Who Knew? (I did!)

November 25, 2011

heidit Reviews, Writing , , , 14 Comments

I love nothing more than a good laugh. Well, except cheese. I love cheese. And chocolate. Okay, let’s say that a good laugh is in my top five favourite things. When I find someone who makes me laugh, I tend to stay pretty close to that person. When I find a television show that makes me laugh, I’ll watch it over and over again and then curse the network when the inevitable news of its cancellation comes (see: Arrested Development, Better Off Ted, Pushing Daisies).

My friends no longer ask me what movie I want to see, because the answer is always “A comedy.” While they enrich their lives watching important documentaries about the life cycle of a Canada goose or the impact of global warming on worm-hole travel, I occupy myself by laughing at the antics of a group of friends brought together by their involvement in a Spanish class at community college (Community).

My Twitter feed has a list specifically devoted to people–famous and not–who make me laugh, in 140 characters or less. My DVR sits at 90 percent full, and approximately 95 percent of that is comedies. If laughter really is the best medicine, then I will probably live forever because I surround myself with comedy.

Which is why today is such an important, exciting day. Today, my friend and fellow writer Charles Gulotta announced he has released a collection of his essays in a book titled Who Knew?. I cannot stress enough how funny, insightful and entertaining his writing is. Despite my love of comedy, it is rare that I find a writer who actually makes me laugh out loud repeatedly, or who makes me laugh so hard I have to stop reading and regain my composure (if I can be said to have had any to begin with). Dave Barry is one such writer.

Charles Gulotta is another. Somehow, he manages to combine poignancy and humour. While he has me laughing, he also has me thinking, which is difficult to do because I am not noted for my multitasking ability.

“The year was 1955. Let me try to give you some idea how long ago that was. The president of the United States was a man named Dwight. Have you ever met a person with that name? No, you haven’t. That’s because there have been only twelve Dwights in the past three centuries, and ten of them are dead,” (From the blog post Hard to Grasp at his blog Mostly Bright Ideas.)

I can spend hours reading his blog posts over and over, and now I’ll be able to take his book with me wherever I go. Then, I can sit in coffee shops and have people give me strange looks when I laugh loudly and something he’s written (which I inevitably will). I will somehow have to remember not to actually be taking a sip of anything while I read his essays, or it could wind up all over the table (yup, that happened once while I was reading his blog, too, and since it happened at my computer, it was a mess to clean up).

I can only say that I’m lucky he’s not on Twitter or I would spend all my time updating my Twitter feed just to see what nuggets of wisdom he came up with, and to be one of the first to retweet his wisdom.

So, if you’re in the mood for a good laugh and want a really well-written book at the same time, I highly recommend Who Knew? by Charles Gulotta. Not only would you be buying an excellent book, you’d also be supporting a fantastic guy. I can’t think of a better way to spend your money.

Book Review: Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing

September 13, 2010

heidit Business, Reviews , , , , , 1 Comment

One of the best things I have purchased for my business (not counting my computer) is Paul Lima’s book “Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing,” which is actually two books in one. I highly recommend this book for new freelance writers, to give them an idea of how to get started in freelance writing, and for seasoned veterans, because the tips in the book might trigger ideas that can have a positive impact on business.

The two books included in this one book are “The Six-Figure Freelancer: How to Find, Price and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments,” and “Business of Freelance Writing: How to Develop Article Ideas and Sell Them to Newspapers and Magazines.” It may sound like a mouthful, but there’s a lot of fantastic information in here for writers (and aspiring writers).

Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing

First, I love the spiral binding of this book. The binding makes it easy to fold the cover open, keeping the book open to your page while you type at your computer, and believe me, that comes in handy. I constantly refer to the book when I write my business plan (which I did for the first time this year) and set out my monthly goals. Not having to constantly find the page I was on is a huge timesaver.

I also love that this book involves both the corporate side of freelance writing and writing for periodicals (that’s newspapers and magazines to you younger folk). This means that no matter what your interest in freelance writing–corporate, periodicals or both–you’re covered if you buy this book. It also means that if you are more interested in one side of freelancing but change your mind later, you’ve already got a book to help you.

The Six-Figure Freelancer: How to Find, Price and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments

The first part of the book involves the business aspect of freelance writing–including time management, business plans, marketing yourself, pitch letters and pricing jobs. Anything you might wonder about regarding the business side of freelance writing is included here.

Items such as business plans are examined on a step-by-step basis, starting with a business vision and business goals, so the process of writing a business plan isn’t overwhelming.

The book is easy to read and has important tips that are easy to follow and implement. Exercises to help you define your business and develop your target market are included. Finally, the book has tips on staying organized (valuable for just about any writer, I’d bet).

Anyone interested in corporate writing, or looking for tips to increase business would be wise to take a look at this book.

The Business of Freelance Writing: How to Develop Article Ideas and Sell Them to Newspapers and Magazines

Newspaper and magazine writing is the higher-profile side of freelance writing, but that doesn’t mean it’s either easy or lucrative. This book, however, gets you started on the right path by providing tips to develop article ideas, building a portfolio, querying editors and writing leads.

