Monday night.. getting things switched

Monday's over. I'm headed to the sack.

I started the day out strong, despite allergies. I wrote four articles this morning for www.helium.com . I also wrote a few this afternoon. Essentially I got six done today. I'll post them here:

http://www.helium.com/items/999574-fantasy-films-books-fantasy
*This article is about the use of the theme of self sacrifice in fantasy films and books. It was the last article I did for the Reward-athon on Helium, which ended today. I think I did nearly 100, or maybe even more, for this event. Some cool cash coming my way.

http://www.helium.com/items/999529-underdog-mighty-mouse-about
*I wrote about some of the more memorable fantasy heroes in film and books. This is a list of some that have struck me the most.

http://www.helium.com/items/998613-things-green-brown-should
*Another article about aerating one's lawn. It's a good thing to do. We'll do it this season.

http://www.helium.com/items/998517-death-great-equalizer-lives
*A relatively entertaining article about the fun people can have with their epitaphs and obituaries.

http://www.helium.com/items/998388-spring-barrelling-toward-grandeur
*A discussion of spring allergy treatments. Mostly just informative, but I had fun with the prose.

http://www.helium.com/items/998247-election-roaring-civility-rhino
*Political analysis of Obama and Clinton. Basically I take a position on which would be more historic: President Obama or President Clinton.

And that's what I wrote today. I also got a job from my new client. This is looking good. I got started on it and will finish it tomorrow.

I also spent a good chunk of today getting the new laptop up and running. I did a big file transfer so that I could do all of my work on this machine. I downloaded Skype and loaded up Paint Shop and some other stuff. This is a good computer. I can work a lot faster with it than with the old one. I'll keep the old one around as a back up hard drive.

That's pretty much it! I need to get to bed tonight at a reasonable hour, so I'm going there now.

Gonna write a bestseller. Carpe somnium.

Thursday night... whew!

Alright, it's late and I want to hit the sack. The guy's coming early tomorrow to get our new door put in, so I need to be up and alert when he shows up.

I wrote thirteen articles for Helium today. One of them is an initiated title, so I can't post it here because it's not active yet. I will now happily post the links to the other dozen. Read 'em and weep! Actually they're all pretty good and some are even informative, so you'll like them.

http://www.helium.com/items/987882-quick-organic-bandwagon-organic
http://www.helium.com/items/987906-american-apotheosis-quality-scripted
(No, I've never watched American Idol)
http://www.helium.com/items/987945-credit-cards-greatest-financial
http://www.helium.com/items/988008-rings-wasnt-movie-cinematic
http://www.helium.com/items/988543-people-there-fantasy-films
http://www.helium.com/items/988674-people-1960s-decade-change
http://www.helium.com/items/988792-those-bumper-stickers-calvin
http://www.helium.com/items/988836-office-supplies-store-please
http://www.helium.com/items/988934-ready-important-veggies-onion
http://www.helium.com/items/989079-would-believe-yellow-tomoato
http://www.helium.com/items/989769-world-going-green-while
http://www.helium.com/items/989858-acting-oldest-professions-worry
the best actors in my opinion!

So there they are: twelve pretty good articles. The one I can't list yet is a commentary on a news event. I'm trying to do more of these because I am trying to hone my news write-up abilities in order to be more employable.

I had hoped to do a tech guide article today as well, but I ended up needing to follow up on some job and publicity stuff. I got referred to a lady who's writing a cool-sounding book about unusual ways to find work so I sent off some info to her to see if she's interested in my approach. I also investigated a couple of other potential clients.

So this is good. I am going to keep trying to build my freelance business while squeezing in time for The Cabin. I continue to have to adjust my time frame for finishing the first draft of this book, but that's really okay. At least I'm not just lazing off. I really need to do the practical writing too so that I can get the bills paid!

Speaking of bills, I am about to stomp on my laptop, or roto-till it into the garden. Man alive, it's just slowing down like crazy. I cleared and organized a huge section of it, but there's no difference in speed or capacity. It's just old I guess. Almost eight years, and for a computer, that's old. I need a new one profoundly, but we really don't feel like we can afford one. So I'll keep hurling tame epithets at it while it takes a full minute to close a browser window.

That's all for now. Gotta hit the sack.

Gonna be a bestselling author because I am doing the following: carpe somnium.

Late on a Wednesday e'en...

Gosh I love to sound pretentious.

I have to mention something. I imagine that every industry is filled with good people who are supportive and kind and who reach out to others. The writing profession does the same. Curtis, thank you for your thoughtful words and... I guess for the time you spent typing them. Really, that's a donation of a bit of your life, so thank you for that gift. Bob Younce, I don't know you well but have competed with you on www.helium.com and have seen you in the community forums. Thanks for the note. It means more than you probably intended it to, but as all writers know, we thrive on validation.

So that's my sentimentality for the day. Today I wrote nine articles for Helium. Yep, nine. And guess what? They all qualify for the Reward-athon, so wahoo. You know you want to read them, you know you do! Okay, I'll post the links. They will be in the order that I wrote them today, so you can judge if I get worse or better as the day goes on.

http://www.helium.com/items/983877-drink-merry-tomorrow-things
http://www.helium.com/items/986674-doesnt-night-games-getting
http://www.helium.com/items/986733-social-security-going-fading
http://www.helium.com/items/986772-access-hollywood-entertainment-tonight
http://www.helium.com/items/986817-homely-dictionary-might-picture
http://www.helium.com/items/987094-piranhas-swarms-sharks-media
http://www.helium.com/items/987109-karaoke-culture-beautiful-vibrant
http://www.helium.com/items/987118-fashions-foibles-interesting-gamut
http://www.helium.com/items/987152-united-states-suffering-winters

Okay, I'm not actually certain that the first link is an article I wrote today or yesterday. Oh well, it's a pretty good article.

Yes, it really is all a blur. Hey, don't give me a hard time; I'm trying to write another thirty articles in the next five days. Make that four days because I don't write on Sunday. Woohoo!

I sent out e-mails to prospective clients today, hoping to begin building my freelance business up more. I realized that I really could be doing more to make actual cash, so I'm going to go for it.

I haven't made time this week yet for The Cabin. I hope to tomorrow, but I am shooting for twelve to fifteen articles on Helium, so we will have to see. If I can keep this up, I will be at 1000 articles by the end of June!

Anyway, that's it really. I've begun reading The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. It's marvelous. I've read the first bit, Men Without Chests before, and I love it even more now. I'm actually taking notes on it, if you can believe it.

This is all a part of my effort to stop reading crap and start filling my head with good stuff. I am doing this because I've been lazy in my education thus far and I am finally feeling like an idiot for doing so. Plus, I pray my writing will be informed by the good writing and thinking of the geniuses of the craft.

So C.S. Lewis is first. Annemarie is also supposed to be getting us started on our joint reading of the classics soon, about which I'm very excited. Didja see that? I made sure not to end my sentence with a preposition. I just had to put that in.

Sheesh, I'm a git.

Love to mum and dad.. wherever that came from.

Gonna be a bestselling author and carpe THIS somnium, bub.