Composting and Looking Ahead

This summer, I spent a lot of time existing and not much living. If you've been around these parts for a while, you've probably guessed from my (few and far between) posts this summer that I've been in a bit of a slump. I can think of more things that I didn't do this summer, than things I did and when people ask how my summer was, I'm not sure how to respond. It came, it went and here it is, mid-October, my season full time employment wraps up this coming Sunday, and the long winter is staring us straight in the eyes.

I spent a lot of this summer in a state of melancholy. I've always been prone to glumness, but usually I buck up and shoulder on. This time however, I went for the full wallow. My creative well felt all dried up. It was all I could manage to work full time, fix dinner, tend and harvest the gardens, clean the house, run, and keep up with Etsy.(Okay, maybe I wasn't melancholy, maybe I was just tired.)

But last week I woke up on Monday morning and felt, like myself. I was awake. I was ready. I was tired of wallowing (or whatever the last few months have been about) and ready to get down to business. I'm calling this summer my "composting" summer; a fallow time necessary to grow great things in the days to come.

So here we are, a week later and I'm declaring it business as usual again here at Of Woods and Words. I'm committing to much more regular postings (I have so many post ideas floating around) and since this winter is appearing to be a little less project-heavy than last year, there may even be a blog redesign in the works before year's end. (Sorry layout, you're soooo March 2011.)I'm thrilled to be a mere week away from working from home and today has been a delicious little teaser, as I've been working from home (with the exception of a late morning board meeting) and actually working on my first freelance article in a couple months.

While it may feel (to me at least) that not much happened this summer, here's some of what's been going on during my absence:

We had our best garden year to date, despite a pretty cool summer. Last night was the first night we had a killing frost, which actually feels like a major blessing after harvesting gluts of green beans, kohlrabi, kale, potatoes, tomatoes, and so much more. Our freezers are filled to the gills and an empty mason jar is rare find in the cabin these days.

I've continued with my running and have 8 miles on the schedule for Friday's run. Whew! Running hasn't gotten easier per se, but it definitely has become a habit and I look forward to my runs, even though the decreasing amount of daylight has made it trickier to get my runs in before work. I got really into the Chicago Marathon yesterday and was so excited to think that in two years' time, I'll be one of those runners. Running = the bomb-diggity.

 

Over the last couple months, I got the lovelies above ready for a consignment order from Doodle Bird Design and Gifts in Minneapolis. I'm excited to have my knitting in an actual brick and mortar shop. If you happen to be a Twin Cities dweller, Kristin stocks a fantastic selection of handcrafted items from Minnesota artists and the shop is well worth a visit. Plus, you can buy a pair of my mittens, if you're not the sort of person to like waiting for Etsy orders to arrive. ;)

It's been a while, I know. What's new with all of you?!

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A Culture of Desire

I've often heard that bloggers are vain and/or self centered. Why else would we fill up a teeny corner of the internets with our ramblings? But we've come a long ways from Live Journal, or whatever that archaic thing I was using back in high school was, and any more bloggers are latest and greatest corporate marketers.

I have no issue with bloggers making money. Most of us own our domain name and I see no reason not to run advertising to cover blog maintenance expenses (annual domain renewal, etc.) and make the teeniest amount of fun money too. But nowadays, so many blog posts read like thinly veiled advertising, because, well, that's what they are.

We're a people who love wanting things. From the time we were watching Saturday morning cartoons . . .

Ahh, Gak Attack!

From the acne treatments hawked at us from the glossy pages of teen magazines . . .

Actually, that wasn't a *good* burn . . .

To the ads for engagement rings and fertility treatments I find on my Facebook sidebar today (apparently Facebook ads are unhampered by convention) we have been innudated with advertising our entire life. What's more, we will continue to be innudated with ads for things we don't really need until the day we die.

I suppose it was really only a matter of time before companies started ceasing the marketing opportunity that is bloggers. What better way to sell your product then to give blog readers a genuine endorsement from a voice they already know, like and trust? As a result: yet another medium becomes clogged with advertising.

I'm not really complaining - I just find it amazing that so many things in our culture can be boiled down to a sale. So many income opportunities for bloggers require us to wade through advertising. Several websites - SocialSpark, Blogger2Blogger - attempt to match bloggers with appropriate advertisers to write sponsored posts for pay. While Swagbucks isn't specifically for bloggers, this website where you earn points (aka Swagbucks) which can be redeemed for giftcards and other items of monetary worth, revolves around disseminating advertisers' messages. The more advertising I subject myself to, the more points I earn.  
(By the way, if you're not using Swagbucks, it really is a great way to earn points towards things like Amazon gift cards since you get awarded points simply for searching the internet and you can pick and choose how you use the site.) 

I like to think I can outsmart the advertising. For some reason, I think recognizing the advertising makes me impervious to it. But who's to say that it isn't sinking in on some subliminal level? If I did have a cat, maybe I would buy Friskies cat food, just because that's the ad I see the most?

