t a strictly or even predominately female trait, but a skill? One you develop by doing? And men’s brains are just as capable as women’s to develop in the similar ways? There are are so many people (primarily former youth religious leaders with fixed ideas about gender roles) that I want to send this too, it’s almost tempting to put together a mass email.

Well shoot, I am officially out of excuses. (The NYT offers some additional information.)

Bestie and New York journalist Xarissa Holdaway’s new piece on Orange Is the New Black‘s portrayal of faith behind bars.

 

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work

Friday Links

“I’m a very ritualistic, routine-oriented person, and I discovered over the years that I love working Monday through Friday.”
– Edie Falco

It’s a Friday with a busy weekend ahead, Monday is my birthday (I’ll officially be in my late 20s, and therefore entirely mature and responsible, of course), and next week is my last at the Franklin House. The times they are a-changing.

Here are your links, add any others worth knowing in the comments and let me know what you’re getting up to this weekend!

First and foremost, I wrote a post this week that went a tiny bit viral (by my standards at least). It was in response to the Santa Barbara killing and why I find it so important to claim the title of “feminist,” in spite of and often because of the price I’ve paid for it. The response I’ve gotten to this post on social media and via email has been pretty awesome. Here’s one response post from another writer.

Nerd culture and misogyny, h/t to Ellie, a friend of mine who is an editor at Marvel.

Another good link (h/t my friend Molly) about a culture of toxic masculinity. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one. When I say Patriarchy hurts everyone, even men, this is what I mean. And as the author points out, in the last few months alone there have been a string of events where men and boys have hurt or killed women for refusing them dates, sexual advances, or proposals. This is not an isolated event, this is the latest and most visible in a pattern.

Lastly on this topic, Laurie Penny over at the New Statesman wrote a much better post than mine on the killing, and everyone needs to read.

Okay. Other links for the weekend, though please do continue the conversation at my link or elsewhere. Our culture really is starved for better conversation about gender violence and we need to recognize that genuine misogyny is not a problem for other geographic areas of the world, or different cultures, it’s everywhere. And we need to fix it.

I’ll just leave this Instagram find of the week right here.

A question I have wrestled with for most of my life.

I’m gearing up for another round of applications and pitches, and it turns out some friends and members of the minion coterie are in the same boat. Here’s a link Alanna sent me that I’ve really been enjoying and using to gut up and stay motivated.

The inspiring and lovely Bethany over at Love Grows Designs wrote a guest post this week that I also found helpful. Which of us has not had a “long dark tea time of the soul,” to both paraphrase and plagiarize (Douglas Adams in particular. One of my favorite books)?

Tying scarves like a Frenchwoman, because summer is coming and we need pretty, breezy looks.

Friend of the blog and writer over at Riding Bitch, Niva wrote a really beautiful piece about loss and friends.

I would very much like this hat for summer, please.

Oh man…right in the childhood! Long live Reading Rainbow! (PS, they are still taking donations, and as of typing this, they were at $1.8 million.)

Another gently thought provoking piece from Maxie McCoy over at Ilo Inspired. I was lucky enough to meet Maxie at a Levo League event, which only helped to solidify my girl crush. I’ve had to “give up” on a few things recently and, to quote Frost, “it has made all the difference.”

I’d watch an awful lot of these. Submit your own mashup ideas in the comments.

My tiny kitchen and I have yet to reach an understanding, 8 months into our relationship. I never understood my mother’s complaints about kitchen spaces “not working” in several of the various houses we lived in over the years until now. Some are simply planned better than others. And I’m not even a particularly domestic woman! But I found these tips helpful in thinking of new ways to tackle that space.

I like collaborative apps, so here’s one if you’re trying to eat healthier. FoodTweeks will help you cut unnecessary calories and make food donations every time you do so. Winning!

I lied. In continuing ridiculous sexism and women’s sexuality news, this high school induces headdesks.

Britain, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work, Writing

Friday Links (Summer Has Arrrived Edition)

“I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.”
-Groucho Marx

This week has turned things around in a big way and much has been done, all of it . I had another cowork day with Alanna (who might soon be upping sticks on an adventure of her own), completed lots of  freelance work, went to a book launch (more on that later) and had an impromptu date night with Jeff. All things considered, that’s a banner week. Here are your links, kittens – short and dirty this week, so do link anything else worth knowing in the comments. For the benefit of the minion coterie, you understand!

I’ve only got six (!) working days left at the Franklin House, so there’s been a lot of gearing up for the Next Big Thing here at Small Dog headquaters, which of course includes a new round of pitches to editors. Here’s my confession: pitching irrationally terrifies me. It’s not at all as scary as my brain builds it up to be, which I understand intellectually, and I’ve got some new recent and impressive clips now to help me out, but still. Scary. Which is why this kick-in-the-pants post from Linda Formichelli was quite timely!

Another timely read from Garance.

One dad has made some artwork based on the crazy things he has said because of his children, and some of them are pretty giggle worthy. Parents, weigh in. Accurate or not?

I’m a little bit in love with these animal pun illustrations for cards, etc.

