freelancing does not suck!

My vision board... Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Nicole

I posted this on the UPOD Yahoogroup that I'm on (UPOD is a writer's group and it stands for Under Promise Over Deliver) and I got enough positive feedback on it that I thought I'd share it here, too.

I posted it in response to a writer who posted about freelancing being not as financially lucrative as his previous full-time job, and he was lamenting that freelancing was not so glamorous. This was my response:

I am sorry that you are making less now than with a full-time job. That is probably the state of affairs in this business for MOST freelancers, but most freelancers choose this life (those that DO choose it, rather than who were laid off and got into it involuntarily) because we love the freedom of waking up whenever we want, working in our pajamas, getting time to spend time with our kids – or friends – when we want, and working when we want. Yea that sometimes means two weeks of deadline-hell where we work til 2am and fall asleep at the computer, but it also means the ability to travel whenever, wherever, and go to all the kids' events and be there when they get home from school. I don't know if you have kids, but whatever your case may be, I'm sure there are benefits of freelancing that outweigh the "money" situation because after all, money alone does not a happy life make.

That said, I wholeheartedly agree with advice to "follow the money." When I left grad school to freelance full-time, I decided I wouldn't write for less than $1/word. That's my gold standard (and now I often make more than that). That's also why I never in a million years would write for a newspaper, I don't care how prestigious it is – unless they can pay me what I need. Truth is, I'm a single mom and I have to pay the bills, and that's what I need in order to GET BY. I also value a high quality of life which means a balanced life. I work like a madwoman at times, but I also spend time with my kids, friends, God, and I take time to travel (which is always, for me, "work-fun").

I once read an interview with the actor Will Smith and he said he analyzed who made the most $ as actors and it was those in action-adventure movies, so that's where he's focused his talents. In freelancing the advice is the same: Find who pays the best, and pursue them. Of course, it all depends on your ultimate goals. If your ultimate goal is prestige, then pursuing prestigious pubs may be what you want to do, But you indicated frustration with finances, so focus on who pays. It may not even be consumer publications. Maybe you need to balance your portfolio out with some corporate writing, or whatever. I also agree with the importance of networking. There's NO substitute for meeting editors face to face!

My freelance career has ebbed and flowed, and there was one year in the depth of the recession when I stood in line to get food stamps (but because I had JUST deposited a check, despite being flat broke for 60 days before, I wasn't eligible – I could easily see how people play the system. Had I just waited to deposit it, I could have gotten on them and once on, it's easy to stay on – but that's another story entirely). Nevertheless, my income has increased substantially, and this month I made more than $10,000 – just from writing for consumer pubs and teaching my online writing class. I am really proud of that!

The economy is definitely improving in my estimation, and I am glad I didn't cave in and take a full-time job when times were tough (I applied, and didn't get them). What I did get was a "free car" offered by the Universe – God provides… and that solved my biggest concern of the time, which was – what happens if my Subaru with 200,000 miles on it dies? A random stranger who read my blog contacted me out of the blue to give me a Honda Accord… no kidding. He even put new tires, new belts, gave me a box full of oil and filters, gave me all the records, waxed and polished it and put a roll of shiny quarters in the "quarter drawer"). Every morning I get in that car, I am still amazed, two years later.

Other ways to get your life in line with your vision – CLARIFY your vision. If you want to make $X/year, then make mini-steps to how to get from here to there. And this may be too woo-woo for ya, but vision-boarding (looking at images in magazines that appeal, and creating a board with words and images that appeal to what you want) and journaling are great ways to establish a vision for your future that is everything you desire, and more.

And keep focusing on the positive aspects of the freelance life. Just changing the words we use can make a difference. I used to ALWAYS say "I'm so broke." But a couple years ago, I made a conscious choice to stop saying that phrase, and when I stopped saying the words and focused on the positive – what I DID have, what I was thankful for, what God did provide (or the Universe or fate or whatever you call it), things turned around. And also, give back (as David also suggests) – whether financially or of your time. I have an open hand policy in terms of sharing contacts and advice and also finances – when we give freely, the Universe provides back.

