Death, Taxes, and The New York Times
Posted: January 9, 2012 Filed under: Writers Write | Tags: creativity, gray lady, news, The New York Times, writers, writing Leave a comment »
One of my three inevitables is gone. My relationship with the New York Times is on the skids. I was one of those intrepid readers that won a year’s reprieve from the pay wall, courtesy of Lincoln Mercury. I was a poor risk. After a year, I haven’t bought a Lincoln, and I won’t pony up the $15 a month for The Gray Lady.
$15 doesn’t sound like much to most of you, but I make my own soap. I won’t buy paper towels because I refuse to pay for something that’s sole purpose is be to thrown away. This isn’t a political statement. I’m not a hairy-legger. The economy has made me a cheap skate. The price is fair. They can charge whatever they want. The internet isn’t free. Nothing is. Newspapers are struggling, though I doubt the Times is short on advertisers or subscribers.
I’ll miss trolling the links for Bittman, Dowd, and 48 Hours in Belize. And what will $700,000 buy in the Portlands–Maine, Oregon and Texas? Like reading the back of a cereal box, I do it because it’s there. Except now, it isn’t.
I’ll survive on the tease of twenty freebies a month. Maybe my withdrawal will open something new. Instead of fishing for content, maybe I’ll write more of my own.
Wednesday Check-in
Posted: October 6, 2010 Filed under: Wednesday Check-in, Writers Write | Tags: Donald Maass Workshop, heroes, news, walking, writers, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook Leave a comment »Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: Still working on Lesson 14: Making Complications Active.
Still Walking.
I’m busy, so I’m leaving you with the three best things I read in the news this week.
- You don’t have to make a huge salary to make a huge difference. This school teacher left $22 million to a local university. She’s inspiration for a character in my novel.
- Thanks to a good Samaritan, this bad story has a happy ending.
- I really wish this guy would write a novel.
The Dirty Dozen–lazy∞
Posted: October 12, 2008 Filed under: Dirty Dozen, Writers Write | Tags: news, writers, writing Leave a comment »Saturday is a lazy day at our house. The kids get up at dawn (because they aren’t allowed to get up before it’s light outside) and watch junk television. It’s the only time I allow them to watch commercials. The rest of the time, it’s strictly PBS Kids or approved DVDs. Bacon and I try to sleep in, but usually end up awake earlier than we want to be. We drink a lot of coffee and watch the birds in the backyard and eventually go for a walk. It’s always been the hardest day of the week for me to be a writer. No routine, no discipline, no list. This afternoon, the football game was on. Our team lost, and I couldn’t bear to watch, so I wrote today’s pages during the game.
Apparently, others are facing the same news media overload that I’ve been dealing with over the past few weeks. The New York Times has this to say about it. If you’re interested in the latest presidential polls, my new favorite site can be found here.
Have a great Sunday!
