All posts by David Todd

Engineering, Suite 101

Under Siege

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My writing schedule called for me to make a blog post last Thursday. But on Wednesday, while I was preparing to teach a noon-hour brown bag class on a computer program for hydrology studies, the chairman of the board came to see me and said they would need my help on a certain project. It was to be advertised in the paper on Sunday, but he was concerned certain things were not being done correctly. He was mostly concerned about the drainage design and whether the calculations had been done correctly. I was able to go through the drainage report Wednesday after the class, but there was much more to do to check the drawings and specifications to see if they were in good shape. So I cleared my day Thursday to hit it hard.

On Thursday, I learned that the project was far along, but no engineer had yet looked at it, except for the drainage report. Thus began a two-day siege of intense quality control checking of the project on my part. I won’t go into details, but it included work all evening Thursday at home. I got to bed about 1:30 AM on Friday, then was up at normal time on Friday and to work at 7:00 AM to continue. I completed what I could by 4:00 PM, and gave it to the design team in bits and pieces during the day. They had three people working on the drawings and one (an admin assistant) working on the specs.

It’s good to work hard, but that was more taxing than it was when I was a younger man. I was exhausted by Friday evening, and did next to nothing. Well, that’s not true. I did some crossword puzzles and watched the 9-11 programs on the History Channel. They had some excellent programs, of footage I hadn’t seen and of people and situations I hadn’t heard of. Saturday I did the usual work around the yard, and some work with Lynda on stock trading, but otherwise did nothing but study to teach adult life group this morning at church.

I tried to take a nap early this afternoon, but made the mistake of turning on the television and watching the Dallas Cowboys not do so well against Tampa Bay. So got up, came to the computer, finished my latest article at Suite101.com, and played a bunch of mind-numbing computer games. Then came here.

The siege will continue Monday morning, as I left the specs with about eight items to be resolved that I should look at some more. But right now I’m going upstairs to read. I haven’t read for pleasure in about a week, and it’s time to. Hopefully I’ll have a more meaningful post tomorrow or the next day.

Suite 101, Writing

Happy New Year!

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The month of September has always been considered the start of the “program year” for many organizations. This was probably tied to the beginning of the school year, which happens between the third week in August and just after Labor Day depending on where you are in the country. The calendar year may begin January 1, with all its celebrations and resolutions, but the true new year is just after Labor Day.

So, do I have any new program year resolutions?

I wish I did. At the moment my writing is rather dull. Adding articles to Suite 101 is not really adding much to the bank account, though the veterans there say to be patient, the revenue per article builds with time. I hope they are right. As I feared, this has taken up almost all the creative writing time I have available. I made my August goals and September goals, hoping to somehow keep my mind and hands working on other things, but have struggled with that.

So, I really have no new program year resolutions, except to keep on keeping on. I’ll try to get to 100 articles on Suite 101 by sometime in early 2010, and see how things stand. If by then I’ve learned to divide my time, keeping a portion hoarded for other writing endeavors, then I’ll continue at Suite 101. If I haven’t learned that, then I’ll assess my options at that point.

freelance writing, Suite 101

Still Waiting on Freelance Payment and Payoff

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Okay, I’m not holding my breath about freelance writing paying off, by which I mean paving the way for me to break into book publishing with a royalty publisher. I anticipate that will take at least three years–if it works at all. I’m following that path, but I have zero confidence that I will be successful.

So why do I do it? Well, I just can’t sit there. It seems silly to write books, go to conferences and pitch them to editors and agents when the first question back to me will be, “What kind of platform do you have?” Or even to try it through the mails. The same results are most likely: no platform, no book deal. So I hope through freelancing to generate a little bit of a platform, hopefully just enough so that my books will be judged on merit alone, with lack of platform not clouding the issue.

I’m waiting on payout from Suite101.com. As I believe I mentioned before, I just barely had accumulated enough revenue at the end of August to receive payment in September. That should come via PayPal sometime early next week. It is enough to put a couple of fast food meals on the table. I hope for more in the future, but I’ll take this now and be glad for it.

I’m also waiting on payment for my article that was published in Internet Genealogy. That should have come the end of July or in early August. I finally was able to reach the editor and make arrangements for payment, though I have not seen it yet. It was delayed, the editor said, due to summer absences and some cash flow issues. Hmmm, does not bode well for future association.

