I was a 14 year old bad-ass…

When I was in first grade, I read The Little House on the Prairie–all 335 pages of it–to my class. Out loud.

When I was in third or fourth grade, I regularly checked out impossible stacks of books. One day, the librarian voiced her incredulousness: “I don’t believe for a second that you read all those books. It’s just not possible.”

I’ve never forgotten her and I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive her.

By the time I was in my teens, I thought I was an intellectual bad-ass. I was well-read and confident in my abilities to analyze a text. When I was 22, I was still pretty sure I was an intellectual bad-ass. Now, at 32, I’m under no illusions: it’s only as you start building serious knowledge and, more importantly, life experience, that anything you read ever really makes sense to you in a deep, felt, true way.

So Reeti Roy’s smart, thoughtful essay, “Notes on Writing: The Legitimacy of Reading and Placing Books in Context,” resonated with me, especially this part:

Till the age of fourteen, I believed I was well read and that I was using my critical faculties to decipher fiction. Today, I believe that I was too unaware of histories and peoples to have come to rational, informed conclusions.

I read classics like Robinson Crusoe, for instance, but failed to consider the ill-treatment of Friday. I read Jane Eyre, but had somehow overlooked the plight of “the mad woman in the attic,” Bertha Mason.

Reeti goes on to explain how we experience different layers of reading throughout our lives. Though there’s not a single “legitimate” way to read or interpret a text, she says, as we mature we must understand that “[w]ithout studying or being aware of the social, political, and historical context of the times / places that books were written, we risk creating a monolithic notion of books and characters in our minds.”

*

Reeti’s essay couldn’t have been more timely. I’ve been mulling over an essay I want to write about visiting Eatonville, which is the Florida town where the writer Zora Neale Hurston was born, and which is the setting of one of her best-known books, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I’ve been reading some back story on Hurston, who  saw the town not so much as an inhabitable place for her, but as a setting from which stories could be mined (successfully, obviously). This understanding of Hurston’s relationship to a place that is so palpable it’s almost a living, breathing character makes my re-reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God an entirely different experience than when I read this book for the first time in a college African American literature class.

And then there’s this: the experience of having immersed myself in African diaspora studies, particularly in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and being married to an Afro-Cuban man, two experiences that mark my worldview in a new way and which compel me to interpret this passage from Chapter 1 of Their Eyes much differently now than I would have 10 years ago:

“The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.

“Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters; walking altogether like harmony in a song.”

Cono! What do you make of that?

I wish I could step back into that college classroom for a minute, or talk to myself lying beneath the tree on the quad, where I read this book and contemplated the strange beauty of ginkgo leaves bursting out of their little barrels in spring. I wish I knew what I thought about this passage then– did I “get” it at all or was this all just a package of abstract notions wrapped up into two paragraphs of vividly searing, metaphoric prose?

I don’t know. All I know now is that I’m not an intellectual bad-ass. I’m just a woman who keeps taking what she lives and learns and practices applying it to understand just a little bit more.

Are you as unflappable as a New York City traffic cop?

A couple of annoyances over the past few weeks. Nothing worth detailing, really, because I don’t want to spend a whole lot of energy on them, but let’s just say this: If you’re not as unflappable as a New York City traffic cop, you won’t last in this writing business.

The metaphor demands an explanation.

NYC traffic cops are a particular breed of human beings. They walk down the street, peering at meters, registration tags, and license plates with no visible interest or emotion. They work with a singular efficiency and dedication to their task, particularly when that task involves writing a ticket (or, now, using a little handheld mobile device to print a ticket. As an aside, this printed ticket ushered in the era of the virtually incontestable ticket, so if you plan on driving or parking here, consider yourself warned).

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed flustered drivers fly out of a bank or deli as if pit bulls were chomping on their heels, their rant going full tilt even before they start breathing–literally–down the traffic cop’s neck. “But I was only double parked for a second! There’s no goddamned parking in this city! Where do you expect me to park? This city’s eating me alive with fees! You can’t give me a ticket.”

