Notes from a Hired Pen: THANK YOU!

Ladies & Gents:

Thank you so much to everyone who has bout my ebook/white paper/what have you so far. I really do appreciate it.

I wrote a guest post for Jennifer Goforth Gregory (aka my freelancing angel) about it, and offered her readers $2 off with the code "content." Of course you can use it too! It's good through February 19. 

I also, as the kids say, spilled a bit of tea over in an interview with the Association for Healthcare Journalists (AHCJ):  

"AHCJ: What sparked you to create this white paper?
Miller: I fired my literary agent in mid-December. She’d sent the proposal for what I want to be my next book to 10 people the year before, and when I came back to her with a revised version this fall, she declined to send it out again, so I fired her. There was a lot of feeling involved in that decision, which I don't want to go into here. After talking to a few agents, I put the whole thing aside and went headlong into the holidays, planning to take three full weeks off. But then I got bored. I missed writing! After Christmas, I drafted the newsletter with how my year went, but I knew I had more to say, so I started picking at the idea of doing a whitepaper/ebook/how to. Three days later, had a 10,000 word draft. I found a designer and copyeditor, and here we are."

Carolyn Crist, who wrote the piece, also has some very nice things to say about it, so, for obvious reasons, I hope you check it out. Also, I'm going to be on a panel at the AHCJ conference this spring, so if you're coming, say hello! 

I've loved this experience, and not just because it's selling (my modest goal was to make enough to cover the cost of the designer and copyeditor. I did that in the first day). This was never going to be long enough for a full book, and I wanted to produce it quickly. By self-publishing, I can see every time a sale is made, and I usually have a good idea of where it's coming from (i.e. when the AHCJ interview hit inboxes, I saw a spike in sales). This is completely unlike traditional publishing, which I figured by now would be better with data and analytics to give authors a better idea of how their book is doing, but if they have figured it out, they certainly hide it from their writers.

I don't know if I'll do this again, but I now see this as another avenue to get out a project that's close to my heart.

Not sick of me yet? Then you can listen to me ramble on about running and memoir writing on the Rambling Runner Podcast. 

SO THANK YOU!

On with the show:

Recent Bylines
"Network Monitoring: What Makes it So Crucial Today?" for HealthTech 
"In Disney Races, Cartoonish Gear is the Front Runner" for The New York Times
"Fighting Warehouse Worker Fatigue with Wearables" for Supply Chain Dive
"VR Addresses Healthcare Training Needs to Improve Outcomes" for HealthTech
"When is VDI the Better Fit for Local Governments in 2020?" for StateTech
"Telemedicine is Broadening Its Role in Cardiac Care" for HealthTech
"The Quickly Disappearing Corrugated Box: How Packaging is Changing" for Supply Chain Dive
"What Decentralized IT Spending Means for Budget and Oversight" for CIO Dive
"For Runners, It's Race Lottery Season" for The New York Times

What I'm Reading

• Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris. I picked this up in December from a Little Free Library that was full of Christmas books (I suspect this one is highly curated – it always has A+ selections). I thought it was a light, silly fun. Then I realized that Charlaine Harris also wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books that became the show True Blood. Good for her! Also this is the UK edition of the book, which along with the title lead me to believe it would take place in the UK. Nope. Arkansas. 
• Naturally Tan by Tan France. I like to listen to celebrity memoirs, which is why I picked this one. It's great! I hadn't realized that France created and sold three clothing lines before doing Queer Eye – which he didn't want to audition for because he had never done TV work before. Very enjoyable to listen to.
• ​Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy. This is a kids book based on the true story of a boy who eventually grew up to be an interpreter during the Saddam Hussein trial. I was about his age during the invasion of Iraq. I'm glad I read something about the invasion from someone who lived through it. 
• Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction by Judith Grisel. Fascinating stuff, especially if you're someone like me who doesn't drink as much as she used to (or doesn't drink at all).
• Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky. I got this as an audiobook through my library. I don't know if that was the best way to take it in, but I still enjoyed listening to snapshots about the lives of kick ass women.
• The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski. It's not a straight biography but more about the myths that have become almost fact about the man.
• When You Love a Scotsman by Hannah Howell. Sure, this is a romance novel, but it's also a historical novel, about life in the U.S. (I think Missouri) during the Civil War, with a Scottish family who fled to the U.S. to make new lives for themselves as the crux of the series. I've learned a LOT about that time I didn't know.
• Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly. The last book before Connelly introduced a new detective. He kind of had to. Harry Bosch is a Vietnam vet, it doesn't make much sense for him to still be working anymore (though he used his age to an advantage, but I won't tell you more because I don't want to spoil it).
• The Scotsman Who Swept Me Away by Hannah Howell. See above.
• At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life by Fenton Johnson. From someone who has chosen to be single and stay single: yes yes yes. It's not strange to feel complete without a partner and to enjoy your own company. I'm glad I read it.
• Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman. I didn't like this as much as his previous book Vacationland but it's still very good, especially when he get into the 2016 election. Sometimes he borders into being cute for cute's sake in his writing, but not about that time in his life.

What I'm Watching

• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I didn't hate it – a perfectly fine way to use part of an iTunes gift card.
• Downton Abby: The Motion Picture. Same! And same gift card! 
• 101 Dalmatians. Thanks to Disney+, I've been able to revisit movies I haven't seen in decades. This was so much fun! 
• Encore. This is a reality show on Disney+ where the cast of a high school musical comes back, as adults, to put on another show. It's lovely and has me thinking back of my own high school musical days (Deborah Sue Miller in Bye Bye Birdie and Miss Lynch in Grease)
• Little Women. Oh my heart and soul, I loved this movie. 
• John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch. What a weird thing! That's not but this special is odd. I've seen Mulaney do stand up in person. He's a funny man.
• Picard. I have yet to see the third episode, where I'm told it picks up, but I am still deep in pilot-itis, I think.
• The Good Fight. If you bought CBS All Access for Picard, watch this show. It's technically a spin off of The Good Wife. You don't need to have seen that to enjoy The Good Fight but there are a lot of callbacks that fans of the original show will appreciate. There's one small visual cue in season 2 I believe that had my heart dropping. It referred to what was the most shocking plot turn I've ever seen on television. I don't how many people got it.
• Parent Trap. This might be the first time I watched this movie as a grown up, and yes, it is much funnier than I remember. Also the split screen that allowed Haley Mills to play twins really held up. Right around the time I was watching this, I also saw an episode of Murder, She Wrote staring Haley Mills – as a grown up, obviously. Her voice is so distinct. It was a bit disorienting. 

Until Next Time!
Jen A. Miller
jenamiller.com
runningalovestory.com
twitter.com/byjenamiller
instagram.com/jenamillerrunner