Last fall, I decided to take a break from magazine and newspaper writing. Now, I’m back to writing again … this time as a blogger. I’m writing about pregnancy, nutrition and health on my blog, The Paleo Baby (yes, I am expecting!). I hope you’ll stop by and check it out. Thanks!

Prior to retiring from freelance writing (see previous post), I wrote the following two stories for Baylor Innovations Magazine:

Facing Cancer Head On, a story about treatment protocol for oral, head and neck cancer.

Change of Heart, a story about how an LVAD kept a man’s heart beating while he waited for a transplant.

I also have several stories posted on MyRegence.com, two pieces in another custom health publication called health2you and — my favorite — a story in Alaska Airlines magazine about how Portland’s enthusiasm for outdoor recreation impacts the local economy.

Last month, I made a difficult decision. After more than nine years as a freelance writer, I quit.

Lots of folks have asked me why, and honestly there isn’t really one reason. My decision was based on a number of factors that have nothing to do with any experience in particular and everything to do with all of my experiences, all at the same time (if that makes sense?). The truth is, I just knew that I had to make this choice. We’ve all heard the phrase “when one door closes, another opens.” For me, I think I was preventing new doors from opening by insisting on hanging around this door for so long. I knew months and months ago that this was the right call, but I couldn’t convince myself to step out and just do it. When I finally did, I had the whole “weight lifted off my shoulders” type of feeling.

So, what am I doing now? I am taking a break from work. I am spending more time with my husband, I am getting our home more organized and I am pursing activities I rarely made time for when I was under deadline. And I am much, much happier (not that I didn’t like my job — I actually really loved it for a long, long time).

Prior to making my decision, however, I did finally have the opportunity to write a story for Alaska Airlines magazine — thanks to an old friend who works for the publication (I say “finally” because Alaska is probably one of the first magazines I pitched — to no avail — when I started freelancing full-time). I could not have ended my nine-year stint on a brighter note! For the first time in years, I had the opportunity to really dig in and research a topic. I especially loved that I had room to write. 2,500 words! That is almost unheard of in journalism today (most of my recent pieces run between 600 and 1,000 words).

Well, I guess that just about covers it. Thank you to all those who have supported me in this career over the years.

Recently, my husband and I had the opportunity to purchase a 4×20 plot in a community garden. We have absolutely no gardening experience, so this will an interesting experiment for us (can we actually grow edible veggies)?

Since I was in desperate need of a new creative project, we decided to create a blog about our first-ever garden. We’re calling it Two Green Gardeners. We’ll document our journey along the way, sharing our newbie perspective on gardening. We’ll include lots and lots of photos, video (I hope — I still need to get a new camera), results (good and bad) and details on how much money we save (assuming we do!) by growing our veggies. And, since I am a wanna-be food writer, I also plan on posting some recipes I create with our garden goodies.

So far, this month’s projects include:

• A Winner’s Circle story for Competitor NW.
• A mental health story for MyRegence.com.
• Two stories for a custom health publisher (a brand-new client!).

I just received payment on an invoice I submitted exactly one week ago. I love it when this happens, because so often we writers have to wait and wait and wait for our checks to arrive. This particular client always gets the check in the mail super fast … even though our agreement is something like net 30. The fact that they don’t make me wait and wonder encourages me to continue working for them, even though they don’t pay as much as some other clients. A smaller check that arrives in a timely manner is, imho, better than a larger one that arrives six months late.

In my 7+ years of freelancing, I’ve worked with some incredible editors. Editors who are kind, responsive and encouraging. Editors who help me improve my writing; editors who give me opportunities to cover interesting topics. Editors who believe in me. So, it really means a lot when these editors have nice things to say about my work. I just updated my updated my home page with some new testimonials, and I can honestly say that I could just as easily write glowing reviews about every editor on that list. They make my job feel less like work and more like fun.

I know it is only Thursday evening, but all my deadlines are met for the week so I’m starting my weekend NOW. I’m looking forward to a visit from one of my dearest friends (whom I don’t get to see often enough) and her two kids, along with running on Saturday, shopping on Sunday and a trip to the Zoo on Monday. I’ll be back at my desk on Tuesday to write queries and start in on stories due in the coming weeks.

I love today’s blog post from Angie at 420 Creative (the fabulous designer who created this web site back in 2005). The post addresses what Angie considers one of the most frustrating parts of web design: content. Clients, she says, often drop the ball when it comes to delivering their content on time … and many of them don’t want to pay for copywriting services.

As a writer, this frustrates me as well. Writing is a skill, and it takes a lot of hard work. The ability to spell, read and use a keyboard does not make you a writer anymore than my ability to update this blog makes me an expert in web design.

Actually, it reminds me of something that happened a few months ago when I told some friends about how I wanted a web site re-design (I even posted on this blog that a new look was coming soon), but discovered that it isn’t in the budget right now. Among the comments I received? “Just DIY. It’s not hard! Anyone can do it!”

Um, no. I don’t think so. As a professional who wants to portray a polished image, this would be a ginormous mistake. Just like a non-writer attempting to write compelling content is a huge mistake.

Ten years ago, my husband and I had an idea. Our idea was ahead of its time. We mapped out our strategy and spent a ton of time working on it. But then we ran into road blocks, and we started to feel apprehensive about the project. So we let it go. A few years later, we realized that the idea was actually a pretty cool one. Such a cool idea, in fact, that a ton of other people started doing the same exact thing we had planned to do.

I often find myself wishing we hadn’t given up.

Today, I’m in a similar position. I have a list of ideas … projects I could start up on my own with essentially no cost (aside from my own time). I think about them a lot, but my enthusiasm ebbs and flows. This is a problem, because it keeps me from starting said projects. And if I never start them, they will never come to fruition … until someone else makes it happen, that is.