Category Archives: Writing

Freelance writer, Sharon C. Williams, Writing

Freelance: A new opportunity

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A wonderful opportunity has fallen into my lap. The coordinator for one of my writing groups sent a group email to some of the writers, the ones she felt would take advantage of what was being offered. There is a new magazine in the area, it is 8 months old and is solely owned and run by women. GO US! She is looking for writers for her magazine, those who will make a regular contribution to her magazine. I dropped her a line and we been going back and forth in email. Bottom line is I will be meeting her today at 9:30am to see if I fit what she is looking for.

The pay is minimal. But when I found out it was a paying gig to me that was just icing on the cake. I was not expecting any monetary funds for the work. I was looking at it from a business sense of promoting myself and getting my name out there. It will be a continual free advertisement for me as long as I write, if she likes what she sees, for the CEO. I ran some ideas by her and she loved them. I am very excited to meet her and hope it will fall into place. What is involved or required I do not know as of yet.

Why did I write her in the first place? It comes back to one of my two mantras that involves writing. All they can say is no, that’s it. But if she says yes, this could open doors for me to avenues I have never thought of before. If nothing else I will be writing and people from the county will be reading it. As a writer this is a win.

 

UPDATE:

We met and talked for about two hours. She liked what I had to offer. But it got even better. She asked if I was a photographer which I am. So if I do my own shoots with the articles she will pay me the fee she would pay for her own photographers to do the job. How cool is this? I am so excited. I should be expecting two assignments to arrive via email. I will soon be able to add freelance writer and photographer to my hat of things done.

 

Amazon Best Selling Author, Sharon C. Williams, Writing

Amazon Best Selling Authors

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I started a writing group in my area. We have dubbed ourselves The Wonder Chicks. In December of last year we released an anthology of short stories. It was a lot of hard work and time getting this book together. I’m amaze we are all still friends after this experiences for it did try us and each other. Last week, on March 12th, we made the Amazon Best Sellers list in three categories.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#9 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Anthologies & Literary Collections > General
#12 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Anthologies & Literary Collections > Short Stories #33 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories

But as quickly as we rose, we fell. Needless to say we are very proud of ourselves. I will be printing out the picture of the screen save and framing it as it is a new feather in my hat. Where the book will take us as individuals remains to be seen. It was a fun process overall and now we can just move on to the next project.

The book can be found here:

Amazon US : http://tinyurl.com/lkusx9g

Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/n3q9yq4

Echo smat pen, Gadget, Writing

A Writer’s Friend:Echo smart pen

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This is my new best friend. It’s the Echo smart pen. Thanks to the literary grant I won last November, I was able to purchase this marvel and the accessories that go with it.

Let me give you a short history of my writings. I write all my books and short stories by hand. I am more creative this way then sitting in front of my computer. The times I have tried to do it via computer from the get go proved futile with nothing being written. As someone who has fibromyalgia where repetitive motion or action activates a fibro attack, this can wreak havoc on one’s body and one’s writings. I was introduced to the Dragon program. This little nifty item allows one to speak into a microphone as the computer types out what you are saying.

AWESOME!

Well it would be awesome if it worked for me. Getting the program, I was so excited to give it a try to save my arms, shoulders and neck from the pain. It didn’t work. Either I spoke to fast or my accent was getting in the way. It didn’t help that my husband and son gave it a whirl and they had no problem being understood. Lovely.

It was not until recent that I came across smart pens as I prepped the proposal and proper forms as I applied for a literary grant in 2013. According to the reviews and information gathered online this was the way to go for me. For you see in theory you would use the pen to write your stories, notes or what have you on paper designed for this pen. The software program that one uses for the pen would translate it into text for you. Which would eliminate me having to type up my stories. It also had a recording function to where you could speak into the microphone and again the software would translate it into text. I was weary of this but used some of the grant money to purchase the pen.

Trying it out for the first time this week, I’m happy to report it works amazingly well. In fact it works better than the Dragon program. It understood every word I wrote or spoke and translate it with ease.

AWESOME!

This is a wonderful piece of equipment that will save me time and pain as I translate my manuscripts into text. If you are in the same situation that I was you might want to check this out. My new best friend is named Jake and may he and I have lots and lots of fun together.