My inner five year old is thrilled, a new gigantic dinosaur fossil has been unearthed in Argentina and to dates it’s the largest dinosaur ever discovered.

Pineapple earrings. Which might be necessary to my happiness, as my birthday is just over a week away…

As a person with a hard won and complex relationship with faith and spirituality, I found this short Buzzfeed piece written by a young woman who has lost hers interesting.

Janssen’s Summer 2014 Tell Me What To Read list has begun over at Everyday Reading. I love her reviews and she influences my own To Read list heavily, but her comment threads are also excellent places to pick up recommendations.

Britain, Expat, Freelance, Humor, London, Work, Writing

Friday Links

“There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear — the city of London and the South Seas.”
-Herman Melville

This has been one of those weeks that mixes fantastic highs with crippling self-doubt. Imposter syndrome is alive, well, and living in London, my friends. But enough with the first world problems, they’re nothing hard work and gumption won’t cure, on to links. They’re all quick and dirty this week. Share anything worth knowing in the comments and let me know what you’re getting up to this weekend.
photo IMG_1371_zps56c998ce.jpg
(Feeling rather like the goose!)

Pantone before there was Pantone. By which I mean the 17th century.

My love for the blogging pair Tom and Lorenzo is well documented, so I loved this interview with them in Bitch Magazine.

I would play the heck out of this. House rules, you cannot ask questions about physical appearance. Terrible life choices, House allegiances, potential terrible fates only.

This new cartoon find amuses me greatly: (mostly) conversations betwixt inner organs and body parts, without being nearly as gross as it sounds. For example, the irritable bowel is…irritable.

A photography project to make you smile.

Either everything is a conspiracy or nothing has meaning. You decide.

Nate Silver, a quantifiably  intelligent guy, has some interesting thoughts and data on the 2014 election. Vote, people, you lose your right to complain otherwise.

Sick of Buzzfeed quizzes? Here’s a new, kind of trippy alternative one h/t of Katarina, and it nailed us both.

Paging all book loving minions – which is the vast majority of you, let’s be honest. I’m a bit in love with this little boutique collection. Someone with an iPhone get that cover so I can live vicariously and enthuse about your purchase with you.

“The greatest threat to extremism isn’t drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.”

“You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:
One day you will be sick.”
– Poem written by an 11 year old Afghan girl
Freelance, Humor, Work, Writing

Freelance Talk: Self Care

“I was a little excited but mostly blorft. “Blorft” is an adjective I just made up that means ‘Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.’ I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

The last few months have been one of the happiest and most positively productive periods of my life, but it’s also been one of the most stressful. A move to another continent, even one that you’re excited for, is not easy to organize or manage. Setting up a household in a new country is expensive. Pursuing your life’s ambition is incredible, but it can also be exhausting. And finances? Well, those are tightly managed. Times are tough out there for writers and anyone who says differently is lying.

Lately I’ve been so driven to follow as many opportunities as possible that I’ve felt unable to say “no,” even to things that perhaps I should have. Not just because of a genuine enthusiasm for new opps, but occasionally because of a genuine (and somewhat well founded) fear that if I do, an opportunity won’t come around again. But in spite of the triumphs, of which I’m lucky to have found so many, I’m starting to feel a bit depleted and stress is taking a very real toll on my health. Even if it’s for a job or in a field you love, doing work without pay is grueling, on the soul as well as the body. And spending time working on those projects has the very real potential to impact my freelancing work negatively – no one’s at the top of their game when chronically sleep deprived.

But on top of all this, I have a confession: I can be bad, as in really terrible, at self care in times of stress. The first thing to go are exercise and a balanced diet, followed quickly by wise time management and regular sleep. Add to that a shot of self-medicating with too much sugar and a chaser of self-flagellation when I feel even the merest whisper of overwhelm. Freelancers should know better than anyone than busyness in no way correlates to success, and yet I fear I’ve fallen into that trap a bit.

It’s not just unhealthy, it’s the textbook definition of unsustainable. So I’m putting out the call for help. I need some advice for self care best practices as I fight to “make it,” as the kids say in the Big City. What negative effects do stress have on you, and what are some of the best ways you’ve found to keep yourself healthy when you’ve stretched yourself?

Freelance, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (Last Day At LOOK Edition)

“I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?”
-Charlotte Brontë

Alas, my (truly excellent) work experience ends today, but it’s been an incredible run. I’ve been very lucky in that it’s been a hectic week and the writers and editors I worked with gave me a lot of assignments and opportunities to help out. I’ve written lots of different kinds of copy and interviewed some really interesting people on some equally interesting pieces. Plus I asked the editor about pitching pieces for her in the future and she told me to go right ahead and stay in regular contact. I’ve been on a high all week.

Now, how can I turn this into a regular job somewhere? Any British weekly publications (which are fun to work on in a completely different way than monthlies, and I’ve found it slightly addictive) need a plucky junior features writer?

While I scheme along those lines, here’s an extra long list of links for you to enjoy this weekend. As always, minions are encouraged to weigh in in the comments and link to other worthy of notice and note. Have a good weekend, and let me know what you’re getting up to!
photo look_zpsf830d1e7.jpg

Playing this (admittedly charming) game for real.

