Hot Off The Presses!
It's been a busy week for more reasons than one. The big one though has been a run of writing gigs, all of which I suspect will pop up in the next few weeks - including one in the UK. So I've been a little quiet here as I catered to the higher paying publications.
Right now I can't legally work in the UK, and Canadian pension and writing dollars wind up exchanging for about half as many British pounds - so it strikes me as a great time to ask without shame: please think about becoming a paid subscriber.
The reality of freelance writing today is declining markets, and declining payment rates. Fifty years ago you could pick up $1 or $2 a word from any number of print outlets, but since the Internet those have largely disappeared. Now most writers work on gigs that pay maybe $200 or $300 at a time, plus a tiny bit from Access Copyright each year, and things like subscriptions to blogs like this.
I'll be honest: a lot of what winds up here are things that just couldn't find a paying customer. The other things that freelance writers accept is that out of maybe twenty or thirty pitches you're lucky to sell one article or column.
I don't plan to make everyone pay to read what I write here - I know that we all have limits on how much we can afford to spend for on-line subscriptions. Certainly my subscription budget keeps growing, then shrinking as I pare back on what I pay for. Besides, this is also something I do because I can sometimes just go off on tangents for fun.
Regardless of whether you're a paid or free subscriber, accept my thanks. It really does matter that people are reading what I write, and your occasional comments and emails boost my spirits every time.
Locally, in Cambridge, it was summer yesterday, warm and sunny, for a few hours, and it was glorious. This town is a riot of spring flowers in every size, shape, and colour, and it leaves me wondering why Canadian gardens seem so drab and monotonous. And the cows have returned to the commons that are literally in the middle of Cambridge.
On a more personal level, Susan and I are still pondering our next move. On one hand England is lovely, and if a PhD is in the works it would be a logical place to stay. On the other hand, it's an expensive place for housing (but then so is most of Canada), and I would need to apply for and obtain a visa to stay and work here.
Vancouver, or perhaps the Island are an option, but that depends on finding a good place to live that meets our needs both in terms of a home, and a community with what we need to be happy. And that we can afford to live in, given a declining income, and paltry Canadian pensions.
And of course, like everyone else, much depends on Donald Trump initiating World War Three, or a Civil War in the US. Just how long can we rely on TACO to protect us?