We're a culture centered around creating desire: for things we don't need, for things we can't afford. How many people have a Pinterest pinboard simply entitled "Want"? Pinterest itself is really just a place where we all gather to look at things we might want to have. I've always liked window shopping, so I like Pinterest a great deal. But really, it's just advertising, isn't it? Again, it all boils down to the sale of those shoes, the click on that backlink to the blog with the cool craft or recipe on it.

And when advertising starts to blend seamlessly into the content I would read anyway, I start to wonder: Am I seeing through the advertising, or is the advertising seeing through me?

 

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Blog Goals. Oh, Blog Goals.

"So what are your current goals with Of Woods and Words?" Andy asked the other day.

We were in the middle of nowhere on yet another ice fishing adventure and frankly, at the moment, I was more concerned with downing a couple of cheesy crackers in front of the crackling fire than talking writer goals.

Goals for Of Woods and Words, you say?

When I started Of Woods and Words back in October 2009, of course there was that niggling thought in the back of my mind that it would be pretty bomb if my little blog went viral. Nearly two and a half years later I'm still here, but far from being the next Pioneer Woman. (But a girl can dream, right?)

When I post that first blog post, I was pretty ignorant of all things bloggy. I had no idea that blogging was such an industry. I quickly learned that your blog's success can be measured in any number of ways:

• GFC followers
• Page views
• Facebook page likes 
• Twitter followers
• Ad revenue
• Number of comments 
• Etc. etc. 

There are many, many blog posts out there railing against the popularity contest that can be blogging. This isn't going to be another one of those posts. After all, success when it comes to blogging demands readership and the best glimpse of that readership comes in the form of statistics. I'd be lying if I said I didn't pay attention to my follower numbers. It feels good to be recognized by Minnesota Moments  as a Minnesota blogger. Recognition and growing numbers are always nice, think. 

Growth is important and will always be one of my goals with Of Woods and Words, but I'm not willing to achieve that growth by compromising the voice that's been long established on this blog. (There's a reason why you don't see giveaways here. . . maybe someday, but it seems out of character at the moment.) Quality over quantity any day.

When I started the blog, I wanted a place where I could write on a regular basis and gain some exposure as a writer. I feel I've been successful with that simple goal, but I also feel that's a goal without an expiration date. The only way to keep meeting that goal is to keep writing. So I will.

In addition to that basic founding goal, in the coming months, I'll likely be:

• Continuing to explore sponsorship options - the blog might as well earn its keep and at least pay for its annual domain registration. 
• Working to provide my wonderful group of readers with helpful and interesting content; namely, I'd like to make this blog more of a resource for aspiring freelance writers.
• Recording more mundane details about life in the woods. If the blog is nothing else, it's an excellent diary/photo album and that in and of itself makes it invaluable to me.

Maybe someday, I'll have 1000 followers. Maybe someday I'll go back through the post and publish them as a collection of essays. Maybe.

Until then, I'm glad to have you along for the ride. I don't say it enough, but thanks for stopping by.

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Guest Posting At Narragansett No. 7

I'm guest posting over at Narragansett No. 7 today. Check it out!

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Keeping "Genuinely" Cool

This probably isn't much of a confession because y'all have probably figured out that I have a soft spot for romantic comedies. In particular British romantic comedies. Especially anything with Hugh Grant. Namely, Notting Hill. (Who knew . . . oh right, you guys did.)

I like Notting Hill so much I have the webpage that hosts the movie's entire script bookmarked because often IMDB fails to list my favorite quotes from the movie. (You know you're a nerd when . . . .) It's not that I find the movie particularly deep, hard hitting, or even that intelligent, but it's comforting -- like a cup of tea held between both hands during your first morning hour and there always seems to be some line from Notting Hill  that sums up my current mood completely. Take this little gem from Honey (William's googly eyed sister who has feathers for hair) for example: 

Oh God this is one of those key moments in life, when it's possible you can be really, genuinely cool -- and I'm going to fail a hundred percent.

Oh God, yes. This is exactly how I feel right now.

It's also no secret that I've been a wee bit absent from the blogosphere as of late. As much as I mean to stick with my Monday-Friday posting through the summer, lately my creativity's been feeling a little tapped out. After spending all winter getting words onto paper, with the return of the 40-hour work week, I find my brain not even working in a writerly way. For the second commentary in a row, I find myself utterly stumped about what to pen my next radio commentary about. When I sit down to write, I feel like I'm trying to get a stubborn lawn mower to start. I yank and I yank and I yank on the pull cord and all I get from my writer's engine is a cough, a choke, and then, nothing.  

I'm not sure why I expect more out of my writer's engine these days. After all, I'm pretty much expecting it to perform when it's running on empty.  Mornings are spent trying to get a couple words hammered out before heading to work. When I come home, there's supper to make, the gardens to tend, and yet another wedding afghan to knit.

Oh excuses, excuses, excuses.

Except I don't have time for excuses. The next commentary must get written and two articles are due on Friday. Luckily one article just needs to be written; the other I still need to track down interviews for. (Yikes!)