nutrition, vegan eating, & science denial - oh my

West Texas Thunderstorm - Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

I am sitting here eating carob blueberry ice cream - vegan, sugar free, dairy free - and yumilicious! I did a 7-day juice fast following an online course by Casey Lorraine and Philip McCluskey (who lost 400 pounds by juice fasting and going raw/vegan. Wow - impressive! And he looks like my exboyfriend... Not the 400-pound version - ha ha). Anyway, so now I am doing their 28 day Beautiful Body Detox course, which is basically like I was eating before the fat flush - no dairy, no wheat/gluten, no added sugar (fruit only) but I'm also trying to not eat oil a la Joel Fuhrman and his bestselling Eat to Live book. OK, let me rephrase that. I don't usually just eat oil... rather, cook with oil. I have discovered baking vegetables on...parchment paper! And making kale-avocado salad without the Tablespoon of oil. And it's just as good!

I am really trying to be committed to my nutrition and my fitness. I have a tendency to alternate eating really healthy with eating crap. I go through stages where I eat a lot of sweets. And coffee is (or was) pretty much a staple of my diet. I have a huge sweet tooth and I also was eating a lot of corn chips... not to mention kale chips, but those are ok. And the homemade Carob ice cream is sweetened by Stevia, which is ok on this plan. So I'm just trying to get into a more healthy eating pattern and lose maybe just 5 pounds but mostly it's about being more fit and toned! And less using food as comfort (though I do love me some food!) I have made soooo many recipes since I have been off the juice a week -- marinated tofu triangles, kale-avocado salad, "faux" tuna (with garbanzo beans and cashew cream), zucchini-sagna (raw zucchini & tomato slices with pesto in between), and loads of smoothies and fresh juices. Today it was cinnamon vanilla carrot juice! And I may be doing 3 months of "boot camp" at my gym. Yikes!

I have a load of travel coming up in October, but some I am still trying to nail down, so I will update on that soon, and possibly a trip to Costa Rica in November. THAT I am super excited about! This Christmas, I won't have the kids, and my mom & stepdad will be in Hawaii so.... I have to figure out something to do so I'm not all alone! Will probably end up in Cali visiting one or another of my best friends.

And, here are my latest stories! Let me know what you think! The first one is on a topic I am really passionate about. And before I say adieu, how about that Mars Rover Curiosity sticking its landing?! :)

• Flavors of Uncertainty: The Difference between [Science] Denial and Debate. Aug 2012 Environmental Health Perspectives. Aug 2012 (PDF here). A feature that arose from my visit to the Science Denial conference in Madison, WI (remember the pics?)
• One Study, Two Paths: The Challenge of Dual-Use Research A feature for Environmental Health Perspectives on research that can be used for good or evil -- brought to light by the recent hubbub over the avian influenza genetic engineering research. Jun 2012.

Heading to Wisconsin. Cheese anyone?

 Mount Kanchenjunga in eastern Nepal, the world's third tallest peak (or, "how a Texas-sunshine-lover views the frigid far north of Wisconsin, where I am heading...").
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp.

In a couple days I embark on my next adventure. This time it's to the far north! Well far enough that my memory of the place is that my boogers froze and my nose turned red and icy between my front door and the bus stop, which actually was directly outside of my house. Yep, I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a couple of years of my life - 8th and 9th grade - and about the ONLY thing I remember from that time (besides my friends) was the cold-ass winters. Only I didn't call them that, then. I had moved there from Portland, Oregon, where I'd only spent a year, and from there I moved to Houston where I graduated from high school. I made some great friends there, and yet despite my connecting with friends from almost every other place in the US where I have lived, I have never seen any of my friends from Minneapolis since high school. That is about to change!

Technically, what brings me to the far north is a really cool conference: Science Writing in an Age of Denial, held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I heard about it a few months back and just knew I had to be there. What a cool topic! As some of you know, the whole issue surrounding evolution and Christianity is a long-time passion of mine, and so this was something I really wanted to write about (and yes, I have an assignment!). It's a 2-day conference, and I'm really excited about it. I'll be staying at the Wisconsin Union hotel, which looks pretty nice and is adjacent to where the conference events are held.

But here's the even cooler part: I will be seeing two of my friends from Minneapolis while there! First, I have a three-hour layover in Minneapolis so my friend Kris is picking me up from the airport and taking me by my old house, and then out to eat yummy Thai food or something. We are both super excited.

