Check out my Mana review for Batanga.com

My Mana concert review for Batanga.com is finally online here. So you can read it now.

The newest freelance gig

I'm covering the Phoenix Mana concerts next weekend for Batanga.com!

Do I give up freelancing or do I keep going?

I would really like to take a break from freelancing and work a full-time job. I realize I will never quit freelancing completely. But I have been trying to steer away from it, I swear! Maybe it's an addiction without a twelve step program at the present time. Maybe someday there will be help for us freelancers, but not today.

I have started interning for Organic Processing Magazine and am enjoying it very much. So far I've done a tiny bit of writing and lots of proofreading. So I've gotten to indulge my anal-retentive and detail-oriented side with the proofreading while delving into the world of Organic Processing. I never knew how much effort went into organic foods and getting them to our table. I will definitely become even more of an organic consumer than I already am. (Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Cereal -- highly recommend it).

Another bright spot in my week so far is that I just found out I'm going to cover two Mana concerts here in Phoenix for Batanga.com! I love Mana so I can't wait!

In interest of breaking out and doing my own thing, or at least working towards it as a music journalist, I am crowning myself "The Music Stalker" and purchased:

TheMusicStalker.com
TheMusicStalker.net
TheMusicStalker.info

Also check out TheMusicStalker.blogspot.com.

I will eventually want to break off from Suite101.com, which is great, but I'll have to grow up and out of dues paying at some point. So I'm starting my transition now. There are other ideas I have for The Music Stalker, so stay tuned.

This is only just beginning...

Update time!

The Freelance Chick (moi) has been busy. It's feast or famine in freelancing, which makes for a poor quality of life and lots of neglected blogging tasks... Since you're actually reading my blog you deserve an update though.

I'm on the air every day. That's eating up a LOT of my time!

I have managed to get a couple things done. You can check out my radio MySpace page. That's where I'll list the dates/times of my radio shows and let you know what all I'm up to in radio. You can listen to "airchecks" which is a fancy names for tapes of what I do on the air. You can see what kind of musical artists I'm into and read up on what I'm up to.

MySpace.com/radioheather

I'm also very excited today that I have found a leaked copy of the new Common album, "Finding Forever" online. You can read my discussion I just started on this very thing. Please visit the rest of the cool stuff on my pop music page at Suite101.com for the rest of what I've been writing lately. I've blogged about Live Earth, put up some discussions & polls, and also written about cool new artists like A Fine Frenzy and Sean Kingston. If you're a music fan, bookmark my page and study up!

My contract with CNET's Webshots has come to an end. It's sad because I loved working with them, but they are going in a non-freelance direction. Let me just have my little "law of attraction" moment here and hope that my every client from now on is just like CNET! Thanks for a great relationship, everyone!

The prospective internship is popping up again...

We've also reached our 16th podcast at MelodyTrip.com, which is awesome. I'm now plugging in some podsafe music into every podcast as well as news. My new goal is to get an interview into every podcast. Music fans can't exist on news and indie music alone!

So that's it for now. Check back soon for updates on my freelance chick world. And don't forget to check out WriterHeather.com for the rest of anything you'd ever want to know about me.

I Know It's Not Helping To Stop The Genocide In Africa But...

This is important too, just in a different way. Today, Internet broadcasters are observing a day of silence in protest to a royalty rate hike so obscene, it could only be called price gouging. The music industry is singling out online radio stations and charging them tons more than they charge satellite radio in royalty rates. Payments are due July 15 unless the Internet Radio Equality Act passes.

Find out what is going on and how you can help. I wrote an article all about this ordeal.

The possible internship turns up again

Being a freelancer, the phone either rings off the hook or never rings. Same with e-mail, snail mail, etc. I was trying to get an internship at a publication and figured after not hearing from the editor that this was dead in the water. I went through the same thing not too long ago with a freelance writing gig for a magazine where I just assumed they weren't interested in me. But in both these cases, out of the blue, I get an e-mail out of nowhere. Yes! They are interested!

That has been one hard thing to come to terms with as a freelancer. You hear nothing about queries you send or gigs you apply for to the point where enough time passes that you forget all about it. Then you get contacted out of the blue to fill a publication's need immediately. So it's really a feast or famine industry.

That is also the reason why freelancers have to hustle! Work can trickle in or come down like an avalanche. Most of the time, it's a trickle. So you always have to be networking, applying for gigs, and sending out queries. But what if all those feelers you put out for work come back all at once and you're loaded down with a mountain of deadlines suddenly?

I've yet to see that happen.

So happy hustling! Never be afraid to send out a pitch, apply for extra gigs, or pester an editor (within reason). If you haven't heard back from someone, that person just may be completely involved with putting together the latest magazine issue and has no time to breathe. Being a freelancer is a balancing act.

Reasons Why An Internship Is Good For Me At This Point:

1. Networking. You never know who that editor handing out the internship knows. Do well under that editor and maybe he/she will give you a glowing recommendation down the road when you need it.