Through the tirade, the traffic cop takes it all and appears completely unperturbed. And unmoved, because that ticket is going under your windshield wiper. No. matter. what. (Not that I have any personal experience with this….).

Maybe it’s because they deal with verbal abuse every day. Maybe it’s because they genuinely don’t care about anything other than collecting a pay check. Or maybe they really are cut out of some exceptional cloth that wicks away criticism.

I don’t know, but in a way, I’d like to be more like them.

And you- are you as unflappable as a New York City traffic cop?

How do you deal with criticism, rejection, or unfair experiences as a writer?

Help Wanted: Shit jobs for writers!

So, my parents read this blog occasionally and they don’t like it when I use bad words, but hey, this is my blog and a shit job is a shit job, and there’s just no other way to say it.

It’s been a few years since I’ve needed to rely on Craigslist for work. When it was good, it was good, but my writing career got better. I started working for Matador. I got private clients for the research, translation, and academic editing work I do. I got a guidebook contract and then another and started publishing articles in “real” magazines.

But after reading this article about a guy living off Craigslist, I decided to take a peek at the local writing gigs to see what kinds of offers are out there:

JOURNALISTS NEEDeD  [No, that lowercase "e" is *not* a typo on my part-Julie]

Interested in Journalism or an aspiring writer?

Join and create your online magazine on CanISaySomething.com and promote yourself to a world audience!

We are looking for writers to post interesting articles and stories in a wide range of topics, including Heath, Environment, Business, Education, Politics and Sports.

Articles must be original work, thought provoking and well written (grammar and spell check) with a maximum of 250 words. Writers are encouraged to include pictures or videos with the articles. Compensation will vary based on article.

If you are interested in this opportunity, don’t hesitate and send your resume and writing samples to us immediately
How many errors can you find in this uber-professional listing?

**

CHILDREN’S SONG WRITER!!!!!

i need people who can play up beat songs that are fun and cheerful
think Sherk or disney movies.

i need some song to be written about theses short stories that i’ve written i dont know how to play music write song.
i need some one who knows how to write

No shit you need someone who knows how to write, because you certainly don’t.

**

Manhattan Blogger: BARS, HAPPY HOUR, FOOD, HOOK UP

i just started manhattanhookup.com im looking for 4 bloggers to write maybe 2 articles a week!
Mostly about bars, clubs, food, news and night in manhattan! if you want to be apart of something
bigger this is for you! we are on ground level and going up with hopes of going nationwide in a year!
only good thing to come and as the site grows and money starts rolling in you will get paid!

this is no pay sorry

Yeah, I’m sorry, too.

**

and my personal favorite…

20-Something Female Blogger/Writer Wanted

So my name is Travis Dillinger and for the past 80 days I’ve been doing this little blog/website/social experiment. The meat & bones of it is that I’m trying go have encounters/dates/situations with 100 girls in 100 days, and I’ve been chronicling the experience. Now, for one of these dates I thought it would be fun to go out with a 20-something blogger who was fully aware of the site and she’ll guest blog it. It will help gain exposure to both of our blogs. We’ll go out, get a cup of coffee or a pint of Guiness, and just hang out. I’m not expecting sex or anything really too crazy, we’ll just go out and have either a good time or a complete disaster. You can read what I’ve been doing at http://100girls100days.com

**

What always entertained me about Craigslist–and what hasn’t changed since the last time I checked the site–was the buzzing hive of furious writers who, instead of actually writing and making some money, spend their days counseling fellow writers not to take these shit jobs:

This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He expects you to write for him for free. Let’s talk means you write for him and he MAY pay you if he feels like it. He doesn’t give full instructions on what he wants done either.

To my fellow writers, stop accepting these gigs that don’t pay you for your services. Being able to write well is a skill. Not many people are able to engage their audience through written words. If these people have enough money to get web designers, and bandwidth from month to month, then they should be able to pay you for your time.

Don’t be fooled. it takes a good amount of money to keep a site going, especially with advertising.

Know your worth and stop giving up your hard earned work for free.

