Most writers know – or soon learn – of the importance of using social networks to build their audiences and even get writing work. There are active communities of writers on Facebook and Twitter, sharing their work as well as connecting with each other and their readers. But what about LinkedIn? The social network for career and business professionals might seem more appropriate for people working in the corporate world, but as The Balance Small Business points out, it’s an e

No, that’s not a typo. It’s a pun. But it's not my pun, mind you. It's a trade name, so it's the manufacturer's. So don't groan at me. I’ve got myself a new toy – tool, that is – and I’m pretty excited about it. Throughout graduate school and for the past ten months or so as a writer, I was fishing for ways to do research and revise my work. For research, I tried Evernote, which I find useful for some tasks – but I struggled to organize things the way I wanted. I liked OneNot

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a post from another writer on Medium that mentioned “co-working.” That wasn’t the focus of her piece, but it caught my attention. Since I decided I’d try to make my next career working mostly for myself, I’d seen some posts and articles about the practice before. A co-working space is a place where freelancers, soloprenueurs, start-ups, and small businesses pay a membership fee to have a place to work. The proprietors provide the space and the inf

I'd like to take a moment to wish family, friends, readers, and supporters a Happy Thanksgiving. This year, as I approach some pretty major transitions, I'm thankful for 20 years of friendships forged and memories made around the world at sea, in the air, and - occasionally - in the bar. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have spent the last three years living and playing in the Last Frontier. I'm grateful and heartened by the support and encouragement of friends and family

I've not had the chance to post any updates lately, but the good news is that's because I've been busy. My current clients have a website relaunch coming up and a lot of content to get through. Fortunately, the subject matter is enjoyable and having the opportunity to do repeat jobs for the same clients has been a very good learning experience, as they appreciate my position in starting a new career and have offered invaluable feedback and constructive criticism. Hopefully th

I thought I'd periodically share books or articles I've found particularly interesting (probably not everything I happen to read - as anyone who's seen my Goodreads feed can tell you, that would probably get to be a bit much). I'll start off with Peter Bowerman's The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less. Catchy sub-title, even if I'm not in the position to actually need self-sufficiency in six months since my day job wil

Even though it's been about a month since I decided I might try to write for my next career, I've only been pursuing and working gigs for a couple weeks (the "day job" kept me busier than normal before then). Both of them were well-received; I hope to receive a link for the first one soon. The second one was a bigger job, involving more coordination with my clients (I think I've been on Skype more in the past four days than in the past seven years), and has turned into an o

As I write this, I'm almost exactly a year away from concluding a career in the US Navy, and even though I have 12 months left to go, I'm already looking forward. The position I'm in is an exciting one: a do-over of the opportunity to choose what you want to be when you "grow up," only this time with the benefit of some experience "out in the world" and, yes, a bit of a fiscal safety net. The answer to that question has gone through different stages over the past year or two,