And then, after the conference, I will be spending a day and a half with my other friend Theresa, who is driving to Madison from Minneapolis to visit me. We have found a super cool looking B&B that is ecofriendly. I got a recommendation from some other writers and local Madisonites, and this one was the coolest I could find. It's called Token Creek Eco-Inn and we are staying in the Capitol Room Suite! Other than that, Theresa and I have planned to go visit this cool thing about an hour outside Madison called House on the Rock. I don't know a whole lot about it but Theresa wanted to go and it looks way cool!

Oh - ha ha - I have to mention a funny conversation I had with Theresa about the weather there. I was like, what has the weather been? She was all, it's warm like 60 in the day and 40-50 at night. And I was all, in Texas, that is winter weather, and I would wear jeans and a hat and a sweater. She was like, ha ha everyone here is putting on summer shorts and t-shirts! Then she added, you will want to bring a light jacket or something for evening, and I'm all uh-huh right, I will pack my down North Face jacket! :)

Simple Pleasures!

Trekking in Eastern Nepal. Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."
- Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

It's been pretty darn busy around here since I returned from the Gulf of Mexico trip (remember, my nickname is Whirlwendee, after all)! First I had to write a feature, then I had to edit it some, then I had to work on another piece - which I have finished a draft of and am now letting it "gel." I like to have a week, or at least a few days, after writing my initial draft where I can set it aside, and not think about it. Then I come back to it, tweak it, and it always ends up the better for it. Sometimes I do not have that luxury, when I'm working right up to my deadline. So after stressing a bit over an approaching deadline, I was very happy that I finished a draft early so I can have the time to let it sit, and come back to it in a couple days. And meanwhile, I can catch up on my email that is ever-accumulating. I feel much more on top of things when I'm caught up on my email - don't you? I like to keep my inbox under 100. That means I sort and file a lot of emails, but still.

After almost 2 years, my boyfriend and I broke up. So... it's been a bit rough. We have gone back and forth, back and forth, gotten close, grown apart, spent time traveling (both for our respective work) and in the end, it just isn't working for either of us. Even though this is a cliche, it was sort of like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Really, we can't change our man. We can love someone, but after enough time you start to see that who they are, or how they behave towards you, can't be explained or justified by... unemployment, stress, etc etc. It's good to be able to see people we love at their "worst" because to make a long-term relationship move to a deeper level, we're eventually going to see that anyway. But when it's not pretty, and it drags you down too, that can't be a good sign of hope for a beautiful future.

I started reading The Artist's Way again, and this morning was sitting outside in my backyard and read about how we creatives are often attracted to "crazymakers" - sometimes relationship partners, sometimes friends, sometimes parents. I'm just sayin... sometimes we allow a relationship to steal away our creativity because we pour time, love, effort into that relationship instead of into nourishing our own spirit, soul, creativity. I love deeply and don't give up easily. I tried so hard. We even tried to break up before, but never could make it stick. I miss him. But I can't go back. Even though he's now doing things that are so wonderful for his life, making new friends, training for new jobs that contribute positively to the world. Not now. I wish him well, and will continue to be his friend.

So, I have made a commitment to nourish my creativity and to devote the next few years to making sure I have good relationships with my kids as they move into young adulthood. I only have 3 and 4 years left with the two of them, and it will fly by! I am going to look for workshops and such for things like parent-child communication, listening skills, and that kind of thing. So imagine my surprise and delight when just this very day I came across two very cool things that I am going to participate in online, and they're totally FREE! Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way talks about how when we step out in faith, serendipity intervenes and God puts these things in our path.

• The first thing is a 40-Day "Inner Mean Girl 40-Day Cleanse" - to get rid of the inner critic voice inside that drags us down. It's taught by 6 different relationship/life coaches, all online and all free! It begins on Wednesday, so sign up now if you're interested. There's also a free MP3 audio of the Mean Girl School Open House you can download here. I just did but haven't yet listened to it. The website says, "How to transform the critical voice in your head so you can stop being so hard on yourself, enjoy your life & feel truly successful!" I'll report back!
  
  
• The second is a teleclass "Get Close. Get Real" by Sharon Day - about connecting more deeply with your daughter. It's on Sep 7 at noon central time, and it's free. I think that she may be offering a longer teleworkshop after that which is not free, but I'm just doing the free one for now!

The cool thing is how this so closely ties into what I'm reading about in The Artist's Way. Ch. 1 actually talks about "blurts" which are things that our inner critic says when something positive happens. The goal is to replace them with positive affirmations.

