Notes from a Hired Pen: Recommendations!

Readers!

The only freelance thing I had on my mind this week was taxes, but I’m not the person who should be telling you about those. One thing I can say is that freelancer taxes are complicated, and I highly highly HIGHLY recommend hiring an accountant. Yes, I pay my accountant, but he saves me a lot of time, knows the ins and outs of self employment-enabled deductions, and then I write off that fee as part of my taxes for the next year.

But that’s too short of a newsletter to send, right? So instead, some recommendations of things I’ve been enjoying/thinking about.

• type click type. Brian Grubb is one of the best pop culture writers in the business. He was recently laid off, which SUCKS, but he is also making his own newsletter, which is fun and weird in the best ways possible. I never thought I would be so interested in the career of Jason Statham, but here we are — and it’s all Brian’s fault (and since it his fault, I’ll use this as an excuse to plug the ebook I wrote for laid of journalists who want to freelance).
• Journalism Jobs and Photos of My Dog. While I’m not looking for a full time journalist job, I know that many of my readers are, which is why I recommend this one (also: dog pictures). Mandy Hofmockel also links to content about freelancing (including this newsletter!) so there’s something for almost anyone.
• Faith on Trial: Hillsong. This 2023 Australian podcast delves into the Hillsong church, and as you can imagine with a true crime podcast about organization religion…what they found isn’t good good. The podcast evolved in real time as the impact of the reporting became public, which made this one different than a podcast where everything is mapped out. It’s neither better or worse, just a different storytelling experience. It’s also interesting to hear how Australian media laws are different than what we have in the U.S. I listened to another one of their podcasts that  was taken down by government order after an arrest had been made. Could you imagine that happening here? (You could listen to it in the U.S. after the order, as I did).
• “Why did so few novels tackle the 1918 pandemic?” via Smithsonian. I started reading a book the other day by an author I like, but when I realized that it took place in spring/summer 2020, I stopped and put it back in the nearby Little Free Library. We are still in a pandemic, and I didn’t need to go back to the dawning of it, which brought me back to this 2017 Smithsonian article. The decision to include or not include COVID has affected my writing too. I started picking at the idea of the novel I’m working on in spring 2021, and it opened with the first post-vaccination summer. But I took it out, re-set the book in general “current times,” and as of right now, don’t plan on mentioning masks or vaccines or any of that — and I’m a strict indoor masker. I don’t think I’m the only writer doing that either (I’ve pitched a story about this around, but no dice. Any takers?)

What I’m Reading

• The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman. This is the latest in this series about seniors in England solving crimes, but it takes a very heartfelt turn, as one character’s dementia continues to advance. That character’s wife describes it as “when the man you love with every fiber starts returning to the stars, one atom at a time.” Phew.
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Is this Didion’s most famous book? It might be. It’s a memoir about the year after her husband died suddenly, and yes, it deserved all its laurels. It also showed me why A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home by Frances Mayes bothered me so much. Didion writes about the sort of high flying literary/movie life that many of us dream of, but she did so because she was sharing about her life with her husband in a portrait or grief — and that was the life they lead. Mayes writing about her fabulous homes and the fabulous homes of her fabulous friends didn’t really seem to have a point, other than “look at this!” Big difference.
• In Plain Sight (Joe Pickett #6) by C.J. Box. Another entry into C.J. Box’s series about a Wyoming game warden. As always, a page turner that kept me entertained, which sometimes is all you want with your reading.

What I’m Watching

• The Madam Le Blanc Mysteries (season 3). What could be more cozy than British ex-pats living in the south of France, solving crime? Add in that the Madam Le Blanc of the title is an antiques dealer and you’ve got a show. I also appreciate that middle aged people (and one senior couple) are the heart of the show. Of course a murder happening every week in a small town is not normal (and I wonder how they’re all able to live there after Brexit?), but the characters feel like people you might meet in real life, not Hollywood buffed glamazons. I recommend it.

Nail Polish of the Week

Wink of Sleep by Essie. A nice purple/blue that, I realized on Easter this year, I had worn on a previous Easter — in 2021, when I went to sunrise service in Sea Isle City with my parents after we were all vaccinated with our first two shots.

Until next time,
Jen A. Miller
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