Note: I wrote the following story for the Smarter Artist Pity Par-tay Flash Fiction Contest. It’s a silly story involving some of the people from the Smarter Artist Summit (April 26-27, 2017), and involving a mashup of an item chosen from each of two columns. Apologies in advance to everyone whose name appears… of course this is all a work of fiction, and you’re all awesome. Other than this Celeste person, who is entirely fictional. As is Elliott.
Writing
12 Tips for Becoming a Freelance Writer
Lots of people look for advice about how to become a freelance writer. It’s a great way to get away from cube farms, bureaucracy and crazy bosses (at least most of the time!) Because I was able to turn writing into my full-time profession, I wanted to help out others who want to pursue this career path. So I did what writers do: I wrote up a 12-step guide on how to get started. This guide is based on my own experience as well as a bunch of advice I learned from fellow writers when I started out.
In the guide, I talk a little about the business of freelancing, how to set prices and determine what to write about, when the dry spells hit (and how to prepare!) and other advice on how to get started.
It’s over on my Medium blog as well as on the Texas Freelance Association blog. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Short story: Solid as a Rock
Looking for a short read?
My short story “Solid as a Rock” is available on Amazon now! It’s a lighthearted story of Luke, a homeless veteran, and what happens after his mentor dies unexpectedly.
Special note: This is your first introduction to Luke, but it’s not the last you’ll see of him. He’s going to be popping up in future novels, including a major role in book two of my upcoming time travel series.
I’d love for you to check it out. If you like it, let me know (and it would be wonderful if you post a review on Amazon!)
BrainstormATX: The Little Conference that Could
Austin is the “Live Music Capitol of the World.”
However, I’m convinced we have more writers in this city than we have musicians. The problem is, authors aren’t as visible as musicians, and we tend to be more introverted, so people don’t realize how many writers there actually are in Austin.
Making matters worse, for a city as artsy as Austin, there aren’t a lot of organizations and events for writers that help raise awareness and build community. After many conversations with fellow authors, it became clear we needed to do something about it.
A crazy idea
Out of that, a crazy idea came into focus: a local, grassroots writer and author conference.
Austin is full of amazing writers and experts on other topics. It therefore made sense for the conference to be by, for and about our local community. We didn’t need to invite big names or look to other cities for talent.
It also needed to be affordable. Too many writing and publishing events are priced so high that average writers can’t afford to take advantage of them. And we needed to make all writers felt welcome, regardless of experience and choice of publishing platform (if they had even gotten that far).
Out of this inspiration, BrainstormATX was born.
Reality sets in
After all of this, BrainstormATX almost didn’t happen. The conference was going to be June 18th, but when May rolled around, almost no tickets were sold, and key volunteers were expressing a lack of time to work on conference planning. As I noted in an article on Medium, it’s very difficult to ask fellow writers and freelancers, all of whom have far too many commitments already, to give up much of their time for conference planning.
Below is our board that showed how many tickets had been sold (the filled in circles), how many we needed to break even (the red line), and how many we could sell in total. As of early May, we had only sold nine tickets.
That’s when panic set in. Could we really do this? Honestly, BrainstormATX came within inches of being cancelled. Thankfully, people stepped up to the plate when it mattered the most (thank you Leah and Carol, among others!), and a certain organizer climbed back off the ledge.
Soon the conference cruised right past the “too late to cancel” mark.
The Little Conference that Could
To try to drum up sales, we reached out to all of the authors we knew on social media and via email. We placed Facebook ads. Every local publication received information about BrainstormATX for their events calendars.
And we waited with our fingers crossed.
Slowly but surely, people bought tickets. One at a time, the board started filling up, until we reached the break-even mark. At that point we gained a stretch goal: if we could sell six more tickets, we could get breakfast tacos. Just six more! The six purple circles below the line represented tacos:
As the deadline to purchase tickets approached, we not only reached our secret stretch goal, but we blew right past it. BrainstormATX sold out every single available ticket.
Hooray! Everything was going perfectly! Now there was nothing could stop the little conference that could!
Wrong.
Problems… or opportunities?
When I showed up at 7:30am the day of BrainstormATX, volunteer coordinator Laurie greeted me at the door. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that all of the volunteers are here. The bad news is that the power is out in the whole neighborhood.”
Part of me wanted to panic. No power meant no lights, no refrigeration, no coffee… and no air conditioning.