I'm trying to be genuinely cool, I swear. It's just that I'm failing a hundred percent.

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Guest Post: Small Town Community Events aka living in Stars Hollow

Note from Ada: This week I'm asking some of my bloggy friends to help fill the Of Woods and Words soundwaves. Today Carissa of Kissed A Frog talks about the wacky traditions of her own small town in the woods. Coming from a small town with an annual summer festival that involves a fish toss contest (yes, literally hurling dead herring at your partner down the street to see who can throw it the farthest) I know exactly what she's talking about! Enjoy!

I grew up in a small Canadian town of about 4000 people. They say with the outlying area we make up about 7000 people. They claim town is growing but that's the same numbers I remember hearing since I was in elementary school. It's a quirky little town where almost everybody is connected somehow. Either you know them or know of them or know people who know them.

If you're from a small town or spent any amount of time in one, you'll know there is a limited amount of activities you can do. Don't get me wrong... we have our share of things to do. We've got an ancient bowling alley, an ice cream shop my parents went to when they were in high school, and a one screen theatre that only takes cash and seats about 75 people. But when those fail to entertain you, you can either drive an hour to the city or engage in some good ol' community events!

This town loves to bring in seasons with a big community event! We start the year off with the tree that tells us when it's spring . April we have a huge bull sale. Then in May we celebrate the snow leaving by having a home trade show. June we've got the classic car show that takes over a parking lot or park in town.

July marks one of the town's favorite summer past times... tubing down the river that runs through town! Everybody does it! And they do it in some pretty random looking groups! Don't be surprised if you find a cooler strapped to a dingy floating past you. Or a greased up watermelon.

August hosts the fall fair and if you're lucky a festival or two. Some years we have the Savor the Flavor festival, where all booths must be food related. Yum! Our town's mascot is the Canadian Goose.

via

I mean, I guess it makes sense and all. Our town's name has a goose related word in it. But it doesn't really assure people we're all that normal when we invite out-of-towners to attend our Festival of the Goose. Or as I refer to it the Festival of the Quacks!

September, well we're sort of too busy getting back to work/school and harvesting to really organize anything. But October we take over the local park/campground on Halloween and the whole town comes out for a pumpkin walk and hot chocolate. We follow it up by watching fireworks! The only time of year we have a firework display.

December we have the Festival of Lights or parade if you will. Followed by all the stores being open far past their usual 5:00 close time. The one night of the year that they are open till midnight!

We have a lot more events but those are the most interesting. What are your favorite events in your town/city? What events could you do with out?

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Guest Post: Making Dreams into Reality

Note from Ada: This week I'm asking some of my bloggy friends to help fill the Of Woods and Words soundwaves. Today Amanda of Digital Zen Ink shares the story of her freelance writing journey. Prepare to be inspired!

Amanda

I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries lately from several of my readers about how I started a freelance writing business, so when Ada asked me to guest post I saw it as the perfect opportunity to share my story.

The long version is that I’ve been in love with the written word for as long as I can remember. While the rest of my family worked in computers and technical fields I always had my head in a book or a pen in my hand. When people asked me what I was supposed to do with an English degree I would simply say “Write. Duh.” The answer was always crystal clear to me and I’ve really never imagined doing anything else.

The short story is that I didn’t have a choice but to start making my dream a reality. Like many members of my generation, I had fallen victim to a horrible economy with no particular path right after college. So I fled to Europe in an attempt to have some sort of epic self realization, or at the very least some semblance of one.

When I came back to the States and realized how bad the situation actually was, I found myself with two options: a) cry about it or b) do something about it. Consequently, I strapped on my boots and dove head first into starting a freelance writing business.

Caroline

I started like most everyone does. Writing for pennies for content mills until I worked my way up to $15 an article, then $75, then $125. I founded my own freelance business in December 2010, Abella Media, and just launched a joint venture with another freelance writer and friend this month, Digital Zen Ink. In just a couple of days our page views on our individual blogs have soared and we’re getting a lot of support from people we’ve never even met. Most of all, we’re just excited to help others of our generation do the same.

But aside from all of that, my favorite project has been writing my personal blog Grad Meets World, where I discuss topics that are relevant to today’s generation. I basically chronicle my adventures into adulthood while helping others get their foot in the door of the rest of their lives. That alone is enough to make me want to get up in the morning and write.


Of course, this has all been a learning process. Even as I write this now I am still learning new things about running a business. But I am living proof that someone can find ways to turn their dreams into actions.

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Guest Post: Making the Miles Count

Note from Ada: This week and next I'm asking some of my bloggy friends to help fill the Of Woods and Words soundwaves. I come from a family of runners and I've always wanted to be one myself. However, despite keeping a life goal of someday running a marathon hidden in my darkest corners, I really only run when chased. However, my cousin Megan from Megler is a bonafide runner, with more than personal fitness in mind when she's running.