Also included are sections on finding markets, conducting research, dealing with copyright and multiple submissions. Anything you have a question about regarding newspaper or magazine writing is probably covered in this book.

I can’t say enough good things about Paul Lima’s book. I constantly refer to it when I’m thinking about my freelance writing business or considering pitching article ideas. It’s a book I highly recommend for freelance writers. Both of the books included in “Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing” are available separately, but since they’re available together, I don’t see the point of buying them separately. True to the title, the two books together cover all aspects of freelance writing and answer questions that you have now as well as questions that will probably come up later.

The book is available in a print edition for $24.95 (US) plus shipping or in an electronic version for $12.95 (US). It can be bought from Paul Lima directly here.

Please note: I purchased my own copy of Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing. The version I bought is an earlier edition of the version available now, but my understanding is that the information contained in it is the same.

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy (No Spoilers)

September 8, 2010

heidit Reviews , , 6 Comments

In the past 10 days or so, I’ve managed to read all three books in The Hunger Games series (by Suzanne Collins). The books were well-written, thought-provoking and enjoyable and I highly recommend them. I’ll go into some brief thoughts here, without spoiling the books for you (because I hate reviews that spoil books).

The idea: It’s the future and North America has been reduced to a nation called Panem. Panem is a dystopia, consisting of the Capitol (an evil overlord, whose citizens are the picture of excess and privilege) and 13 districts (mainly consisting of peasants, slaves and other working-class folk). Seventy-five years before the book begins, an uprising occurs and District 13 is demolished by the Capitol. To remind the remaining 12 districts of the power of the Capitol and of the consequences of the uprising, the Capitol begins an annual event known as the Hunger Games.

Each year, Districts 1 through 12 must send one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 and 18 to the Hunger Games, where they are paraded around for the Capitol and then sent into an arena, where they fight to the death, live on television. The winner gets fame and fortune. The losers pay the ultimate price. This isn’t one-to-one combat, either. The contestants (tributes, as they’re called) are put in massive arenas designed to look like nature, for example, a forest. Tributes fight each other, the elements and traps set by the people in charge of the games to stay alive. Basically, the peasant’s children are fighting to death for the entertainment of the rich folk, who get bored if the games go too long without bloodshed.

The Hunger Games begins on the day the children are chosen for the 74th Hunger Games.

Although the books sound as though they should be ridiculously violent, they’re not. All violence is shown in a non-glorified way–as though it is entirely routine. I find when I read certain books, I’m turned off by violence but I didn’t have a problem with it in these books. The violence isn’t meant to be a cheap thrill. Rather, it’s there to make us question society’s need for violence and violent entertainment.

The protagonist is a strong, fiercely independent female, who faces many questions about morality versus victory and shows us the toll that the thirst for blood (and bloody entertainment) takes on everyone in its path. The author does well not to write herself into corners–there were plot twists in the books that I didn’t see coming (although I found the third book to be more predictable than the first two).

The books are all extremely well-written and thought-provoking. They provide commentary on war, violence, reality television, celebrity and our need for constant entertainment. My favourite books were the first two in the series; I thought the third book was easily the weakest of the three, though still stronger than 98 percent of the books out there. Although I read each of the first two books within 24 hours of starting it, it took me a week to read the third, which is an indication that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other two.

That said, I’ve since read in book reviews that many people thought the third was easily the best, so there’s no definite consensus about which book people prefer. The issues I have with the third book have  to do with plot and characters and to discuss them here would involve spoilers, so I’ll leave it by saying that although I agreed with most of the ending, I did have an issue with some of the decisions that were made toward the close of the third book. Some of those decisions just didn’t ring true for me and seemed a bit convenient.

There are a couple of similar moments in the earlier two books–things that seemed a little too convenient–but those things were so few and far between, and balanced with the suspense and familiarity of the story (reality television, celebrity status given to certain people who are willing to pay the price for that status only to have it taken away at a whim, innocent people caught up in a war not of their own making), that they didn’t detract too much from the reading.

The Hunger Games series is a thought-provoking social commentary, that questions our politics, our society, our culture, our values, our entertainment and our emotions. It’s about people in power abusing those who have none. It’s about the damaging effects of war and violence. It’s about love and loyalty and questioning your own actions. And it’s about knowing who you are and who you want to be, even under the most extreme circumstances.

The books should be read in order, as the second and third do not make sense without the previous books. The Hunger Games series is considered young adult, but stand as proof that “young adult” doesn’t mean “stupid.” (Seriously, there are some fantastic young adult books.) Adults can and will get a lot out of these books and will (I think) enjoy them.  If you have the opportunity, I say give the books a read. I don’t think you’ll be sorry you did.

The books in the series are:

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

“The Hunger Games” has been compared to Koushun Takami’s “Battle Royale,” and Stephen King’s “The Running Man,” and “The Long Walk.” I haven’t read any of the above three, although I may give them a try.

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