On another note, finances have been really tough lately (over the past couple years, like many people) and another thing that was really stressing me was feeling like I was trapped in my home and would not be able to sell it if I needed to. I have a great little house and have kept it up well - other than the carpet which definitely needs some work due to my bulimic cat - but I had started and not finished some projects and knew I needed them done before I could even think about selling. I had always wanted Doug to come help me work on them, but since that's not going to happen now, I empowered myself by deciding that myself and the kids would do the work together. Basically I have to paint a wall, a bathroom, and a ceiling because I started to strip off wallpaper border I didn't like after I first moved in 5 years ago and quickly realized...this was not working. The border was stuck steadfast to the wall and my attempts to use DIF (the blue wallpaper glue loosener) only succeeded in turning my wall and ceiling blue. So...it had stayed that way for years! Sam spent last week taping up my wall, and then we got the rest of the border off, sanded down a couple parts of the wall, spackled in the holes, and am all ready to prime and paint. Yay us! Baby steps...

Today is a good day. I feel happy about my article, and about the two free online finds, and am about to go to Panera Bread and work catching up on emails. I finished a 12-day Master Cleanse and am truly enjoying the simple pleasures of drinking coffee, nibbling on ginger chocolate, eating homemade vegetable soup. I enjoy conversations with my friends, new and old, and am feeling spacious and open to what the universe holds for me in the next few years.

Writing Away!

The view from where I'm at.
Another view of the mountains.
A fellow science writer friend I met on the trip - Cheryl Reifsnyder, on a hike behind our cabin.

Having a good time so far, about halfway through the retreat now. I'm in Breckenridge, Colorado at the Writing Away Retreat with about 15 other book authors or prospective authors plus four who give us feedback on our manuscripts: editor Kevin Doughten from Penguin Viking (who edited the paperback edition of Michael Dowd's Thank God for Evolution), Tim O'Connell from Knopf, author Linda Rorbrough, and agent Sorche Fairbank. But now it's time to get in the hot tub, so I'll update more later!

The Bohemian!

Sunset in the bamboo forests high in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. A few of us were setting up a "camera trap" to try to get shots of the endangered red panda and we were on a very steep side of the mountain. I remember these moments so well. One day I'll share several from the series of the sunset that evening. Wow!
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendeee Holtcamp

I just finished a draft of my article on the Houston toad. When I say draft, I've already spent a decent amount of time editing and revising. It doesn't come out perfect! As Anne LaMott says in Bird by Bird, just work on your sh*tty first draft, and go from there. You've got to quiet the internal editor the first go-round or you'll never get anything down.

I always love this point, when after hours and days of working on it it all comes together and I can put it aside for a bit. I prefer to let an article sit for a day or two, but in some cases like this one, when I"m pressing up against deadline, that's not possible. I do however have to wait for some fact-checking from some of my sources so I may get it anyway. So lucky me, I get to blog before bed! I had an exhausting 500-calorie workout and I'm about ready for sleep. Doug is putting me to shame though. In his offshore vessel they have a nice gym and he's been burning like 1,000 calories. I'm like no fair! You weigh more so you burn more calories.

I wanted to share a link to a Q&A with yours truly at The Reef Tank blog: The Bohemian. Kinda cool, if I do say so myself. Tomorrow I'll share some more recipes! I made one that was out of this world!

I know there is much more I wanted to share, but my mind is too sleepy to think straight. Oh! I know. Next week, I am heading to San Antonio for an article I'm writing on water conservation (well, sort of) and since it's the kids' spring break I decided to bring them. We went to SeaWorld in San Antonio a couple years back, but they haven't been to the Riverwalk and the Alamo and the like since they were very young. So I'll kill two birds with one stone! I get so excited in my soul for even the smallest adventure these days! I'm going to visit Government Canyon State Natural Area and hike the canyon because that plays a role in my story.

And last, I'll point you to my latest article in Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine's March issue. Unwelcome Visitors: Invasive zebra mussels can wreak havoc on ecosystems. (They've just recently been documented in Texas for the first time ever).

more Houston toads!

The other day I went to Houston Zoo's 'Princess Day' - to bring awareness to Houston toad (Bufo houstonenis) conservation. It was a benefit event where young girls could dress up like princesses and come and "kiss" toads in honor of the latest Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. These are some photos I took that day of the event and the toads. So cute! If you look close at the terrarium you can see one of the toads in the corner.