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'." -Paul Tergat, Kenyan professional marathoner

There are a lot of reasons why people are drawn to the sport of running. It is the easiest sport, after all. Almost anyone can do it. All you really need is what you were born with: serviceable eyesight, two functioning legs, and the will to quickly place one of them in front of other over and over again. Shoes are helpful, but as the surge in the popularity of barefoot running is rapidly proving, they are far from necessary. What is vital though is that “will” part; the keen desire and motivation to do something that an alarmingly large number of people see as “crazy.”

Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat - running, even great distances like the half marathon, marathon, or even the super marathon, is not crazy. Historically, it’s the way we humans got around. Humanity was running for centuries before the domestication of horses, the invention of the wheel, the cart, bicycle, car or airplane. Though running, as a mode of transportation, has fallen out of fashion, it’s no less vital to our survival as a species. After all, when the zombies rise, who do you think is going to get eaten first? Yep, that’s right - the folks who are too slow to get away.

Being faster than the undead horde that wants to disembowel and eat you was plenty of reason for me to get up off the couch and start putting miles on my running shoes. Slightly less forward in my mind, however, was the looming goal I set for myself of running the Walt Disney World Marathon in January of 2012. In preparation for that, I decided it would be a good idea to get a few shorter distance races in before the main event, which is how I came to hear about the annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon in Chicago.

As I was planning my training for the marathon, I researched a few half marathons to find one that was close to home and about half-way through the training schedule I’d written for myself. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon sounded like it would be fun. There are live bands scheduled to play at every mile marker, a race expo in the train station I commute in and out of every day, and a friggin’ sweet after party. While all that stuff is cool, my real deciding factor in picking the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon were the charities associated with it.

Most races these days, especially larger ones, partner with charity organizations or non-profits. Many runners, myself included, like to have a secondary motivation for their running, such as committing to raise money for a good cause. As a whole, runners tend to be dedicated people, and they’re always looking for ways to make their running more impactful and beneficial, both for themselves and for others. Races that benefit good causes provide warm fuzzies for the runners and much-needed income for charities, especially in a down economy. Everyone wins. As a person who works for a non-profit organization, I’m well versed on the reasons why financial support is more important these days than ever before. Without our support, many of the great things that have come about as a result of charitable donations simply wouldn’t have happened.

Those of us who are old-timers at the giving-game all have our pet causes. One of mine is cancer research. Among a few other charity/non-profit organizations, the R’N’R Half Marathon directly benefits the American Cancer Society, so it was a very logical, natural choice for me.

I don’t need to explain how important cancer research is. These days, there isn’t a person in America that hasn’t been or won’t be touched by cancer at some point. In my own life, I’m sorry to say that at least one of the exceptional people I’ve known who’ve fought the battle with cancer wasn’t able to win it. In 2009, my father-in-law, Mike, passed away from esophageal cancer about a week after my husband, brothers-in-law, and I last visited him. It’s a loss our whole family feels deeply. We miss Mike every day and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that our loss, and every other cancer death, is unfair. It might sound a little childish, but I find it horribly unfair to look at all of the advances in medical science humanity has made and realize that the one we really needed, a cure for cancer, wasn’t there in time.

To save others from having to go through the pain of cancer and losing loved ones to it is why it made sense to me to use my half-marathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I’ve committed to raise $975 and though fund raising has been slow going so far, I’m hoping to reach my goal by August 1, 2011. I know that doesn’t seem like a great deal of money in today’s world, but every little bit helps.

If you’d like more information, please visit My Fundraising Page. You can learn about the history of the American Cancer Society, how they use donation dollars, read survivor stories, and, of course, donate to support the organization and help me reach my fundraising goal, if you choose to do so. Your interest and support are greatly appreciated.

One last note - Thanks to my cousin, Ada, for asking me to guest-blog for her. I really appreciate the opportunity to reach a whole new audience. Thanks, cuz!

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Guest Post: Lake Culture as an Art

Note from Ada: This week and next I'm asking some of my bloggy friends to help fill the Of Woods and Words soundwaves. Today fellow Minnesotan, Meri of Meri-Goes-Round, takes lakes and getaways . . . Minnesota style. Enjoy!

One of the things I love most about Ada’s blog is the snippets of Minnesota life that she brings to the blog world. Born and raised a Minnesotan myself, I have spent a good while in urban, suburban, and natural parts of the state.

It’s not uncommon to have a getaway to go to. New Yorkers have the Hamptons, others have country cottages... Minnesotans have “the lake.” This is a strange term because Minnesota is home to thousands and thousands of lakes (no, not a mere 10,000 like the nickname). While non-Minnesotans may have lake homes or cabins of their own, Minnesotans really take this culture to the next level.

So in the spirit of my “listmania” month over at my own blog, I have a list tailor-made for Of Woods and Words:

Ways Minnesotans have made “Lake Culture” an art form:

10. Cabins made of real logs, a la Laura Ingalls Wilder

9. Water so pure you can be in over your head and still see the bottom

8. Spending all day on a ramshackle boat with a fishing line draped over the side, chatting with a friend or family member and slowing it waaaay down

7. S’mores, sparklers, fireworks, beer. The Fourth of July couldn’t be spent anywhere else for me.

6. Card games, board games, and cribbage.

5. Waking up and drinking coffee while mom makes homemade banana cake or pancakes. My first and only crepes from scratch. Man-go-round’s birthday cake one year. Countless barbeques and pasta salads.