When life gives you problems, you turn them into opportunities. As attendees started showing up and the power was still out, Michael Bunker saved the day. As the “Amish Sci-fi author,” for 45 minutes he told stories and tall tales about living without electricity. We iced down sodas and sparkling water meant for later in the day. And guess what? Austin writers are damned resilient and patient folks. As hot and sweaty as everyone was, we all stuck it out.
At 9:30am, 15 minutes behind schedule and an hour after Austin Energy told us we should have had power restored, I kicked off the conference with some announcements and a general welcome, and turned it over to Shelley Delayne, the moderator for our first panel.
Just as she began to introduce the first speaker, guess what?
The power came on!
From there, the conference was smooth sailing. We had lots of fascinating presentations from some great speakers, and all of the volunteers were fantastic, pitching in wherever needed. Without hesitation they ran out to buy ice (thank you Tom!) or took out trash or whatever other task needed to be done.
The quality of our speakers was off the charts. There was so much excellent information shared and people seemed to have a blast! Plus we offered attendees three meals and all the coffee, soda and beer anyone could ask for.
As it turned out, losing power was the greatest thing that could have happened. People got to know each other and bond over a shared experience. Even better, who will ever forget a conference where an Amish guy is telling stories in the dark?
BrainstormATX thanks all of our supporters
This conference could not have happened without a small posse of volunteers who stuck it out to the end. Thank you so much to Carol Gunn, Laurie Leiker, Leah Bartlett, Tom Meadows, Susie Meadows, Patti Lioon, Kimarie Bey, Sara Anbari, Densie Webb, Maekala West, Richard Loveland and Raine Teller.
Thanks also to the fabulous speakers: Michael Bunker, Matt Herron, Carolyn Cohagan, Clara Benson, Scott James, Thomas Umstattd, Lani Rosales, Amanda Quraishi, Leslie Watts, Shelley Delayne, and Laurie Leiker. Please check out their websites, buy their books, and show your love!
We also had some great sponsors. Thanks to Circle Brewing, Half Price Books, and Carol Gunn.
Most of all, thanks go out to Fibercove Coworking. Co-owner Felicity Maxwell and Ashley worked so hard all day long to make sure we had power, coffee, and everything else that would allow the conference to run smoothly. Without question it was their tenacity and determination that made everything work.
The future?
Planning a conference takes a lot of work, and over the next couple of months, we will need to identify a few people who are committed to making it happen. Please reach out to me if you would like to be involved, and we’ll see! 🙂
For now, I’d encourage local folks to join the Write It Already! meetup for writing instruction, support and community, and the Indie Publishing Austin meetup to learn more about publishing. We also have a Facebook group, Indie Authors Unite, for a community of like-minded authors.
CampConnect: My Trip to the Emerald City
As a freelance writer, my life can be summed up in three words:
Always Be Working
During the day I do a considerable amount of writing blogs and web copy for various freelance clients, as well as create my own fiction. Then there’s all the tasks of running a business, not to mention organizing a conference.
Having not left town for even a day trip in nearly two years, I had a craving to do a short road trip, but there was always a looming deadline, a meeting to attend, or some other reason why I couldn’t justify the time, or I’d just tell myself I couldn’t afford it. Maybe next month, I kept thinking.
Out of the blue I had an opportunity to join the first CampConnect weekend at Camp Lonehollow, receiving a complimentary invitation to attend as a blogger. Miraculously, there wasn’t a single thing on my calendar for the entire April 8-10, 2016 weekend. As described on the website, CampConnect promised to “inspire and engage my youthful spirit.”
Suddenly all my excuses had evaporated into thin air. I was finally getting to leave town for a couple of days and do something fun!
The Weekend Journey
Camp Lonehollow is located in Vanderpool, TX, population 22. It’s a few miles south of Lost Maples and just north of Utopia. In other words, it’s pretty much in the middle of Nowhere, Texas.
But what a beautiful Nowhere it is.
I decided to take the scenic route (which Google promised would take only five minutes longer than the interstate), following lonely two-lane highways through Blanco, Kendalia, Comfort, Center Point, and Medina. I crossed sparkling clear streams, sped past cows, goats, sheep and even bison, had strange looks from folks as I walked into gas stations with my purple hair, and gasped at the birds of prey coasting on air currents over the highway canyons that had been sliced through steep hills.
From a distance the hills could have been mountains, and I lost track of the number of times I marveled over the lush greenness of springtime in the heart of the Hill Country.