**

OMG. I never respond to these things. But I can’t take it anymore. Do you think you’re going to get a publisher (or literary agent in some cases) by posting a Craigslist ad? Do you even know what a publisher is or does? You don’t pay a publisher. A publisher pays you. Do a little research. Find an agent (not on Craigslist) through the traditional method-sending a query letter. That’s how I find my agent and publisher. And if you’re really looking for an editor or a ghostwriter, don’t offer proceeds of a potential sale because in the current economic situation you’re never going to get your book published if you’re a first-time author. My agent can’t even sell new works from previously-published authors. Please, get a clue!!!!

The long-tail of the writer’s pitch

and

Double click on the graphics to see actual size versions of my submissions log.

I mentioned before that I don’t think writers keeping secrets is particularly useful (in fact, I think it’s bad for your karma account, but more on that in a future musing).

I’m committed to a radical transparency not only with respect to what I write, but also how I go about it… or, as we like to say in our high-falutin’ moments of erudition:  our “process.”

So that’s why I’ve decided to share a completely unedited version of my current submission log, a document most writers protect with the quiet but unmistakable and unmatchable fierceness of a guard dog.
The purpose of doing this is straightforward: to show just how much work goes into selling a single story about a single experience.

Last summer, while working on the Fodor’s guide to Puerto Rico, I traveled the full length of the Ruta Panoramica (Panoramic Route), a rather undertouristed part of an island that’s become, regrettably, transfixed with chains and resorts.  There’s a lot to write about the Ruta, and I could easily write five different articles about it.

Until I finished my work with Fodor’s I was under contract not to write about it elsewhere, and so I’ve been saving up the story, as it were, until this month.

So here I am, almost eight months after my on the ground research, pitching articles about the Ruta to publications I believe would be a good fit.  As you can see from my log, I’ve pitched several different publications. (The angle would be different depending on the publication).

It’s not uncommon for a year or longer to pass between a writer’s travels and a published piece based on pitches sent to editors about a particular trip or place.  Who knows how long it will take to sell a piece?

Stay tuned for the answer to that question.
What else can you learn from my submission log? What questions do you have about it? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments.

*I hope it goes without saying that you should not simply email these editors without performing your own due diligence about the publication and current contact information for the editor. I know for a fact that at least two of these editorial contacts are no longer valid.

A few things I thought about blogs a year ago that may or may not have been true then (& which may or may not be true now)

1. You must blog daily.

True or untrue?

Depends entirely on your blog, its purpose, and your audience.

Steven Roll founder of the Latin American travel blog, Travelojos, recently polled his readers regarding their opinions of his site. One of the questions was how many times a week readers would like to see new posts. My own answer was 6, but the majority of respondents indicated 3 times a week would make them happy. (I’m glad he’s ignoring their opinion in this regard, planning to post 5 times a week).

2. You must include photos.  Preferably engaging, attractive, happy-ish photos with people making direct eye contact with the camera.

No doubt that photos increase many a blog’s visual appeal. Lola’s blog, Uncornered Market, and  Forks and Jets are a few that come to mind immediately. But if your writing is engaging, it can stand on its own… especially if your photos are crappy or you’re just swooping the first image you find on Flickr for the sake of having a photo.

3. You must leave comments on other people’s blogs.

It’s the polite thing to do, but necessary? Nope (particularly if you’re just commenting for the sake of etiquette or the motivation of promoting yourself). Truth is, hundreds of bloggers have a substantial following and they don’t comment on anyone else’s blogs.

4. Ads on personal blogs are cheesy and diminish visual appeal.

For the most part, I still hold this particular belief. While I understand they produce some passive income, I find ads to be annoying almost without exception.  Same for PayPal buttons asking for donations from readers to help fund your travels.

5. Analytics are everything.

This time last year, I was totally addicted to Google Analytics. Admittedly, it’s fascinating to know what keywords bring people to your blog, how many visitors you have, where they’re from, what they read, and how long they stay. And all of those markers are important if you have specific readership goals for your blog or if your blog is your business. Otherwise, analytics are a form of entertainment that will alternately bolster and bruise your ego.