Young kids are so amazing! It's like they're on a spiritual plane that is so close to God, so curious and genuine and intense and mystical and imaginative all wrapped into a cute little bundle.
This toad was in the terrarium at Princess Day and is hidden in the sandy soil which is what they do in the wild. They prefer habitat with sandy soil.


A bullfrog skeleton.
Afterwards, I went to the quarantine facility again to take some more photos. These "mating" (technically amplexing) toads show the size difference between male and female.
Toads have quite variable coloration, and it can change even on a single toad. I think that in breeding season they can become more colorful, like this reddish one, and cold temps make them darker (see below).

This big ol' girl must be pretty darn cold!
Ditto. Same toad, different shot.

If all goes as planned, I'll be heading on another bohemian adventure this weekend! I'm going with conservation biology professor Mike Forstner on surveys to listen and look for Houston toads calling in the moonlight (for the article I'm writing of course). They're found in Bastrop State Park and a few counties around there, and that's pretty much it, in all the world. And they're on a runaway train barreling down a broken track over the abyss.

Lucky for the toads, a brand new (last few years) head-start program atthe Zoo is going to do wonders for them, I think. Toads lay a lot of eggs, which make a lot of tadpoles (though fewer tads than eggs); they invest nothing in the offspring and most die. By taking eggstrands into captivity and raising them until they become juvenile or adult toads, they help many more survive than would in the wild. And then release them back where the eggstrand came from. This program is going to result in many more individuals in the wild, which will mean more will be available to breed to then make more toads. It's still a relatively new project, but very important in a species declining so rapoidly over the past 50 years, and continuing a decline despite Endangered Species Atc protection since 1970. Headstarting has been used for a couple other endangered species including Kemp's Ridley sea turtles (which I wrote about for Defenders Magazine - Surf's Up for These Sea Turtles) and the Plymouth redbelly turtle.

i'm a blogging fool!

My eyes/Copyright (c) 2009 Wendee Holtcamp

I have decided to start trying to blog here more, but every time I open up the browser window to write something I get a mental block and I end up not blogging. So here I go, I'm a blogging foo! As I've mentioned in my previous scattered posts, things have been bleak over here. I've been struggling. But finally, a major change in my life happened recently, the end of a relationship that has been a bit of a struggle for some time. There's love, and wonderful things, but also challenges that we need to set aside the "us" and each move in life on separate paths now. I am trying to get my footing again, and actually it's been a sort of slow process because I have spent the last two months on and off trying to get back to the gym more, trying to get together with friends more. My creativity feels like it's suffered. and the overwhelm feeling is often there because of sooooo much to do, deadlines, projects, house stuff, life...

One positive thing, I have absolutely enjoyed doing the Animal Planet Animals in the News blog - it's such a joy to write! I think I love it because it's so concise, short, and with a quick turnaround between writing and publication. The story ideas are easy to come by because they're based on stories already out there 'in the news' so I just research, talk to scientists or others, write it up, fact check, put it online, add links, add photo, and before long, wha-la there's my article, published!

I am really enjoying keeping up with all the animal news around the world on a more regular basis too. I love being able to pick what I write about. I love science-based stories. I love positive stories in which conservationists are recovering a species, or there's some good news but boy there's a lot of bad news out there too. I try to write about invertebrates at least once a week because they don't get enough media play compared to the cute cuddlies or the big scaries. And speaking of big scaries, next week is Shark Week!! (Not that I think sharks are scary!) I have all shark stories in the hopper. It reminds me of when I dove with the sharkies in the Coral Sea last April... man that was a truly mind-blowing profound experience!! I have been talking with Sean a bit about maybe doing that documentary in the Solomon Islands, or seeing whether we can get some funding! That would be sooo cool. Oh and hey, the 2-hour documentary Mysteries of the Shark Coast - in which I appear with a yellow bathing suit and braids walking through the background a few time, and acting as the "shark nurse" handing Richard Fitzpatrick tools for the shark surgery - may air again next week so check it out! Here;s a cool descrip of the show, but it's on the Discovery UK site. And just for fun, here's a link to a game I helped write shark questions for: Sharkrunners!

