The Little Words Mean the Most

A typical day on the Freelance Front

Check the business news 1st. You can't get rich writing for people. You can get rich by investing well, so Motley Fool preaches. Stock quotes run on my computer all day. Basically, will it be an "up" day or a "down" one? Up days, you ignore. Down days, you just want to make sure nothing catastrophic is happening ("GM declares bankruptcy").

Memo to a colleague: How to break into writing cases for support

Review the new donor newsletter from a midwestern hospital foundation.

Bill two Canadian clients (school [case], hospital [direct mail, newsletter crit]) and a major performing arts venue [newsletter consulting].

Have I driven off a client? I wrote them an ultimatum on Tuesday, saying let's stop the silly shite and get on with the project. I haven't heard a peep since.

Simone delivered a webinar to more than 500 today ... and irritated a few Tea Partiers in the audience. Cool.

I tweet therefore I am

[[ 93 followers as of today ]] Best advice evr 4 writing direct mail, this old saw: "Write drunk. Edit sober." Speed. Fluidity. Your arm thrown over the reader's shoulder.

Short narrative: How to

Th story's in yr gaps. What u DON'T put in. And do. Story = wht remains aft th trim. Leev in 10%. Tht doesn't work, leave in 5%. Alwys les.

Simone's on the phone with a client in Alaska again

It's Palin; her self-doubts about 2012 are driving us batty. One of the preceding claims is true.

World population: 6,900 million ... and growing

Please, Planned Parenthood. Can you save us?

In the news: "House votes to defund Planned Parenthood"

I'm against. Those rambunctious Republicans. These are dark days for those who hope to keep theology out of reproductive health care. Congress is being stupid, because it can. Ethically, medically, the woman bearing the child should decide. The rest of us are annoying and irrelevant.

Friday night cocktail

Jonathan, it's called the Greyhound. 1.5 oz. vodka, 4 oz. grapefruit juice. Tito's award-winning vodka, "handmade" in Austin, TX. Munroe Dairy delivers the grapefruit juice, nicely tart, once a week. Simple, refreshing, and some of it healthy.

Celebrating (well, you have to pick something; otherwise you're just a reprobate) the direct mail appeal for a hospital, that I wrote and wept over this afternoon. My beloved client up in Canada wrote back: "We really like it! We are very excited to send this out to our donors."

Sold half my Apple stock today. Yesterday, the National Enquirer said Steve Jobs will die in 6 weeks. Now, as precision instruments go, the National Enquirer is nothing like a Swiss atomic clock. (Though they did out John Edwards and his mistress, when the MSM failed to notice. So do keep your utter contempt in check.) Doesn't matter. Apple has been the darling too long. The stock market needs to air its scepticism a bit, I think. Feels like now would be a good time. Then I'll buy back in. Have to. Today Simone activated her new iPhone.

Current reading: Hollywood and its source

The short form: Verbal cartoonist

What I do, in Italian

[from the flyer for Festival del Fundraising, this May in Italy] Tom Ahern, un'autorità mondiale in tema di comunicazione con e per i donatori: partecipa alla sua sessione speciale sui segreti del successo delle newsletter!