6. Link love is obligatory.

Link love is nice, but again, is there really anything obligatory? It’s your blog. Do what you want with it. Some of my favorite writers with blogs don’t ever link to anyone else. Why do I like that? Because they’re fully engaged in what they’re writing, not thinking about how they must promote someone else. (Don’t misunderstand me: I think linking is polite and important and useful and appropriate for many pieces and blogs. But obligatory? Not necessarily).

Ultimately, whether these things may (or may not) be true depend entirely on the aims of your blog. I read many types of blogs–from those clearly intended to function as a business to those that are digital journals opened up for public consumption– and over the past year have learned to consider advice about the “must-dos” of blogging with a more critical eye.

What about you? What did you think about blogging a year ago and how have your ideas changed since then?

Some thoughts on the importance of owning what you write

[Click on graphic once or twice to see full size.]

Every once in a while, the Matador team receives a request from a writer to use a pseudonym. A few months ago, the request was being made with enough regularity that we decided to establish a policy:

No pseudonyms unless someone’s life depended on it.

I was the editor who laid the policy down because if there’s one single belief in life that I’m totally clear about and which I hold dear, it’s this:

Words matter.

And because they matter, we need to own them. If you can’t put your name to your ideas and opinions (especially living in a democratic society where freedom of the press is a protected right), then I’m not too sure you have the prerogative to share them with anyone other than yourself.

I consider it an insult to the writers (bloggers, journalists, what have you– I personally don’t think the distinction is that important) who do put their lives on the line in order to be able to say what needs to be said when someone who is comparatively privileged decides to hide behind a pseudonym for no apparently good reason.

Not everyone agrees with me, as you can see in the exchange of comments in response to an article Leigh Shulman wrote a few weeks ago on MatadorLife.

This week, I’m working on a couple of essays that have significant personal stakes, so all of this is on my mind. I’m not sure what else I want to say about the subject now, other than this: Every day, when I wake up and start writing, I do so knowing that I won’t put any words to paper (or to screen, in this case) that I don’t believe in.

Hey, that’s (could’ve been) my book!

Paul was just sending along news that might be of general interest to the Matador editors:

“Frommer’s publishes voluntourism book.”

I clicked through…. Hey! That could’ve been my book.

In August, 2008, I applied for a writing gig that really interested me: Frommer’s was planning to publish a guide to voluntourism that highlighted opportunities around the world. I was confident I was an exceptional candidate for the gig. In addition to my own travel, writing, and volunteering experience, I’d spent some time earlier that summer documenting voluntourism projects and, in the process, I’d learned through observation what made a voluntourism experience successful for the volunteer and the community being served… and what could undermine a project from the get-go.

Anyhow, I applied, went through several rounds of email exchanges about my experience, produced a customized writing sample, and was ultimately winnowed into the final pool of prospective writers for the guide. It was down to me and one other writer… and the other writer got the gig.

So there it is: Frommer’s 500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference.

Would I have loved to write this book?

Absolutely.

But I’m also glad Andrew Mersmann wrote it and I hope thousands of travelers use it.

A perfect pitch

There’s nothing that makes an editor happier than a perfect pitch.

And so I had a happy day today because I received this pitch from Alyssa Martino:

Hi Julie,

As I believe you know, I’ve been involved in the Matador Network community since early this past fall. I have been cultivating my Matador travel blog, commenting on articles and blogs, and reading up a storm. I recently contributed an article to Matador Goods, called ”If Guidebooks Could Talk,” which explored the personas of various travel guides. My personal blog is here, and as shown in my online portfolio, I have also written for Boston’s Weekly Dig, MetroWest Daily News, ourfuture.org and Poptimal.com.

I would like to contribute a short piece to Matador Change about teaching English to refugees in the U.S.. This is something I was briefly involved in in Upstate New York (Utica has a huge refugee population!) and believe that Matadorians would be very interested in.  I would like to emphasize the importance and impact of teaching English to migrants as a sort of psychotherapy for those fleeing trauma and conflict, encouraging travelers/do-gooders to consider this option while putting down roots in the states.