So there you have it. Slow but steady wins the race. I went to my Thursday morning coffee this morn with my girlfriends, a group that has sort of withered away over the past months and I really, really miss it! A woman from the group who had moved across the pond was back in town and I'd never met her but truly enjoyed sharing a wonderful conversation with her about New Zealand, Australia, whale watching, dolphins, sharks and the like!

I'm heading to Dallas tomorrow morning with my kiddos to visit my mom and stepdad and my adorable niece Kira who is in town from Cali (she flew into Houston, actually, so I got to take her to the museum and hang out with her for a while here too - hadn't seen her in 2 years before then!). I haven't been to see my mom/stepdad in quite a while though they've come down here recently. And we didn't kill one another! We actually got along quite lovely this time. So life progresses and unfolds in always weird and wonderful and mysterious ways, doesn't it?

Here are a couple of my latest publications:

Lone Parents: Virgin Birth in Sharks. BioScience Magazine (Am Inst of Biological Sciences) July/Aug 2009.

The discovery that sharks can reproduce asexually means that mammals are the only jawed vertebrate lineage incapable of parthenogenesis. But can this surprising capacity make any difference to shark survival as their populations decline?

Blue-Green Mystery - Texas Parks & Wildlife mag July 2009.

"It may be one of science’s most impressive pieces of detective work. Biologists at the Institute for Ethnomedicine, led by Director Paul Alan Cox, believe they’ve found the culprit for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and other “tangle diseases” including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and supranuclear palsy. The tiny neurotoxic molecule BMAA (β-N-methylamino-L-alanine) is produced by blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) found worldwide. The good news? The discovery could lead to a cure. The bad news? BMAA in drinking water could be a health risk even at low levels, but no one’s testing for it in water supplies yet."

My beautiful niece Kira! The photo as taken by and edited by my daughter Savi! This was at the Museum of Natural Sciences. Kira doesn't like her picture taken! She's incredibly smart, and fun and sweet!
Me, in pigtails... I took this one, a self-portrait
My gorgeous son Sam at the beach. Taken by Savi!

Random things

Central Park, New York City. I love New York!
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

I don't have the energy to write a real blog post, but I feel I'm getting behind on keeping everyone up on the latest. So taking the lead from my daughter, who did this on her blog, I am going to do a bulleted list!

• I took Sam to see the Disney/BBC movie earth with his 7th grade class today and it was phenomenal!! The footage is just gorgeous and seeing it on the big screen was incredible. I had watched almost all of the Planet Earth shows on Discovery Channel (in fact, if you didn't know, I wrote half of the animal profiles in the online animal guide!), but this had about half new footage and a great storyline. It takes you all through the earth's major biomes, following the lives of several wildlife species. It includes some funny footage, and some dramatic and breathtaking. Two thumbs up! (OK and that was a very extensive bullet, I get it).
  

• I am learning how very fast I can write! Penning five blog posts a week (on the Animal Planet Animals in the News blog) is quite a feat for me! I am a slow writer, or so I always thought. Writing can be like pulling teeth at times. I sit and stare at my computer screen. But this is different. Research, write, fact check. I've been cranking out stories at double speed because I want to get a backlog of some stories in case I get sick, and also because my book draft is due in a month, and I need a bit of breathing room to get the bloody thing done!
  

• I have written about all manner of cool topics on the blog! They include fluorescent puppies, the Great turtle race, cloning the woolly mammoth, resurrection spiders, and the fact that birds, it turns out, can get down to James Brown (that is, they can dance to a synchronous beat). Upcoming topics include newsy stuff on chimps, worms, Galapagos penguins, cassowaries and more.
  

• I am listening to The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner on audio CD. He's an NPR correspondent and he wrote a book about traveling to the countries that research has shown to be the happiest. So far he's gone to the Netherlands, Switzerland and Bhutan. am enjoying his wry sense of humor. He even invented a word I love - conjoyment which is a cross between joy and content.


• In an attempt to reverse my "feeling down" of late (though it has lifted mostly for the time being) I did two things which bring me joy and which I used to do and haven't in a while! I went to Zumba again, th eone taught by my awesome friend Trish who is so full of energy and love and joie de vivre someone in the class deadpanned (I don't know about Trish. I think they need to do a drug test). The sceond thing is I got together with my girlfriends! Charlotte was in town visiting froim Colorado and she had an informal get together at Wazabi Sushi bar and it was so great to see everyone. Most of my time these days is spent writing, writing and writing some more. I spend any free time with Doug, and/or my kids.