So far this year I have the following submission record:

  • Submissions made: 14
  • Acceptances: 3
  • Rejections: 4 (Edited on 8 Sept 09; guess I can’t do the math)
  • Not heard: 7
  • Withdrawn: 0

Two of those are actually for non-paying gigs, but I’m still counting them. By the end of September I’d like to have a few more added, perhaps six to get the total submissions up to twenty. I have plenty of poems ready to go; it’s all a matter of market research and willingness to risk the time, and in some cases the postage, to submit.

Even with my limited goals, September should be a busy month.

goals

September Goals

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I wasn’t real pleased with how I did on my August goals, so I think I will back off a bit this month. I can always come back and edit this if I want to.

  1. Blog at least 12 times.
  2. Post at least 12 articles to Suite101.com
  3. Finish chapter 7 in In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People; start chapter 8
  4. Complete one appendix in the Harmony of the gospels
  5. Plan at least six lessons in Good King, Bad King series. By plan I mean something more than just a lesson title, something about the king and his life.

More later, if I think of anything.

goals

The August Report

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Okay, time to see how I did relative to the goals I set August 1st.

  1. Write 10 articles for Suite101.com. I did this. Actually published 16 articles in August.
    Blog 12 to 15 times. Did this. Had 16 blog posts if I’m not mistaken.
    Study: search engine optimization; sources for royalty free pictures; and picture types for digital photos. Well, I did some of this, enough to get by. But I have much, much more to do.
    Finish chapter 7 in In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People; Begin chapter 8. Fell short on this one. I got some of chapter 7 done, perhaps 2/3, maybe just a half, but didn’t work on chapter 8 at all except for a little brainstorming.
    Finish one appendix in a Harmony of the gospels; also one passage notes section. I did a little better than expected. I completed two appendixes, and I think one set of passage notes. I’m not sure about the passage notes. That’s all on my computer at home, and I’d have to look at it, but I think I got one set done.
    Complete the engineering article on storm water detention that is due Sept. 1. Started, but not done. I found out the deadline is not until Sept 14, so I slacked off a bit. Since this is a non-paying gig, and since CEI can benefit from it, I’m doing it on company time. It’s on today’s to-do list, and I have a fair chance of actually getting to it.
    More work on Good King, Bad King. Try to identify and outline at least four more lessons. I can’t say that I completed this, though I did brainstorm it and write a few notes. I’ll add it again for September.
    Work on The Strongest of All study from the apocrypha. I have the five lessons prepared, but need to add some lead-in and conclusion discussions. Completed, and four of the five lessons taught. This actually didn’t take much time, and probably was not a big enough thing to be considered a goal.
    And, based on my incomplete goals from July, get some more work done on Life on a Yo Yo, in an attempt to make it a publishable study. No, I didn’t even think about Life on a Yo Yo this month. As I feared, writing for Suite101.com has taken up almost all of my creative writing time.
Danny Tompkins Short Stories, poetry, Writing

‘Tis the Season – for Submittals

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I had good intentions of blogging over the weekend. The wife is away, I’ve kept the house neat, and had no major yard work to do. But a summer cold hit, and I found myself with no gumption to write much of anything. By Sunday evening I felt much better (thought my scratchy voice belied that), and I finished a difficult article at Suite101.com and came close to finishing a second. Today I’m much better, at work, and have energy for writing.

At the Absolute Write forums I responded to a post titled “when you fell in love with poetry…”. I explained my hatred for poetry for many years, brought on by a series of English teachers who insisted on interpretation of poems I didn’t see–but I don’t really want to get into that today. I got over my hatred of poetry, rather late in life I’m afraid, but not too late to embrace it for appreciation and try it for a writing outlet. As I wrote that post at AW, and as I thought about when it was I began enjoying and then writing poetry, it suddenly dawned on me that it was August 31, 2001 that I began writing my first serious adult poem. Eight years ago today. I remember it well, sitting out in the grassy area near the pines on the north side of our former house. But I prate.

The other important thing about this date is actually tomorrow, September 1. That is the day that many, many literary magazines open up again to submissions. Most of these are associated with universities and colleges, and close down during summer. September through May submission periods are quite common. Last spring I sent out six submissions for my short story, “Mom’s Letter”. I think I missed the submission window by a couple of days on one of them. Heard back on three or four–rejections.

With the new submissions season, I need to decide what to do about the short story and about submitting some poems. I didn’t submit any poems anywhere in 2008. I think I need to make some submissions this year. So over the next couple of weeks I’ll be reviewing my inventory, seeing which ones seem most promising to me. Then I’ll have to get back to work researching markets and see which ones look most promising to me. Then I’ll have to marry the two.