4. Learning how to waterski, wakeboard, or “switch” inner tubes with your best friends or sisters

3. Walking with your Dad collecting agates on the side of the dirt road, the smell of pine needles in the air and paint brush flowers near the marsh.

2. The quiet at night, punctuated by one or a chorus of our beloved Loons.

1. No TV, no internet, little cell phone service... but nights of conversation and laughter with the people I love most.

No one messes with my summers at the cabin. I’ve spent the occasional winter weekend “at the lake” ice skating or hibernating, and a Thanksgiving or two by the fire, but to me the cabin means summer. No matter if it’s Lake Superior or the very small lake our current cabin overlooks, this is one of the reasons I simply can’t make myself leave this lovely state!

What do you love about your own state? Do you have a getaway or place you go to relax with family or friends?

Thanks to Ada for letting me guest post! I am honored.

Meri

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Guest Post: The Trouble With Being A Writer

Note from Ada: This week and next I'm asking some of my bloggy friends to help fill the Of Woods and Words soundwaves. Today K. Syrah of Shoes Never Worn shares thoughts on the sometimes tortuous writing life. Enjoy!

As a Writer, I find that I spend two-thirds of the time waiting for inspiration to strike, and one-third actually writing.

It’s a method.

First, I go through agonizing hours of self-doubt and self-loathing, where my brain chants “Why are you trying to write? You have nothing to say! Who would read this drivel anyway? Just give up already, and work a normal job. You’re not Hemingway, Kerouac or Maya Angelou. Even those teen vampire books are better than what you’ve churned out…”

Then something snaps in my head, and I become a writing machine.

I’m K. Syrah, I blog at Shoes Never Worn, and I’ve just recently completed my first book, Carry Me Home, which is being published through Eat Your Serial.

The archetypal Writer is a procrastinating, self-loathing narcissist that paces around waiting for a ping from a muse, usually hate what they’re writing, but then push it out and insist that other people need to listen to what we say. It’s no peach finding stability in that; which is why, I assume, many literary genius’ fall into drug abuse and alcoholism.

We are passionate, often to addictive extremes, and thoughtful, often to the point where we detach from reality.

Yet, somewhere in that over-the-top archetype is something that others can relate to. Somewhere in that quirkiness is something people enjoy reading.

Art mimics life, but it never does so completely.

A photograph of Mount Everest taken from where the photographer stands will never capture its true magnitude. So we must force it; exaggerate it, make it ten times larger just to portray a sliver of what it is in real life. An actor on the stage must exaggerate the turn of the wrist or the raise of a brow to convey it to an audience. The same as it is in writing, where we must push the highs and lows to evoke the same emotion in our readers.

By nature, many writers feel deeper, think harder and empathize more than the average person just to do what we do.

The Writing Process, particularly my brand of it, can seem inefficient and eccentric to a linear, stable, reserved person. Well, even to me, the one going through this process, I see the ridiculousness in it, but sometimes, one can find inspiration in a chaotic room strewn with papers and notes.

Writing is a disorganized process; if you haven’t come to live with that, then you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

And yet, through it all, most of us writers wouldn’t trade the agony for a normal, more obviously rewarding life, because this satisfies something in us. They say “writing’s easy, just open a vein”, and even after you pour your heart on paper, people will read and not understand, not care, or misinterpret because they have some personal vendetta against you.

But the world isn’t always so dark and dismal. Once in awhile, you’ll be read and understood, and in spite of the tantrums, sleepless nights, or red-wine soaked depressions, you’ll realize that you’ve done your job.
Then you’ll start the whole process again.

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And some housekeeping

I recently found out I was awarded not one, not two, but THREE blogging awards. In honor of this momentous occasion, I wanted to pause from Of Woods and Words regularly scheduled programming to give a huge thank you Katie of Chicken Noodle Gravy and Melody-Mae for thinking of me!

While I'll pass on sharing the "required" five facts about myself that come with award receipt, I did want to pass on the three awards to some of my favorite blogs out there:
Narragansett No. 7
The Happy Home
Love is a Journey
Just Add Glitter and Stir
An Irish-Italian Blessing
North on Harper
Meri-Goes-Round
After Nine to Five
In the Past Lane
Sonia's Wonder World
Megwetch Gitchie Manito

If I missed you, it wasn't intentional. I love you all!

One other note . . .


I'm looking for guest bloggers for the first two weeks of May. If you'd like to share a post on writing, gardening, favorite books, crafting, knitting, cooking, evil pine martens, or anything else "Of Woods and Words-ish" please just drop me a line at ada at ofwoodsandwords dot com for more details.

