Mortaine’s Blog

Lots of change and upheaval lately:

Personal Changes

My sister and her kids came to visit last week. It was tons of fun, spent a lot of time at the pool and beach, and went to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory with them. They’re great kids, and I’m soooooo glad they were able to come see us!

Unfortunately, our grandmother died on Wednesday while sis was here, so John and I left our campsite yesterday and drove to a campground outside Boston. Services are this week, and we plan to stay for an extra week, to visit friends and also so we’re not just pinballing all over the Northeast again. We’re also re-designing our travel plans for the rest of this year.

Alladin is doing well, still in recovery. We had to change his vet appointment to Friday because of the funeral, but his bloodwork looks good and he’s continuing to get better.

Blogging Changes

Meanwhile, I’ve started a new blog. You probably noticed some cross-posted travel-related posts (and for LJers, some cross-cross-posted; sorry, I really can’t make those any less ugly without completely removing them… which I could do, but I thought you all would enjoy reading those). I’ve joined the today.com blog network with http://ustravel.today.com, a new blog I’m writing about our travels and life on the road. I try to post daily, but the cross-posting hasn’t been automatic the way I want it to be, so it ends up cross-posting in batches whenever I remember to do it manually.

I’m also writing articles for Suite101, and if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (I’m mortaine at both places– add me!), or if you visit my blog directly, you’ll have seen an update in the sidebar when I write a new article. I mainly write about technical writing, so if you’re a tech writer, or want to be one, you should definitely read the articles (RSS).

Writing Business Changes

More changes: I’m starting a corporation, Mortaine Publications, Inc. It’s an umbrella corp to handle my writing businesses. I’ve now fractured into enough directions– web/blog writing, technical writing, training development, comic book development, etc., that it made sense to create a corporation for the taxes and billing, the professional image, and streamlining business-to-business arrangements.

Why am I suddenly fracturing my writing? Well, I still don’t want to put a bunch of annoying ads in my blog. BUT, I’m getting to the point where I want to get paid for blogging. Today.com pays $1 per post plus ad impressions for the first month, which is pretty sweet. Suite101 pays for pageviews, but gets a lot of traffic, which is also pretty cool.

Look forward to more changes to the blog and website layout coming up as the corporation gets going and as I streamline my content propagation and feeds and whatnot. Remember you can always subscribe to a specific category feed. Just visit the home page, select the category, and put “/feed” at the end of the category URL to subscribe to it. The USTravel.today.com posts get posted into the RV category– a little help and extra content for those who’ve subscribed to that feed already.

New Projects

The novels are on hiatus for a bit. I’m pursuing some new creative projects. You may have seen “comic book development” in my list of reasons i started the corporation. I can’t really discuss it, but I’m working with an artist to put out a comic book early next year. It’s very exciting, and I think people who read this blog will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the comic.

I’m not really starting any new knitting projects lately (this week, anyway). Still have to take photos of the blue sweater and post them, and I’m just working on TKGA, the stormy shawl, and a knitted kitten for a swap that I’m really far behind on finishing. I have 2 pairs of socks on promise that I haven’t even designed yet, but at least I have the measurements waiting to go for them.

My to-do list is currently 60 items long.

On about five hours of sleep, John and I headed up the coast to Titusville last night to watch the STS-123 night launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. We stayed overnight in Sebastian, an hour away, and so we drove up to and arrived on the shoreline about forty minutes before launch. We found parking and a very good spot precariously perched between a palm tree and the rather fetid swamp along the shoreline in Titusville.

But you don’t really care about that, right? What you want to know is whether we saw the launch, and if it was really as amazing as people say.

Yes, on both counts.

See for yourself.

 

 March 11 2008: STS-123 Endeavor Night Launch [0:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Click here if the player doesn’t work for you.)

Note that this video has been edited to move the launch sound up by a full minute, to coincide with the visual. In reality, the sound arrives a minute later, but I shortened it because otherwise you’re watching a dark screen and just listening to a distant rumble. If you want to see the whole thing, delayed audio and all, check out the un-manipulated video at NowPublic.com.

For the self-employed, one is never technically “unemployed,” one just has varying degrees of availability. As of this Friday, my availability goes way up. Last week, my largest client informed me that they don’t have enough work to keep me on for the time being.

Therefore, I am looking for another writing contract. If you or someone you know is looking for a senior-level software technical writer on a contract basis, I’m available. Check out my LinkedIn profile if you want to know my qualifications. I’m currently in Florida, and I can take remote-work contracts only. I can travel to client sites anywhere for the ramp-up phase. I speak French and some Spanish and am proficient in Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. I bring my own tools to the relationship, so clients don’t need to supply me with expensive hardware or software.

While I look for another job, I’ll be working on my new novel, a historical romance set in the Regency era. No derogatory remarks, please. You all know I enjoy romance novels, and good storytelling knows no genres.

I’m doing a presentation this evening at the STC Silicon Valley monthly meeting on embedding videos into your online help systems. Details are here. The meeting starts at 6:00 PM, and is preceded by our volunteer appreciation ceremony and swearing-in of the new council. It’s also a great place to network!

If you’re in the area and want to come by, do so.

What: Video in Online Help presentation
Where: TechMart: 5201 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA. 408-562-6111
When: 6 PM until about 9 PM tonight, Thursday, June 28, 2007.
Who: Me! And you! And other technical writers in the Bay Area.
Cost: $8 if you’re an STC member and unemployed. $17-40 depending on if you’re a member and if you want beverages only, or if you want dinner, too.

One of my favorite videoblogs, It’s Jerry Time!, won the Outstanding Broadcast Emmy! (via Steve Garfield). Jerry’s show is hosted on my friend Sean’s service, Vlogcentral. (Shameless plug.)
Jailed (now released) videoblogger Josh Wolf held his own as a guest on The Colbert Report.
And another of my favorite videobloggers, from Michigan, Josh Leo, entered (and won) The Save the Wild UP Video Challenge.