Writing Tip | Cathy C. Hall Writes

So…I just took a quick walk around the Ecological Footprint Calculator and my goodness, what big (ecological) feet I have!

It’s an embarrassment of riches we have here, in the United States, and I’m afraid I haven’t been as good a steward of those riches as I should have. But it’s never too late to change, and I can work on reducing my ecological footprint. For one thing, I can improve on my recycling efforts.

It’s funny, because I’m very good at recycling my words. If an essay doesn’t work for the market I first submitted to, I try, try again to find a home for it. I may have to tweak the words a bit, but happily, I often find another market. I like the publication credit, of course, but I like not wasting my efforts even more.

So on this sunny Earth Day, I challenge you to recycle. Shake off the cyber dust from one of your essays, give it a spiffy shine, and submit it to a new market. And while you’re at it, get that plastic container out of the trash and into your recycling bin.

Now, see? You and the Earth feel better already. (And good luck!)

In America, we don’t really do working vacations.

We work. We vacation. We work some more. We dream about vacation. We work a little bit more. We take a long weekend. We grouse and work some more.

Yep, that’s what the good Lord intended, right?

But in other parts of the world, working vacations are not so crazy. And the more I thought about this thing called a working vacation, the more I liked the concept for a writer. Because despite the temptation to chuck it all and take a well-deserved, nice, long break from writing, that’s not such a good idea.

Of course, I had to learn the hard way. But you do not. All you have to do is read The Muffin today to learn all about this strange thing I call the Writer’s Working Vacation.

(Cathy-on-a-Stick was really the one behind this idea, so any criticism should be directed her way. Though I should warn you: she’s not a good listener. Possibly due to the fact that she only has one ear. And that she’s a pic. Also, she’s on vacation.)