2. Learning. Could I stand to learn more about publishing, writing, editing, etc? Absolutely. Never stop learning. I want to see how different people run their publications. I want my writing to grow. This doesn't happen working by myself in my office without anyone to bounce ideas off.

3. I need more current experience on my resume. I haven't interned in publishing in years. I interned for RAZOR magazine when it was still around. I also interned for SWEAT magazine way back when I first started taking classes again. My articles there were some of the first articles I wrote to ever be published. Times have definitely changed since then! I've written volumes of writing since then for a variety of different outlets. But I still want to do more. That's why I wake up every day to be a writer.

Podcast #12 is up at MelodyTrip.com

I finished and posted podcast #12 last night. I cover Glastonbury and Bonnaroo. No other music festivals matter, right? I mentioned a little bit of news but most of it is related to Glastonbury and Bonnaroo. I also play podasfe music from Ingrid Michaelson.

New Freelance Adventures Await

The only person you can depend on is yourself. This is why I am a freelancer. My success or failure depends on me alone. How I work, how much I hustle, the work I get, the clients I land, the work I put out -- it all depends on me.

Now I realize my freelance income is finally going to pay my bills. And it's just as well, as I didn't get a full-time job at the station I applied for. Maybe I don't need a full-time job working for someone else. I can run my own gravy train and I am. I don't think I make enough not to have a steady part-time job somewhere still so I'm going to seek out a part-time job. Oh, and working at home alone can be very lonely! So anything that brings me out for social interaction would be great.

Working part-time allows me the freedom to still pursue my freelance writing. So that's my advice to anyone looking to embark on a freelance career of any sort; don't quit your day job just yet. Go out and get a part-time job doing anything that will support you as you try to build a business doing what you love.

I'm looking to pursue two beats right now, music journalism and yoga/fitness/health/wellness journalism. So I'm going to work towards becoming an "expert" in those fields right now. Obviously I'm no 'expert' but the more experience I get covering those subjects as a journalist, the better off I am.

Podcast #11 on NXNE, Chicago Blues

I do the weekly podcast for Melodytrip.com. This week, I talk to my colleague Danny Brown, the indie music writer at Suite101.com. He attended the North By Northeast (NXNE) fest in Toronto. I also talk to our Melodytrip correspondent, Leah Mueller, about Chicago Blues Fest.

Here is the link to podcast #11.

Here's another link, to my Podjunkie site. I will talk about our MelodyTrip podcasts there as well as whatever podcasts cross my path that I like.

The Paying Gig Is Going Away

Since my work writing for the Peak Blog is not in the budget, it's going to cease being a paid gig after Friday. I have envisioned so many things content-wise for the Peak blog, or the website in general. And I'm thinking like a jock, or a music journalist, or just a plain old creative. But sales is always trying to hijack the website -- and I don't blame them one bit. There's a ton of money to be made on the 'net. I wish I had my own sales team for the sites I'm about to launch!

The thing is, old media wants to go new media so badly, but it's hard to merge the two. While I have every skill possible (as a content creator) to make the Peak website a cool new media destination for the Peak audience, it's trying to convince the very corporate, old-media top brass of what needs to be done that becomes the obstacle.

Now my creative battle rages on, but in a soon-to-be unpaid capacity. Meanwhile, we have monetized Steve's videos for the site. So I do have hope. Watch his latest work:

Maybe an internship?

My goal has long been to establish working relationships with local publications and it's hard to break in. So I'm hoping to land an internship where I can work under someone very good. My writing definitely needs to grow. My pitching skills especially need work because I just feel like I'm hitting a wall lately with pitches. I know every freelance writer goes through that spell. It's a slump I have to bust!

So here's the latest:

Here are my latest posts on the Peak blog.

Then on our main site, I'm in the Tom Car video. I'm in the camo shorts and hat tearin' it up in the desert in the four-door car. Go here and then watch Peak TV to see it.

Did a few updates today on Suite101.com. I'm the pop music feature writer there. I added a discussion on Richie Sambora going to rehab and another on Joe covering Carrie Underwood. I also blog about fellow Suite101 writer Danny Brown going to NXNE all weekend. Be sure to check out the article I posted today about Kelly Rowland's new album. I have a feeling this one is going to be good!

We've also posted our tenth podcast at MelodyTrip.com. Woo-hoo! This one covers mostly music news with some podsafe music from Machete Avenue.

Activities This Week

I've sent out one (as yet) unanswered query and pondered starting a strange business of my own. It's been a real holiday hangover week. To what I'm sure will someday be thunderous applause, (ha ha) I have just started a new blog href="http://bonotracker.blogspot.com/">tracking every movement of Bono. It's sort of an obsession/hobby. Most of my obsession/hobbies are writing-related, hence the many blogs I have going. I hope they entertain you as much as they do me! This is what I do on weeks like this that I just don't feel like I'm getting any answers back on queries, freelance gigs I applied for, or what have you.