Trish, Me, Georgia, Charlotte and Kate (Amy had left just before)!

So there you have it!

Gulf Dead Zone

My latest article is out! Dead Zone. When fertilizer-laden runoff from the Mississippi River empties into the gulf, algae thrives — and marine animals die.

It opens:

I'm in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a modified shrimp boat, the R/V Sabine Lake, and a trawl net's worth of ocean catch has just been unceremoniously dumped on board. A pile of slimy, silvery things squirm and flip around a square tray, but the large iridescent eyes of a dozen or so little squid enthrall me. I watch as small dots on their whitish-clear bodies pulse and expand as they turn rust-red. The pulsating dots are called chromatophores, TPWD biologist Kirk Blood tells me as he picks through the catch, counting and measuring each organism.

And later down in the piece when I define the dead zone:

Also known as a zone of hypoxia, the dead zone is an amoeba-like blob of oxygen-deprived water that stretches down the Louisiana and Texas coastline and has blighted the Gulf of Mexico for at least the past half-century. Hypoxia sounds like a Harry Potter killing curse to extinguish ocean life — Hypoxia kedavra! A pox on your ocean! A pox on your fish! All those things that lie on the ocean floor — your clams and sea stars and polychaete worms and freakishly colored nudibranchs — death to them all! And that is pretty much what it means.

This piece is for the Annual Water issue (July) for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, which focuses on The State of the Gulf of Mexico. Last year they did The State of Lakes, in 2006 they did The State of Wetlands, in 2005 they did The State of Springs and in 2004 they did The State of Rivers. I've had one or two features in every water issue since 2004. I've been writing for the magazine since 1998, and it's had a series of editor turnovers but my current editor has been there for some time now and he's really been a dream editor, that editor who really gets - and likes - your unique style and allows your voice to shine through, and who champions you as a person and writer. He's a great guy.

I have a second piece in this magazine also that is a sidebar to Elaine Robbins article "Hidden Giants" on sperm whales. My sidebar is "More Unusual and Elusive Gulf Creatures" and you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see it. But in the magazine it's got a lot of cool color photos!

bird by bird

I had checked out the Shark Week 20th Anniversary DVD set from the library and finally got time to watch a couple of the shows. I hesitated as to whether I should watch this, because I really do not feel scared at all about the prospect of swimming with or diving with sharks, so I wondered whether it might just be best to stay in a state of total oblivion as to what I'm getting myself into, rather than sitting around watching shark attack shows!

But I decided to watch. At first I just watched a nice sweet documentary about various sharks - the gentle giant whale sharks, the smaller reef sharks, manta rays, and a bit about great white shark natural history. Ho hum. Then I decided, what the heck, I will next watch the Shark Attack show.

Big Mistake!

Just kidding.... Actually, it didn't scare me at all either. I did learn some things that were quite interesting. For one thing, most shark atacks occur at the surface when people are swimming and thrashing about or surfing. Underwater, as I will be, you're at much less risk since you are not kicking and appearing to be a struggling prey item. One one of the shows, one shark diver regularly swims really close to tiger sharks - the second most aggressive shark - and believes it to be safe.

What scares the bejesus out of me is staring at the ginormous stack of receipts from 2007 that I have to now organize and compile for my income taxes. I am only home for 6 more days before leaving for Australia (there's a trip to Colorado and Palo Duro Canyon in there first). How the heck am I going to get it done, with all the other things I need to do?

In the writing classes I teach, my students often talk about feeling overwhelmed at the task of knowing where to begin. There are so many angles to tackle learning to publish in magazines. We analyze the magazines themselves. We come up with saleable ideas. We work on our writing, and we work on query letter writing. So with all these things, it can simply seem overwhelming to get started and to just sit down and do it. But that's what you gotta do. Just start.

Anne Lamott writes in her book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, (which is one of my favorite books and absolutely hysterical) about how her brother had this huge report due on birds that he's waited until the last minute to do. He was in near tears sitting at the kitchen table, overwhelmed. Their dad came up and said to him, "Bird by Bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."

I like to call them microsteps . Often an overwhelming task can be broken down into something more manageable when you set microsteps, and accomplish them one by one. Bird by bird.