Hillbilly Hogwarts
After a slight detour when Google Maps sent me astray, I made it to Camp Lonehollow. It was like Dorothy approaching the Emerald City—I had no idea what I would find beyond those gates. There were horses, and a herd of antelope up on the hillside. And vast rolling hills of green. When I crested a hill and first saw the camp off in the distance I thought it looked like such a wonderful place—and when I realized it was my destination, I threw my ruby slippers out the window.
When I arrived, I saw no one around, so I entered the Headquarters building. There I was greeted by Matt, a charming young man who over the course of the weekend became our “Gopher” for the weekend, which with all of the food and amenities felt much like being on a cruise. After checking me in, he offered me cookies and small mason jars of ‘camp water,’ which I took to be limeade.
With tequila.
And that’s when I knew I had come to the right place.
After unpacking my car (with camp water in hand!) and meeting the first of my bunkmates Raquel, I headed down to the dining hall.
With the gorgeous chandeliers and elegant placesettings with flowers I couldn’t help but feel like I had just stepped into a land of magic. As Matt noted, it’s not exactly Hogwarts—but maybe it’s Hillbilly Hogwarts.
Be Present
Our mission for the next two days was to “be present.”
CampConnect brought together a few different groups of women, including lawyers and stay-at-home moms, the bloggers, and a handful of others. As it turned out, we all had issues that motivated us to attend. For some, it was a break from a hectic work or family life. Some were escaping a difficult relationship, or struggling with physical health concerns. For every single woman who attended, it was a chance to do something just for ourselves.
Meg and Molly, the two women who put this weekend together, really wanted us to put aside all of our worries and the stuff going on back home for a couple of days, and instead soak in the atmosphere, the company, and the spirit of CampConnect.
And at camp we had a chance to relax, network with fascinating women, challenge ourselves, and have fun. All while we were nestled in a pocket in the hills that blocked all cell coverage except in the dining hall. Some hiked to the top of the hill overlooking camp, while others rode horses, made bird’s nest necklaces, arranged flowers, hung out with the donkeys and alpacas, played with the dogs, relaxed with early morning yoga, and painted ponies (drawing on horses with water-soluble colors). Others grabbed a book, took photos or wrote, or even just took precious naps in the peace and quiet.
The Brûlée in Crème Brûlée
Camp Lonehollow is usually the location of kid’s summer camp, but roughing it wasn’t part of our agenda. Our cabins held some ridiculous number of pillow-top bunk beds (we never could seem to count them all after several glasses of wine!) and had ginormous showers.
At breakfast, lunch, and dinner we cast aside diets and calorie counts for Chef Mike’s gorgeous salads, steak, salmon, and ratatouille, with desserts of molten lava cake, tres leches cake and crème brûlée that no one was allowed to refuse. Over glasses of wine we told each other about our lives, our families, and our careers.
Sitting around the fire later, we roasted marshmallows for s’mores made with Godiva chocolate and shared some of our greatest personal challenges. Some of us stayed up late in our cabins, in what might have been our first slumber party in decades.
Explorations
For me, I wasn’t looking for a strenuous camp experience. All I really wanted was to get out of Dodge for a couple of days, do a little writing and introspection, and get away from the computer that ruled my life. I didn’t have huge expectations for the weekend, other than to find some quiet and enjoy some outdoor time.
And I found exactly what I was looking for at CampConnect.
While I had wonderful conversations with women I met over the weekend (I only knew one person before I arrived), I also had time to wander around, feed the alpacas, befriend the donkeys, sit beside the lake and write, and count the number of medicinal herbs I could find (for the record, despite a recent mowing of the property I did find verbena, mullein, horehound, agarita and prickly ash). I recharged my vitamin D reserves by sitting in the sun (although clouds followed us around, it never dampened our spirits), found unexpected inspiration from my fellow campers, and realized that as much as I felt like I didn’t fit in with that crowd at all, there was still a place for me there.
What’s Next?
This was Camp Lonehollow’s first CampConnect, and they have plans to do them several times a year outside of summer camp season. Their next CampConnect will be September 30-October 2, and to learn more about it, contact Molly at Molly@lonehollow.com.
With luck, I’ll see you there!
Photos
Hot Wells: in Real Life & in Fiction
Hot Wells is a San Antonio hotel that was built in the last 19th century and counted as its guests people such as Charlie Chaplin and Teddy Roosevelt.
Since that time the hotel experienced at least five different fires and now all that is left is the bath house, the hotel itself long gone. And even the bath house is now mostly a ruin, with walls that defy gravity and bricks piled everywhere. But despite its rundown appearance, it’s a magical place.