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Revising the Outline: Becoming A Copywriter

Today, Emily of The Happy Home and I are guest blog swapping. You can check out my guest post on Sloppy Toes (oh my!) over here. Emily's great post on becoming a copywriter is below. Enjoy!

I don't know too many people with a knack for words that dream of becoming copywriters.  But honestly, I hope that changes.  I went to college with a totally different plan, but have certainly found a fulfilling path.

Most of my attention, as a kid, went to fiction.  I won short story competitions, and spent hours trying to come up with new worlds and characters.  Everyone at my alma mater, Emerson College, focused on either fiction or poetry for their first few years of school.  And I'll be honest-- I'm fairly terrible at both.  By senior year, I repositioned my focus to magazine publishing.  Then, by graduation, the print publication industry fell apart in the real world.  It was time to pick up the pieces!

I graduated college a semester early, and within two weeks was employed as an e-commerce copywriter for GUESS.com.  To be honest, I have absolutely no idea why I was hired.  I had some experience with fashion journalism, but it must have been my magnetic charm that caused the team to bring me on board.  I did some pretty standard work for e-commerce copywriting-- product descriptions, banner ads, landing pages, and e-mails.

It was great work for someone who had dreamed of working with fashion magazines.  E-mails and banners brought out my inner headline writer; product descriptions were like narrating runway shows.

Copywriting is a great way to indulge your inner nerd.  GUESS was an in-depth education in fashion tech.  I was encouraged to speak with designers, sewers, buyers, and PR reps to learn as much about the clothes as I could, to sell them properly.  I can tell you the difference between every kind of pleat or pocket!

I segued from GUESS to a Hollywood PR firm.  Covering both celebrities and lifestyle products, I will be honest with you-- this was the hardest job I have ever had, and not at all glamorous.  While it was a great education in the entire Hollywood process (and I can pick Oscar winners like nobody's business now), I doubt I would ever go back.

PR might be a steadfast copywriter’s worst nightmare.  Every day is different—and if you work for a successful firm, there’s at least one new client a week.  As someone who appreciates long-term branding and strategy, I was a wreck most days.

I currently work as a writer in both editorial and copywriting for a wine and food writer.  While my main job is to contribute to his editorial outlets, I have also been hired to work as a social media and branding copywriter for his company.  This is the best of all my past jobs, rolled into one—there are definitely things I get to geek out over, plus a long-term, brand-focused goal that fits well with the way my brain works.

There are just a few things I’ve learned in my short career as a copywriter. I’m trained to avoid clichés, but this one fits: learning keeps the job exciting. One way to do this is by working for a business that thrives on the unknown.

But if you can’t handle the stress (like me!), try to find a niche in which you have at least a little interest.  I honestly learn something new every day—and that’s what will always keep copywriting fresh.

Bio: Emily Steers is a Los Angeles-based copywriter. In her spare time, she works on her blog, The Happy Home.  Her copywriting clips are available at www.emilysteers.com

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It's A Blizzard (well, sort of) . . .

The snow started last night and blessed us with another inch or two of fluffy sparkles and this morning I just launched a snazzy new writer's website. What better time than the present to (re-)introduce myself as part of the Blizzard Bloghop?!

If you're new around these parts, I'm Ada, a twenty-something freelance writer, tucked away in northern Minnesota woods. I live the life many writers dream of. I spend my days sitting at a desk watching the sun rise and set over a scenic wilderness lake while writing articles and commentaries, working on creative prose of all sorts of lengths, blogging, and working as a small museum manager. Of course being 55 miles away from a grocery store or washing machine makes living the dream a little more complicated. The conundrum of  making a life out of woods and words is where the blog comes in . . .

I live with Andy and we spend a lot of our free time taking in the natural beauty that surrounds us. I love to travel and have lived in England and Ireland. I'm always up for a good road trip, or any trip for that matter. 

Around the cabin, we try to live as self-sufficiently as possible. If you've been around since this past summer, you already know all about my obsession with picking blueberries. We also garden and hunt and try to keep the freezers and shelves stocked with homemade food.

During the quiet winter evenings, I love to knit and read, as well as snuggle up with the Netflix du jour. I try to approach the world in an informed manner with a sense of humor. To me, life is about noticing and enjoying the little things: the colorful flock of birds at the feeder, a blueberry pie, or a sentence edited to death until it reads just right.

Now it's your turn. Leave me a comment, introduce yourself, and please, do come again!

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Well gee thanks!

If you've been spending time in the blogosphere, you might have noticed that the Stylish Blogger Award has been popping up on a lot of blogs lately. If you haven't been spending any time in the blogosphere, well, the Stylish Blogger Award is making its rounds. Essentially, the award is a chain-letter sort of deals which allows other bloggers to give some kudos to some of their favorite blogs.

Yesterday I catching up on the blogs I follow and was tickled pink to find that I'd been awarded the Stylish Blogger Award over at Narragansett No. 7. I was going to go all Midwestern and say something to the effect of "What? This little blog? Oh gosh, well it was nothing." Instead, I'll just say thanks so much for the shout-out! I'm glad you're enjoying the posts.And by the by, if you haven't stumbled upon Narragansett No. 7 yet, it's a fun mix of posts about life with three small children and some interesting fictional posts as well. Definitely worth checking out.

