Good article
September 6, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
A neat interview in The Globe and Mail with Donna Thomson, the author of a new book called The Four Walls of my Freedom, about disability rights.
Thomson is the wife of the Canadian high commissioner in Britain and the mother of a son with severe Cerebral Palsy.
The book sounds great as it looks at how we as a society assess the value of a life, and explores judging it not on the economic value to society but rather the value of the relationship it brings. Sounds like a valuable read:
GoodWork Project
August 26, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Speaking of sites that look out for good news, I’ve just come across the GoodWork Project, which has a mission to identify people and institutions that promote social responsibility and meaningful work.
Clearly very research oriented, the project began as “a social scientific investigation of how members of different professions approach their work at a time when circumstances are changing very quickly,
markets are very powerful, and few if any forces exist to counter overwhelming market forces.”
Researchers involved with the project interviewed over 1200 people in different professions from 1996 to 2006. The site includes studies of social entrepreneurship, profiles of people who exemplify work in different occupations, and research divided by field.
Check out the site at www.goodworkproject.org
Bloganthropy awards
August 17, 2010 | Filed Under Good, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Just learned about the Bloganthropy awards, handed out by an organization whose tagline is the power of social media + the power of corporate giving, and whose mission is to connect corporate organizations with bloggers. Their site is at http://www.bloganthropy.org/
Their first ever Bloganthropy award went to Postpartum Progress, http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com/apparently the most widely read blog in the US now on PPD. Looks like she’s won a lot of other awards for her blog too (I didn’t realize so many existed!).
Other finalists included:
Cora’s Story, a mother’s blog about her six day old daughter’s passing due to a congenital heart defect at http://www.corasstory.org/
Voices Unsilenced, created by a freelance journalist to call attention to domestic violence at http://violenceunsilenced.com/ Wow this one’s really powerful.
Passports with Purpose, a travel bloggers annual fundraiser (their being finalists was my tipoff that this bloganthropy existed) at http://www.passportswithpurpose.com
And Velveteen Mind, about her family’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina, at http://www.velveteenmind.com/
These alone are worth a few posts on the Good Blog! Some great work going on out there, particularly the bloganthropy project itself!
Welcome to the Good Blog
August 16, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
As a freelance writer, I’m always looking for story ideas and I’m almost always most charmed by those stories that I come across where people are engaged in doing “good”, either as a direct charitable endeavour, good research at a university, or just acting selflessly.
Unfortunately, these stories don’t always find a market, and so I find myself filing them away in the back of my mind to tell people about whenever the opportunity arose. For instance whenever someone mentions ordering books online I try to remember to tell them about www.betterworldbooks.com, an online bookseller that intentionally diverts books from landfills while raising funds for global literacy. That just seems like a “good” idea, doesn’t it?
As I try to find and write more of these stories, I’m planning to share them on this blog, both the ones that get into the news and the ones that don’t. If you have any suggestions, please email me and let me know. Let’s start calling attention to the good news stories.
Thanks!
Sue
Redesign
July 23, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I’ve just tweaked my web site a bit and plan to update this blog soon with a few new projects I’m working on, please stay tuned. Sue
Book launch
May 17, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Just a note to follow up that my book launches on Thursday May 20 and I’ve created a page on my site about it at www.codeword.ca/thedaysyouvespent.html
Thanks to everyone who has supported the book and especially to my publisher Tightrope Books!
My first book
April 15, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
of poetry is coming out soon with a great independent press, Tightrope Books. The title is “The Days You’ve Spent”. Here’s how they describe it:
Poems that reflect the individual’s experience in the urban jungle, combining observation and insight that every city dweller will recognize.
The city, at once benevolent and indifferent to its residents, is the inspiration for this debut collection of poetry by Suzanne Bowness. In the first poem, a young woman arrives in the big city, where “in the beginning, anonymity is everywhere,” and wonders what her life there will bring. Using this new arrival as her starting point, Bowness moves on to develop urban themes of anonymity and collectivity alongside individualist themes of freedom, loneliness, and growing self identity. Part private reflection, part love letter to the metropolis, The Days You’ve Spent pulls back the curtain on city life, finding beauty in neon signs and profundity in laundromats. In these poems, the individual and the city interweave, and urban immersion becomes an essential element in personal growth.