This isn’t the type of work I enjoy about writing, but it’s necessary, so I will do it. Now, back to engineering for a couple of hours.

content writing, Suite 101

3329

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That’s how many page views my articles at Suite101.com have had: 3,329. As I mentioned a few days ago, someone is reading my stuff there. I’ve written a variety of articles. I have forty articles posted: 10 in Civil Engineering; 10 in two poetry topics; 13 in three history topics; 4 in Bible studies; 2 in personal finance topics; and 1 in genealogy. I have two articles partly done in draft that I hope to finish and post today, and about six in mind to write next. I hope to do two or three of them over the weekend.

On the revenue side of content writing, things are still slow, but beginning to pick up a little. I keep a spreadsheet of some basic statistics. Each day I enter how many page views I had and how much revenue I earned. The spreadsheet calculates a few things, including a projection of how many daily page views I’ll have a year from now if the current growth continues, and how much revenue I’ll be earning a year from now, again with the same trends. I also calculate annual revenue projection at the current rate of earnings. With recent averages for page views and revenue per 1000 page views, I could be earning, a year from now, at an annual rate of $2,242 dollars! That includes posting more articles at a good pace, and making those articles a combination of good information excellently written with search engine optimization techniques added.

I wouldn’t exactly call that a “platform” as editors and literary agents would want, but it’s a start. Some thoughts on how to go about this platform-building thing over two to three years is beginning to gel. I may write more about it, or maybe not.

And, it now looks as if I will get a paycheck from Suite101.com this month. You need to accumulate $10 in revenue before they pay you. As of August 26 (last day posted) I had accumulated $9.47. So I only need to accumulate 53 cents in five days. That’s not for sure, but it is likely. I wonder what I’ll do with the money?

I still don’t know whether all this effort is worth it. At the current rate I’m earning revenue, I’ll earn $124 in a year–with no more articles posted. All my articles are what they call “evergreen”, that is, they are not tied to current events, and should continue to earn at the same rate theoretically forever. Actually, all the veterans say articles tend to earn at a somewhat larger rate over time. I’ll believe that when I see it, but it’s something to hope for. And hope makes many things worthwhile.

Suite 101, Writing

Back in the Writers Group?

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I went to the writers guild tonight. I went last Tuesday, but nobody showed up. Since I’m not a regular, they wouldn’t have thought to call me when they decided to cancel for a week. I was the first one there, and waited ten minutes, till about 7:05 PM until someone showed up. Three retired ladies who rode together came in, then one more. We started out by reading one of theirs, then had just started on another when another lady came in. That made six of us, a good number.

This is the writers guild I went to for about five years when we first moved to Bella Vista. Most of the time I was the only person in the group who wasn’t retired, though from time to time another working stiff wandered in. I left the group because no one besides me was writing with the goal of seeking publication through a royalty publisher. I say that not to demean their writing goals, but rather to say we were not like-minded and so approached things differently. At the Spavinaw Writers, which I attended for about six months until dropping it earlier this year, they were all seeking royalty publishing, but we were not like-minded in other ways (politically, that is).

I suppose finding a writers group close enough to attend regularly where everyone is reasonably like-minded will be next to impossible. So I think I will go back to this one. Part of the night we discussed promoting the group, including what to call it and how large we would want to get. I’m not sure we were all like-minded in that. Four of us read something. I read the latest article I’d written for Suite101.com, the third in the series on George Washington’s presidency. You can see the link in the box widget at the right hand side of the page. One lady read four pages from her latest novel-in-progress. Another read a short poem and then a brief selection from her journal; she doesn’t intend to publish either. Then a lady read from her novel, but she didn’t have copies for anyone.

It was good to be with this group again. Three of the others were attenders before I left the group; two were new to me (well, one was there when I attended a month ago). It was nice to be in fellowship with other writers again, in real life and not merely on-line.

freelance writing, Suite 101, Writing

Someone is reading my stuff

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As I feared, my work writing articles for Suite101.com has consumed most of my creative writing time. It’s even consumed most of my pleasure reading time. It’s even consumed my recreational time. Last weekend, for example, Lynda and I made a quick visit to Hobbs State Park in eastern Benton County. We went through the newly opened Visitors Center and walked the Van Winkle Hollow historical trail (just a half mile). After we got home, I realized I could write two articles on our visit for Suite 101, which would allow me to count the mileage as a tax deduction. Of course, I didn’t think to bring our camera to obtain pictures to illustrate the article.

