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Cathy C. Hallhttps://cathychall.wordpress.com/I write, write, write. Then I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. THEN I submit all those polished-up words out into the world and sell 'em. It's a plan that's worked pretty well.

Finding Something Friday: Voices, Paper, Scissors

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No, I’m not hearing voices…yet. But I do enjoy reading the different voices over at New Christian Voices. And I’m not just saying that ’cause I found my latest, “The Really Important Things,” playing on the Relationship Channel. If you get a kick out of laughing at the beneficent Mr. Hall’s antics, you’ll want to check it out here. Did I say laughing at? I meant with. Really.

I’m not sure that Mr. Hall’s antics can cheer me up when it comes to what I found at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Come August, the AJC will no longer provide the sections that cover other parts of metro Atlanta. Sadly, one of those sections happens to be in my corner of the metro Atlanta world. And I’m not just saying that ’cause that’s where you could find Cathy C. Hall’s occasional opinions. I love reading the paper. I love sitting at the kitchen table, first thing in the morning, with a hot cup of tea and my newspaper spread out in front of me. Yes, I know I’ll still have my paper. But I won’t have my special section. And honestly, what with all the cutbacks and the Internet taking over the world, I can’t help worrying that my paper’s days are numbered. I mean, I love the Internet as much as the next guy. But it’s just not the same, sitting at the kitchen table with a laptop in front of me. And before you know it, my grandkids will be dragging me to Show and Tell and asking, “Gee, Grandma Cathy, did you really read an actual newspaper??? And by the way, how do you manage to look so gosh-darn young, Grandma Cathy???”

Anyway, I’m in a bit of a funk. But if I could win the Pocket’s Fiction Writing Contest, that might cheer me up tout de suite! I’ve written my story; I just have to submit it. If you’re interested, you’d better start writing. Submissions won’t be accepted after August 15, 2008. Or I should say, submissions postmarked after August 15. That’s right, folks. You have to send your story the old-fashioned way. No emails allowed.

Ironic, huh?

What Not to Do Wednesday: What’s the Buzzzz?

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This morning I received a nice email from one of the editors of Wow! Women on Writing to let me know about some buzzzz at The Write Spot. Anne-Marie Nichols blogged about saving money at conferences and shared a link to my article The Cheap Writer’s Guide to Conferences at Wow!

Wow! You never know who’s reading your words, huh? Which brings me to our What Not To Do Wednesday. It’s all about our words zipping back and forth out there in Internet Land and how we should take care of the words we write.

Remember that article you dashed off and forgot to proofread? Now it’s floating around with a few errors that make you cringe every time you see it. Or what about that post on your blog? You know you misspelled a few words, and maybe a link doesn’t work, and heck, it might not even make sense. Oh, grasshopper, never put off til tomorrow what you can correct today.

Because you never know who might be reading. A potential employer, editor, or publisher might just be taking a peek at your work. Don’t let those mistakes come back to sting. You want the buzzzz about your work to be bee-autiful.