I Get Mail--Fan Mail

by Catherine Giordano

Over the past two years, I have had four essays printed in The Florida Writer, a magazine for members of the Florida Writers Association. I have submitted to only three issues—I only submit when the theme appeals to me—and I have been accepted three times. Every time I submit I am worried about breaking my winning streak.

I was proud to appear in the magazine, and a few friends congratulated me and that was that.  However, my last submission generated fan mail.  One person sent an  email and one person sent a tweet to tell me how much they liked my essay “Yellow Bird.”  Only two people, but still it is the first time I have gotten fan mail for anything.

(Sometimes I get comments on my blogs or facebook shout-outs about one of my blog posts, but I’m not going to count those as fan mail, although I do love it when some one writes a comment on the blog.  I t shows me that someone cared enough to take a minute to do a comment.)

Maybe, I’ll be getting more fan mail when the two anthologies that include my stories are released in the fall. Did I say two—make that three. This week I received notice that one of my stories will be appearing in a third anthology.   

Please share by tweeting, "liking" on facebook, and "+1 ing" on google circles.

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Winds of Change

by Catherine Giordano

I received the following in an email. I've received it before. I don't send these kind of emails to 20 people because people get enough email.  Instead, I decided to put it on the blog where thousands can see it. What the initiators of this post forget is that these things can't become law until Congress votes it into law. When pigs fly!

It's too bad we can't do a citizens referendum to add an ammendment to the constituition.

Congressional Reform Act of 2013

1.  No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congress- men/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

 *  *  * 

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?

P.S. I would amend to point 4 to say Congress gets the same increase as the Cost of Living increase that Social Security recipients get, but only once every six years.  They are already paid very well and that 3% a year will add up really fast. 

Money Makes the World Go Round

by Catherine Giordano

Money makes the world go round.  Remember the song from Caberet.  I do, yet for two years I have been blogging my little heart out for no money.

Yesterday, I became an amazon.com associate.  I can earn a small percentage of the sales price of your purchases from amazon.com when you enter the amazon website by clicking on a link in my blog.  Just click on the shopping cart to the left, any photo of a book on the left side of this page) or any link of a book or dvd or merchandise in any post and then shop on amazon as you normally would. You don't have to buy the item you clicked on; I get credit for any purchase you make, even if you buy from a third party seller. Just make sure you don't leave the amazon site before placing your order.

It won’t cost you anything extra, and perhaps I can earn a little money.  So if you like what I write, then help me out by using the links on my blog to get you to amazon.com and soon it will be raining pennies from heaven. I love that clinking clanking sound.

Many thanks.

Mission Creep

By Catherine Giordano

I named this blog news print poetry because it was supposed to be a placeholder for the name “News Print Poetry.”  I had planned on a one year project—write a news print poem every day throughout 2012.  In retrospect, I should have just done one blog and called it “News Print Poetry.”

 

This blog was just supposed to be for commenting on the news print poetry 2012 project, but it evolved into more. It became a place to write about writing in general and a place to announce my growing list of credentials.

 

I can’t rename the blog, but I’ll change the intro at the top to reflect the new purpose of this blog.