The award comes with some strict rules:

Thank and link back to the person who awarded you.

Share 7 things about yourself.

Award 15 10 recently discovered great bloggers.

Contact these bloggers and let them know you awarded them.

My seven:

1) I was homeschooled. (4th grade through high school graduation!)
2) I was born on my great-grandmother's birthday and am named for her.
3) I adore Skittles, especially the red and purple ones. I might even chose Skittles before chocolate. *gasp!*
4) In my dream world, I would spend my days running a bakery and my evenings writing the next great novel.
5) I am a yarn snob.Natural fibers all the way!
6) I produced a children's radio show called Ragamuffin Radio for four years while I was in high school.
7) While news editor for the student newspaper, I was staunchly opposed to my alma mater adding a football program during my college years.

15 blogs is a lot of blogs, so here are 10 of my favorites that I check out on a regular basis:
1) Rook No. 17
2) Snyder 5
3) Windy Poplars
4) "Love is a Journey"
5) The Anywhere But Here Girl 
6) Ink In My Coffee
7) C. Hope Clark
8) Nathan Bransford
9) Adventures in Mommyhood
10) A Writer's Den

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When Why Blog Goes Beyond Why Not

“Of Woods and Words” was a thought long before it was a reality. In the summer of 2009, I decided saying I wanted to be a freelance writer was kind like saying I wanted to take up skydiving. It was a perfectly fine idea, but until I started to prove myself, until I started jumping out of planes, whenever I mentioned that “I’d like to write,” everyone was going to give me a slightly pained look that can allude to only two things: suspicion or bad gas.   

I read everything I could about starting out as a freelance writer that summer and everything I read seemed to allude to something magical called “a platform.”  Without a platform, we freelance writers were apparently heading up a certain creek with no paddle to be found. Not only were we writers supposed to be filling up our portfolios with clippings, we were also supposed to enter into a nearly endless barrage of promotion via Facebook, Twitter and, of course, our personal blogs.   

I thought, “I’d better get on that train!” But it always seems like a poor idea to jump on a train before you now where it’s headed exactly . . . 

I moved into the Shack (a poorly insulated 12x20 building that was once the laundry house for a resort) with Andy last fall to spend the winter separated from the nearest grocery store by 25 miles of often icy highway, while waiting tables at a nearby roadhouse-style restaurant. This wasn’t how I’d imagined my post-college life working out at all and I knew I might need an outlet just slightly larger than my living space as I balanced the economics of life with my dreams. With that “Of Woods and Words” was born and through it, I started to capture the ramblings of this rural writer.

Today’s Back to Blogging challenge asks, “why do you blog?” I don’t know that I could have told you exactly what prompted me to type out that first post last October. I knew I needed a place to ponder the perplexities of making a living writing while maintaining a rural outlook on life. Over the course of this past year, I’ve work to build a concrete answer to the “why do you blog?” question.

• I blog because if I didn’t, who knows when I’d actually get around to writing. I like to act all focused and with it, but in reality, I’m a big slug of a writer who has to deluded herself with real and often arbitrary deadlines to get anything on the page.
• I blog to better understand what’s eating at me. I’ve journaled since my tween years, but during college I’d moved away from keeping a handwritten diary. I found I missed the process of writing a rant (like in “You Know I Don’t Speak Spanish”) to sort through a particular issue. The blog offers a slightly more focused forum for problem solving.
• I blog to reason through my experiences as a person who writes, who tries to live locally, who lives in the woods.
• More than anything, I blog to keep connected blogging connects me with a larger world around me. I learn much from the experience of being a member of the blogging world: about myself, others, and technology. 

Still not sure where the train's going. But I hope you'll stay with me to find out. 

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Back to Blogging: Title Repost

Midway through the Back to Blogging challenge. Day Three?  To repost a blog post with a title you especially liked. Searching through the archives, I found a lot of uninspired blog post titles. But I did find one I thought was clever, so below you'll find the post from July 8, 2010: 

Money Can't By You . . .  Health Care? 
Yesterday, my first errand set me behind schedule. I spent the rest of the day running late until finally after supper, Andy proposed we go lake trout fishing. As I sat in the bobbing boat, it felt like the first time I’d sat still all day.

I had a moment as I was driving home last night. I was halfway home and still had one last errand to run. This after a day of laundry, grocery shopping, recording a commentary, finishing up a documentary, and making two batches of blueberry jam among other sundry errands. And it was my day off.

“Why am I doing this?” I thought to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I really like what I do and it’s my resistance to let go of any of my tasks that leads to my days off wearing me out more than my work days. As of late, I also get compensated fairly well for my efforts and after a pretty pauper-ish winter, that feels pretty good. But is it worth it? At the end of the day do the numbers in my online bank statement justify the bags beneath my eyes?

