Readers!
We’re just about half way through 2026, a year that has been both anxiety inducing and surprising. Here’s what’s been going on in the offices of Jen A. Miller.
- I’m on pace to make $106,000 this year, which is less than last year, but still pretty good for working 25 to 30 hours a week. Cutting way way way back on my spending (which started with nixing Amazon Prime and continued from there) has meant that a drop in income hasn’t been a major issue. I cover my bills. I save for retirement. And I’m about to go on vacation. Would I like to make more? Of course. Everything is so much more expensive. But I’m doing just fine.
- It was an really uneven six months. In Q1, I made $18,430 in Q1. In Q2, I made $35,475. You can probably see why I panicked in March.
- If I hadn’t done my March Marketing Sprint prompted by that panic, I’d be in a very different position right now. I’ve booked about $25,000 of work from what I am guessing is a result of that push (I say guessing because maybe they were going to assign me something anyway). I just wrapped up following up on everything I sent out that month, which might shake something else loose.
- Higher education is still hurting. I’ve had some clients lose parts of or all of their budgets. Some people I contacted for the first time said they want to work with me but they too had their budgets cut. But some clients I worked for a few years ago are back in the fold, and a couple of folks people with limited budgets have decided to spend that budget on, well, me. It’s amazing how turning in accurate copy on time puts you at an advantage in this field.
- I’m making my way back into consumer publications. I wrote about pitching last week because I’ve been pitching more. I’m working on my second story for a new-to-me editor at a publication I wrote for a lot in the past, so hopefully that continues.
- I still may not do a year end wrap up. Yes, I really did need to do something to bring in more money after my terrible Q1, but once things smoothed out, but I also saw that “I have to make my numbers” was pushing me to accept some assignments I might not have otherwise. Like I said in the first point here, I’m doing fine.
- AI continues to crumble. And I continue to be right.
I still don’t feel great about things, which is why the marketing continues (it always should, but I’m more conscientious about it). I’ve worked hard enough to make this a viable career — and business. I’m not turning back now.
And with that, I’m out of here. No way was I staying in the Philadelphia area for…whatever crowds are showing up this week. As usual, you can follow my travels on Instagram.
Recent Bylines
“From pitch to lab: Georgia State scientists are tackling one of soccer’s toughest injuries,” Georgia State University Research Magazine
“Probing the link between Alzheimer disease and Down syndrome,” Clinical Laboratory News
“What clinical laboratory professionals need to learn about data literacy,” Clinical Laboratory News
“Zero outliers, maximum impact,” Clinical Laboratory News
What I’m Reading
- Paper Towns by John Green, read by Dan John Miller. This is a “senior year hi jinks” book but one that’s a bit deeper than just “look at these kids acting like fools.” It’s told from the point of view of Quentin. When he was a kid, he and his friend Margo find the body of a man who died by suicide. In high school, Margo is clearly going through something, and Quentin is trying to figure out what he can do to help — first through what seems like a series of plots to get back at people who have harmed her, and then to find her when she runs away. I liked it. But they do sometimes use the r-word, in case you’re listening to the book while driving with the windows down like I was.
- Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer. After graduating from college, a young man referred through this book as Giovedi (yes, “Thursday” in Italian) is sent to catalogue the items in an Tuscan villa owned by the Baronessa, aka Coco an eccentric woman in her 90s with a fondness for pugs and not calling anyone by their real names. I thought this was…okay. There was supposed to be a mystery running throughout this, but I didn’t catch onto that until the last third of the book. It’s set in the 1990s, but as with many things Italian, you could have plopped this into today because the buildings and infrastructure and way of life hadn’t changed. Greer got the non-touristy parts of Tuscany exactly right. I did inn to inn hiking there in 2024, and one day got caught in a terrible storm. Greer describes what I imagine is a similar storm, “until a river ran down our dirt road, cutting even deeper the old ruts, and the promise of mudslides made travel an impossible thought.” Unless you’re hiking! I stopped at a winery that appeared in the middle of nowhere, and even though they were closed, they let me drip dry a bit on their enclosed patio and fed me pastries and espresso while I waited for the charger port into my phone to dry. I could imagine someone stumbling upon the same winery and the same thing happening (minus the cell phone) in this book, so if he wants to keep writing perfectly fine novels set in Italy, well, then fine by me!
What I’m Watching
- How to Make a Killing. Beckett Redfellow (Glenn Powell) stands to inherit $28 billion — if the seven people in the inheritance order ahead of him die first. He sets out to make that happen in this revenge movie (his mother was disowned when she got pregnant with him). The tone is just about right for a movie about a serial killer. The people he killed are extremely unlikable (excellent use of Zach Woods and Topher Grace), and there are a couple of twists I hadn’t anticipated. Powell is great in this but the real stand out is Margaret Qualley as his also scheming classmate from high school. I can’t say it’s a OMG great, but the kind of movies for grown ups I wish we had more of.
- Greenland 2: Migration. Disaster movie with more disaster! I thought the first movie was fine, but in order to do a sequel, they had to immediately undo the somewhat positive ending and put our heroes (Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffith Davis) in peril again — with a much bigger budget this time around. Sure, it’s fine! Disaster movies aren’t really my thing, but I found this inoffensive to have on while working on a revision. Also I think they let Butler use his real accent this time? Sure why not!
- Supergirl. This isn’t a bad movie, but I don’t know if they got the tone of this right. It’s on me that I didn’t check the rating and see it’s PG-13. So fair warning that there’s harm to an animal, and also sex trafficking of girls. This got more Mad Max: Fury Road than I would ever have guessed. Still, it’s not as awful as the incels would like you to believe (they’re mad she’s not SUPER SEXY SUPERGIRL grow up).
- Space Balls. Do I think this is the best Mel Brooks movie? No. Does that matter? Not really. Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein are masterpieces and any filmmaker would be lucky to have one movie like this under their belt. So this is slightly below that level, which is still pretty damn good, especially since it’s more of a straight up spoof than anything else. I’ve seen it a zillion times, but I didn’t feel like doing any marketing. but I had to do some marketing. So I threw this on to keep me company, and managed to finish following up on everything I sent out in March. Do I have concerns about the sequel? I do. But I’ll watch it anyway.
- Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders (season 1). The less I share on social media, the better I feel. All of these are cautionary tales about what can happen when this shit rots your brain.
Nail Polish of the Week
Power Up Pink by OPI. This is part of OPI’s Supergirl collaboration, and since I loved what they did for Barbie — perfect. A bright pink with a slight glitter seemed more right for late June. I also bought the red, but we’ll save that for later in the year.
Until next time!
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series
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Your article about the link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease was fascinating. I work in special education and some of my favorite people on the planet have DS. Before that I worked in geriatrics so I’m also quite familiar with AD. This is the first time I have heard of the connection! I’m going to keep an ear out for more research on this, might be something helpful I can pass along to the families I work with.