And here’s the link to the press web site (scroll down for my book): http://tightropebooks.com/
More details and a dedicated page on my site coming soon!
Magazine layoffs
March 30, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Now that I have your attention, I liked this article in the weekend’s NY Times Magazine by the former editor of House and Garden about having her magazine fold, nice capture of some of the feelings that sudden unemployment can bring, here’s an excerpt from the middle:
Even so, a few weeks later I realized I had some gaping holes in the inventory: I had no ink for my printer. The pages of my résumé looked faded, ghostly. You would think I was fading, too, but I wasn’t. I was getting plump. All I could think about was food. This was the beginning of being hungry all the time. My addled brain interpreted the white noise of unemployment to mean that I was going into hibernation, that I had to lay in reserves. After the closing of the magazine was announced, my public line was, “We had a great run, we took a magazine from zero to 950,000 readers in 10 years, fabulous renewals, we won awards, published six books. . . .” I was a zombie. “Great run . . . 950,000 readers . . . six books. . . .”
But privately, I was in a whiplashing tailspin. My nightmare had finally come true. For years, I had a profound dread of unemployment that went way beyond worrying about how to pay the bills. I would like to say that this was because of the insecure nature of magazine publishing, but my anxiety had more to do with my own neuroses — though I didn’t think of it that way. Work had become the scaffolding of my life. It was what I counted on. It held up the floor of my moods, kept the facade intact. I always worried that if I didn’t have work, I would sink into abject torpor.
And here’s the rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/magazine/28fasttrack-t.html?ref=magazine
Freelance writing workshop March 20
March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Just wanted to call attention to my workshop on freelancing later this month, if anyone knows anyone interested in getting started as a freelancer:
Tightrope Books’ monthly writing workshop series connects published authors with people interested in receiving advice and instruction in the idiosyncratic art of creative writing. Whether you’re an experienced writer looking to bounce ideas off an established fellow traveller, or a neophyte writer hoping to arrange your creative ideas in verse or prose, the workshop series offers an exceptional opportunity for you.
Writing Without a Net Tightrope Workshop 6
Earn a Living as a Professional Writer with Sue Bowness
Register here: http://tightropebooks.com/workshop-series/
Saturday, March 20, 2010
12-5 p.m.
$50
Refreshments will be served.
Are you interested in making a living as a professional writer and editor? Workshop leader Suzanne (Sue) Bowness has been doing just that for over eight years, writing for a variety of magazines and newspapers, including most recently the Globe and Mail, University Affairs, and Profit Magazine, as well as several corporate clients. In this introduction to the world of freelance writing and editing, you’ll learn how to start and grow a freelance writing business, with tips on everything from how to do business as a sole proprietor, to developing a writing niche and clientele, to writing effective query letters, to networking and developing a profile as a writer. Using samples and writing exercises, this workshop will guide you through the basics that you’ll need to get started in developing a writing career, or to make the transition to working as a freelancer.
Social networking for writers
February 27, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Just gave a talk to my local Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) Ottawa chapter about freelancing and social networks, makes me feel compelled to update my own social media so here’s a bit from my handout today in the spirit of sharing:
Getting Started as a Freelancer – Using social media to build your profile
By Suzanne (Sue) Bowness, CodeWord Communications (www.codeword.ca, sue@codeword.ca, www.twitter.com/codeword, http://ca.linkedin.com/in/sbowness, http://blog.codeword.ca/blog/ )
Why use technology and social networking to build your writing business?
- Great way to build a personal brand and get exposure (also, everyone is doing it)
- Lets you keep up with colleagues and contacts, keeps you top of their minds as well
- Can be a good source for story ideas, referrals, contacts, search engine finds
Coordinating your brand
- Cross reference your social media: include your LinkedIn and Twitter links on your web site and vice versa, if possible use same picture and consistent naming
- Decide on and try to stick to a realistic posting schedule (i.e.: blog 1-2 times per week, tweet every other day, update Web site and LinkedIn monthly or quarterly)
- Include your social networking details on business cards and in your email signature
To find out about our chapter visit www.pwacottawa.org