As another example, take the book I reviewed recently on this blog, The Presidency of George Washington. As I was reading it–which I intended strictly for pleasure, ideas for five articles on the history of this period came to mind and found their way to a sheet of paper that served as an idea capture medium. I’ve written and posted two of those articles at Suite. The other three are rolling around in my mind, waiting for their chance to get out.

Or, take the Harmony of the Gospels I recently finished. I’ve pulled two articles out of that, and could easily pull out a hundred or two.

All of which makes me wonder: Will I ever be normal again, doing things just for enjoyment and not to serve as freelance fodder? Will I ever get back to that point in the yellow wood, where the two roads diverged, and get back to the type of writing I want to do, rather than writing I’m doing for platform building and a little bit of money?

I’ve only been down this path for two months. I’ve written 38 articles at Suite, probably about 27,000 words. I haven’t yet earned $10, the threshold at which they pay-out your earnings, though I’m getting closer. I don’t know that I’ll reach the threshold before the end of the month cut-off, so my first Suite paycheck might not be until October.

But in the process, my articles at Suite have had 2,630 page views during that time. For the seven day period ending today, for the first time I will cross the 500 mark for page views in the period. I don’t think that counts mine, which the software strips out. I don’t have many page views from family, because none of them check it much if at all. So this for the most part represents page views resulting from search engine searches. People searching for “FEMA flood maps”, and my article URL ranks high in Google, and I get a read. Or any of the 37 other articles. That compares to about 545 page views on this blog, which includes my own page views. So at least at Suite I’m getting some readers. Maybe not followers, but at least readers.

I’ll continue writing at a good pace at Suite 101 for a while yet, for sure till I reach 50 articles, and maybe till I get to 100, then I’ll evaluate whether the time has been well spent, and whether I should continue at a good pace, possibly try to accelerate, or back off some. I can still see the fork in the road, over my shoulder, whereas I don’t see the roads converging up ahead. Not yet at least.

books, reading

Book Addiction

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Last night we moved books. First we took them out of the bookcases. Then we moved the bookcases. Then we moved other bookcases into the spots where the first bookcases were. Then we put the books back on the shelves.

Well, the whole process is not yet done. We did get all the bookcases in their new places. One short one was replaced with a tall one next to another tall one, except those two didn’t match, and one of them (the one already in place) matched two or three on the other side of the room, and another bookcase in a semi-used state in a spare bedroom matched the tall one replacing the short one. Are you with me so far?

First, the short one went on a wall where there was no bookcase, under the high school graduation pictures of the kids. The same books went back in that one in the new location. Then I took the encyclopedias off their shelf and set that bookshelf to the side, for two other shelves had to be moved four inches first to increase some space for the encyclopedias. The tall one being moved to its two (or three) matching brothers, where the encyclopedias had been, went next, but those books were not necessarily going back on to it, so they had to stay in piles for a while. That all happened Monday evening, along with vacuuming vacated places and spraying for bugs.

Then yesterday evening I moved the unused one from the garage to where the short one had been, went to writers guild, came back from writers guild when no one else showed, moved (with Lynda’s help) the other matching tall one. We then unloaded two other tall ones and moved them four inches. Except that proved to be a little too much and so we moved them back one inch. Then the encyclopedia case went in its new home, right by the door into the Dungeon (as we fondly call our walk-out basement where all this was taking place).

Then the slow process of moving books began in earnest. Christian fiction, alphabetical by other first, then Biblical fiction also alpha by author, then secular fiction alpha by author and collating two groups, then non-fiction (Christian and secular mixed), except how to organize the non-fiction? Alpha by author wouldn’t work. It has to be topical. I worked on that some, until it was after 10:00 PM and time to wind down for the evening. The few remaining piles on the floor, and whatever the final look of the non-fiction will be, can wait for tomorrow.

All of which says: I have an addiction to books. It’s very difficult to pass any up at a sale. At least, to pass up any I’m truly interested in. The list of books I blogged about a couple of days ago had all come from used book sales over a month’s time. That’s too many books to be adding to an already over-stuffed collection. So as of now I am swearing off used book stores, thrift stores, garage sales, and even new book stores. The library? I’ll still go there, but only at times when that little used book store in the entryway is closed.

Now I have to read them, all 4,000 of them (my best estimate). It might take a while, especially with finding a couple of articles in every book. More on that tomorrow–if I’m not too busy shelving books.