I unabashedly adored the Little House books as a child, but yikes! I’ve known for years that they walk the blurred, heavily edited line of fiction and nonfiction, but some pretty serious stuff was ruthlessly cut by Wilder’s daughter, who was the driving force in getting the stories written. I confess, I’d love to read the unedited manuscripts and get another POV of pioneer and prairie life.

The science behind clickbait. More interesting than you’d think. (See what I did there?)

Answering the age old question, or at least the one much of the Western press has been asking since Prince George was taken on his first tour and his baby cheeks became a meme.

Worth reading and considering, is irony ruining our culture?

Great and interesting piece on the importance of storytelling and narrative!

I’ve worked on a crowd funding campaign for a freelance client that was a really great and interesting project with a lot of future work planned, but it’s opened my eyes a lot to what that sort of funding can do. This fashion line, for instance, is making some waves and I think it might be an interesting way to open it and other traditionally closed and hard to break into industries in new ways.

Truth.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I know a lot of amazingly talented writers. I first met Ellie when our plays were being produced by Theatre Virginia as teenagers, she now works for Marvel comics and just released her second novel via ebook. Go check it out!

Leila, yet another awesome writer friend (of the sci-fi/fantasy variety) posted this useful guide the vernacularly fraught world of “yeah” and associates.

3D printing is a mesmerizing, weird, cool, intimidating (hi, guy who printed a gun), and totally innovative technology, but I think this 3D printing pen might be the most interesting design tool I’ve seen all month.

I’ve decided that being like Baroness Trumpington in my old age would be a worthy goal. I also want to read her new memoir.

The recent lawsuit surrounding AirBnB is sort of strange to me. Thoughts? Everybody I know sings its praises. Thoughts?

I found this art project interesting (and the link the rest of the artist’s work is well worth following).

Though I thought the now-famed Atlantic Piece, The Confidence Gap addressed some good points, I think this response, filled with suggestions, is pretty much spot on.

Emma Stone is my girlcrush of the week for this performance alone. (Confession, she is frequently my girlcrush for lots of reasons, not the least of which because she seems down right hilarious.)

Oh, Idaho. Having lived nearby I can totally see this happening.

Speaking of crushes, I’m personally and politically loving this initiative and PSA against sexual assault. Victim blaming, check. Speaking up when you see something wrong, check. Consent, check.

Freelance, Work, Writing

Freelance Talk: One Year Full Time

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
― Louis L’Amour

I just realized the other day that I was coming up on the first anniversary of going into full time freelance work and so I thought we needed to mark the occasion. One year ago today was my last working full time at the police department. I have no idea where the time has gone, it’s been such an intense year and a half of change that the months have flown by. Time for some recap and reflection!

In January of 2013, an offer of virtual assisting work (combined with training and invaluable mentoring) with friend and Friend of the Blog, Caitlin Kelly was my first chance at freelance work – look out for a couple of hopefully upcoming pieces about this on other sites! This led to other VA work, which led to content production work, which is (slowly but surely) leading to pitch work. Currently I’m working with authors, two entrepreneurial start-ups, and am subcontracted through other freelancers with multiple businesses. My writing is starting to appear on some external sites as well as I’ve learned how to pitch publications and organizations better.

I love freelance work, I love writing, and there are times I have to pinch myself to be convinced that it all isn’t a dream, joke, or prank. It’s been an uphill battle at times, but looking back, I’m really proud of where I’ve been able to get in 15 months.

I admit, sometimes there are days when I still manage to feel totally bogged down or even despondent. Student loans are still a worry, we have to budget things tightly, and there have been plenty of late nights where I’ve tried to put in as much work as possible in order to make ends meet. As I type this I’m nursing a semi-sore throat from one too many past-midnight work sessions since one of my major clients was on vacation last week and had turned over the majority of her content commitments to me to manage, in conjunction with the design team. An exciting (though thankfully temporary) jump in responsibilities that gave me a lot of good experience, but it certainly upped some of my stress levels.

And yet, in spite of financial or other worries, when I emerge from my work fog or To Do lists and look up, I’m unbelievably grateful – and totally overwhelmed by how much change a year and half has brought. I got what so many people needed: an opportunity to try and learn and attempt the kind of work I wanted. A foot in the door. And it has made all the difference. A year ago, I never would have guessed I’d be working, however temporarily, in a major magazine office today.

I was talking to an old schoolmate the other day. Back in middle school we both toted notebooks around (a la Harriet the Spy) which we filled and replaced regularly with day-to-day observations, ideas, whole short stories and – very bad – poetry. We read and critiqued one others work, encouraged each other, and both dreamed of the day when we would make our living by our pens.

Fifteen years later, we’re doing it. She works for a major cultural heritage institution drafting all kinds of content, from letters to grant proposals…and is querying her first novel. I write website copy, social media campaigns, research summations…and my articles, both personal and professional, are being seriously considered and published. It’s not at all what we thought our lives would look like at 13 years old. I think it’s better.

Today’s notebook, the inheritor of teenage ambition. A bit battered, but still stuffed full of ideas and goals – though sans bad poetry.