Thursday 28 February 2013

First writers pay packet (nearly) spent

Thought I had better upgrade the memory on my little net book as it is getting very slow at the moment.  When I bought it, it was only with the intention to use it for my writing.  However, I now use it for both sending and receiving emails, as well as surfing the Internet.

Unfortunately, as I am about to lose my job in the real world, I cannot afford a new computer, so spent £45 on a memory upgrade....

That's half of my payment for my first article spent.  Do I treat myself to something else or attempt to save it for a rainy day?

Monday 25 February 2013

Virus Alert

Sat at my computer the other day, ordering stuff for my sons birthday party on ebay, and I briefly remember seeing a message pop up from the firewall, before my computer shut down and I got a screen - which can only be described as - from hell!!

Police Central e-crime Unit virus snapshot

What was especially scary was that in the corner of the screen was a picture of me - taken via my own webcam.  What was even more scary was being accused of looking at child pornography!!   It all looked very real and I immediately woke up my partner to show him. 
Luckily, we had a second computer and so my partner was able to follow instructions on YouTube to remove the virus.  YouTube stated that 10,000 people have already fallen for this, and at £100 a time that's a lot of money being made. 

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Third Pitch...

All fired up after receiving payment for my article in Writing Magazine, I polished another pitch and emailed it this morning.

I then sorted through the huge pile of paper that I have accumulated over the past few weeks while I have been full of a head cold and struggling to think.  Within that pile, are two of the magazines I bought at Christmas that I would like to pitch articles to.  I just need to focus on a specific topic for each of them.  However, writing the pitch today has helped me.

Yesterday, I went shopping and after being dragged into a charity shop, as there was a Maisy book in the window, I found that this particular charity shop sells on old magazines.  I treated myself to December and January's Readers Digest for the grand sum of 10p each.  I was hoping for other magazines, but the rest of the pile seemed to be predominately Woman's Own, Woman's Weekly etc. 

So the plan for the rest of the week is to read, read, read and prepare a couple of draft pitches.....

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Professional Writer......

Today I got paid for my article that was published in February's Writing Magazine. 
Does this mean I can now put 'Professional Writer' on my passport?

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Comments on my article....

So excited!!  This morning I opened March's edition of Writing Magazine to find a couple of letters that praised my article! 

Hopefully, this will help me with the pitch that I recently made, with regards to two further articles for the magazine....