I envision the article as having a short introduction on refugee statistics in the United States. Next, I would provide a summary of reasons why this practice is important, pulling from my own experience to highlight the positive impact and personal fulfillment of my volunteer work. Finally, I would conclude by providing some specific cities–and links to relevant centers–that have large refugee populations and could benefit from more English teachers and volunteers.

If you are interested in this concept, I can have a draft ready by the first week in February. I look forward to hearing back from you and hope we can connect further via Matador Network and our dual interests in travel and writing.

Thanks for your time and this opportunity.

Best,

Alyssa

**Julie — I tried to really utilize “How to Write an Attention-Getting Query,” as well as advice I once recieved in a freelance writing class. I’d really benefit and appreciate any quick feedback you have for me on this pitch itself and if it “worked.” Always looking to maximize utility of queries, and thought you would be a good person to ask - no rush and no obligation, of course!**

After tweeting about how perfect I thought this pitch was, several people asked if I’d share Alyssa’s pitch so they could learn from it. I asked Alyssa for her permission, which she gave graciously.
What did you learn from her pitch? What questions about pitching do you still have? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll respond to your ideas and questions.

Interview with John Perkins

John Perkins is the author of the books Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The Secret History of the American Empire, and Hoodwinked.

I first interviewed Perkins in September 2008 after reading Confessions. It was a thought-provoking conversation about subjects that are of mutual interest… a conversation I taped but subsequently lost in a computer crash.

When Perkins’ media representative sent me his latest book, Hoodwinked, I was eager to conduct a second interview. Hoodwinked is a timely assessment of the economic and political crises we suffered as a human community in 2009, and it’s an eerily prescient warning about what might happen if we don’t work individually and collectively on changing our dreams and directing our energies accordingly.

I wrote briefly about Perkins on Matador Change and will be publishing a review of Hoodwinked on Matador Goods soon, but I encourage you to take some time to listen to our full interview. This 37 minute unedited version–complete with baby Mariel’s gurgling and occasional static caused by incoming emails on the Blackberry–is worth a listen for Perkins’ thoughtful insights about travel, politics, the economy, our goals as individuals and as a human community, and on concrete actions we can take to build more sustainable communities.

John Perkins Interview 2009

Some quick notes on superlatives, research, and writing a 600 word feature.

I was contacted by the editor of an in-flight magazine recently to write an article about voluntourism. Satisfied with that piece, I was subsequently contacted by the same editor to write a second article about ecotourism; the angle assigned was to identify five of the world’s most  “eco-friendly” places… and to do so in 600 words.

I’ve written before about my feelings regarding superlatives and I try to avoid them in my own writing, so the assignment was particularly challenging. How would I determine what countries were the world’s most eco-friendly? What criteria would I use?

I decided to start with my own experiences. What were the countries I’d visited that I felt were the most environmentally conscious and conscientious on the largest scale and with the greatest success? The list included intriguing possibilities, but they were not unproblematic. The more thought I gave to the assignment and the more reading I did of other writers’ “Best Green” or “Best Ecotourism” destinations lists, the more dissatisfied I was with making a broad sweeping claim that *any* country could wholesale claim to be eco-friendly at all. Brazil the most eco-friendly country in  the world? It tops many ecotourism and green lists, but astronomical wildlife trafficking and deforestation rates cause me to call Brazil’s superlative position into serious question, as do my experiences having traveled there. Sure, Curitiba, Brazil has been an international pioneer in urban sustainability, but one city’s successes can’t earn a country a top spot on a list like this.

Ultimately, I chose five countries* and felt confident about my choices and justification for the inclusion of each. But space limitations prevented me from being able to explain *how* I made those choices, and I don’t really feel satisfied about that. Transparency and responsibility are important to me.

The assignment was a useful exercise in becoming more cognizant of the processes we enact as writers when researching stories.

What insights have you learned as the result of a recent assignment? Share what you’ve learned in the comments.

*Which ones? Well, you’ll have to get your hands on the next issue of Singapore Airlines’ in-flight magazine, SilverKris, to find out!