Conventional wisdom is that if you work your butt off when you’re younger so that you can reap the benefits in your old age. But since retirement seems to be going the way of the American Dream, one has to wonder: what if it’s always like this?

When I was researching an end of life article a few months back, I spoke with a health care provider who said, “You can do whatever you want at the end of your life, as long as you can pay for it.” Okay, I’m picking up what you’re putting down, but really are our lives spelled out in such crude monetary terms?

I’ve yet to reconcile myself with the fact that my gross annual income plunks me right in the midst of the middle class and prevents me from getting any possible break on my health insurance. What? I’m not still just a poor college student? It’s just no fun watching big bits of your paycheck whoosh away towards a health care plan you can’t really afford to use. No fun, but a cultural sucker punch I’m willing to deal with because I’m not willing to have a medical emergency bankrupt me.

I kept driving and kept thinking and I realized the running around happens for a few reasons. First of all, there are bills to pay. Of course, if I made a little less money, it seems I’d have access to better health care options. But that’s just not worth it, not when comes the biggie: many, many, many years from now, I don’t want to die in some miserable, icky nursing home because it was all I could afford. Oh I know, things change, fiscal security comes and goes, but when I deeply wonder what the heck I’m doing this all for, all I have to do is imagine some really awful nursing home. There will come a day when the running around ceases and when that day comes, I want to be darn sure that I get to spend it in a place with a nice garden.

So I run around. Partly because of the imaginary icky nursing home. But mostly, because I wouldn’t want to not do anything of the things I’m doing this summer.

I like this blog title because it merges something familiar with what I hoped was something thought provoking. Of course the post just went on to be a rant about how hard it is to be a twenty-something dealing with the American Dream, but really ,what did you expect? ;) 

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Back to Blogging: The First Post

 This week I'm participating in the SITS Back to Blogging Challenge, a week-long challenge meant to help bloggers assess and refocus their blogs. Today's assignment is to revisit the first post ever posted in this blog.  This blog's inaugural post, What Happened to Thoreau, is pasted below. The blog was originally  posted on October 6, 2009:


What Happened to Thoreau 
 
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the years leading up to my college graduation, I took to reading writer self-help books. Besides the dictionary and Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, books like I’m an English Major – Now What? and The Well-Fed Writer began to appear on my shelves. With a bachelor’s degree in both English and Communication, I’d been dreaming of making a life for myself with a pen and love of literature since my early teens. But like any English major, by the time I graduated, I’d heard enough unsolicited advice to fully acknowledge the multiple (mostly economic) hurdles of an artistic life. I figured I could use any help I could get, self-help books included.

And as I read the various “how-to” books, I was struck by another perceived aspect of the writing life. It seemed Thoreau remained an anomaly. Anymore, the woods had been forgotten, while starving writers congregated in the metro area’s damp apartments, eating ramon noodles and wrestling with their less than lucrative muse.

While I never got too excited about Thoreau’s Walden, I do live in the woods of northeastern Minnesota in 12 x 20 shack with a “manfriend." Though our Shack is at least two-thirds again as big as Thoreau’s one-man cabin, there are plenty of parallels. We live a quiet life reflecting on observations and interests, removed to a certain degree (but far from completely) from the hustle of modernity.

Where there are people, there are opportunities; I understand why the city claims so many. Employment’s not easy in a rural area – especially one focused on the seasonal tourist industry – and a career that dovetails with your education is more often than not out of the question. So, in a precarious balance of finances and dreams, I work a seasonal job in the summer, currently waitress, and always spend my free time writing. The writing self-help books, with their advice on how to hawk your writing skills to your locally-based corporation, aren’t much help to me. I have a novel in its first edit and plenty of fictional works in progress. I also work on freelance articles, usually for the regional market.

I’m far from the only rural writer. For centuries, writers retreated to the peace and productivity of a country cottage. Thoreau, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson were all rural writers. In recent years, Annie Proulx has achieved enormous success and Michael Perry’s writing of rural Wisconsin has been well accepted.

These writers have left huge footsteps to follow in and I can’t pretend I’ll be encroaching on their shadows any time soon. But they prove the best career advice for writers may in actuality stem from the American Transcendentalists Thoreau hobnobbed around with: to find what is inside by going outside and immersing ourselves in the beautiful. This blog serves as my personal study of writing and the rural life in a world run by metropolis. I don’t expect to find romance or glamour. In truth, I don’t know what I’ll find, so I’ll keep to this record of my experiences, a memoir of sorts, of woods and words.

 And today, still here, still wrangling the words in the woods. But something have changed. Writing success has grown over the last year and I've been glad to take you all along via the blog. The Shack is a thing of the past, now the manfriend and I share a cozy little cabin and if I like, when I'm writing I can actually shut the door and just have it be me and my laptop. The blog lead to my radio commentary, also named Of Woods and Words,  with the local radio station. The blog's been an excellent excuse to keep writing this past year and over time it's grown from a rambling rural writer memoir to a slightly more focused writer's blog. Neither the woods or words are going anywhere.

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