Life of A Writer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 10, 2010

Southern Illinois Writers Guild Features Misti Sandefur

Carterville, IL -- On May 20, 2010 (7 p.m.), veteran freelance writer, Christian fiction author and Southern Illinois native, Misti Sandefur, will be the guest speaker at the Southern Illinois Writers Guild meeting, which will be located in Room B48 at John A. Logan College in Carterville, IL. Sandefur will talk briefly about her 10+ years experience as a writer, and then she'll share some of what she's learned over the years to help the writers in attendance market their writing services. In addition to revealing some of her secrets to success, she'll distribute free handouts to the group.

Since 1999, Sandefur has been writing content for CEOs, webmasters, business owners, bloggers and others in need of quality content. Besides providing writing services to the aforementioned, she enjoys writing Christian fiction that she hopes will warm the souls of her readers. Writing inspirational fiction stories is Sandefur's greatest passion.

"Misti Sandefur is the perfect combination of a Southern Illinois writer," says Cindy Gunnin, Vice President of the Southern Illinois Writers Guild. "She writes without preaching about faith, the beauty of her surroundings and down-home wisdom. She offers practical advice for exploring the region, enjoying life with your family and creating a principled life. Misti writes for several exceptional sites online and has published several books of her own,"

To-date, Sandefur has had numerous articles and stories published in various print and electronic publications, she's editor of CoffeeBreakforWriters.com and the author of "Help From Above" and "On the Net Resource Guide for Writer" (both published under the name Misti Jackson). She's also writing her second Christian fiction novel, which will be the first book in her Acts of Kindness series.

"Working from home as a freelance writer gives me more time with my three teenagers, husband and two adult stepchildren. It also allows me to be a caregiver for my elderly father who was diagnosed in late 2009 with Lymphoma and Leukemia," Sandefur says. "I'm doing what I've loved since I was 8 years old, while also being able to care for my loved ones when they need me," Sandefur adds.

Writers are encouraged to attend the free speaking event in May. There's no need for registration. Just bring along a writer friend and be prepared to learn how to market your writing services.

To find out more about the Southern Illinois Writers guild, visit them on the Web at http://www.jalc.edu/activities/siwg/index.html. If you'd like to find out more about Sandefur, schedule an interview or request a press photo for your story, you can reach her via email (mediainquiries@mistisandefur.com) or cell (618-841-6885).

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Yee haw! It took me all night, but I finally managed to create a theme for Discover Southern Illinois that I'm satisfied with, and now all I have left to do is create and distribute the press release. Hmmm… this may be another all-nighter… well, not the press release, just the distributing of the press release.

Discover Southern Illinois will be updated with upcoming events, news, places to dine, places to visit, places to shop and much more -- all in or related to Southern Illinois! If you're from the area then you could find yourself at Discover Southern Illinois often, so be sure to subscribe to the feeds while you're there. Not from the area? No big deal… you might visit someday, and this could be a valuable resource to help make your visit to Southern Illinois a pleasurable one. In fact, if you do head to my neck-of-the-woods, drop me a line and maybe we can meet for coffee and brainstorming… or just general chitchat.

Y'all are the first to receive the news, so I'd like personally invite you to check out my new blog and leave your comments. This gives you a chance to find out more about the place I've called home for many years. Enjoy, and do help spread the word!

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Good news! I got a response from one of those writing jobs I applied for, and it looks as if I may have the job. I said, "may have," because my first assignment is a test. Don't worry, I'll get paid for the articles, they'll decide whether I get another assignment based on how I write the articles they've assigned for the first time… the pressure's on, but I'm confident I can do it. I also know I'm not going to make another big freelance writing mistake, because this time I'm still going to hunt for more writing jobs as a back up. In fact, this is the first time I've ever worked with this company, so I hope they pay, but we'll soon see. And if they don't pay, then I'll take the steps I'm supposed to take as well as alert all the writers I know; y'all will probably be the first to know. Let's just hope it doesn't have to resort to that. (*crossing fingers*) In addition, this writing job is nowhere near the income I earned with my last writing job, so I definitely have to keep searching.

Tonight I have two deadlines to meet. Therefore, I plan to keep this post as brief as possible. I have two articles to write with a 24-hour deadline, and then 10 more articles to write for the new client. The 10 articles have a 10-day deadline, but I want to try to get them completed and turned in a little earlier, so I can make a good first impression. Don't worry; I didn't take one of those "peanut" jobs. I know that must have been the first thought that ran through your head when I said "10 articles." I may be in desperate need of writing jobs right now, but I'm not going to resort to letting a company take advantage of us writers.

For my other bit of good news: I have launched a new blog! I've considered launching this new blog for a while now, and since I wanted to play around with Wordpress, I thought now would be the best time to launch the blog. Boy, do I ever have some learning ahead of me!

I launched Discover Southern Illinois late last night, and I played with it all night long and all afternoon. I chose a theme I like for now, and I've installed a widget that will allow my readers to subscribe to the comments, but I can't seem to get the text beside the check box, instead it wants to go below it…Errr… I'm very new to Wordpress, but I see many Wordpress bloggers with neat things and better features than Blogger, but now I'll have to learn how to get the widgets and features I want, as well as learn how to edit the blog. Blogger is a whole lot simpler, but Wordpress has better features.

Another problem I seem to be having is I don't want the blogroll to say blogroll, I want it to say something else, but I can't figure this one out. If anyone can help, I sure would appreciate it. Furthermore, if you could lead me to some blogs that can help me, that would be great, too. Feel free to peek at what I've done so far, but keep in mind it's a bit of a mess. I've not announced it anywhere but here, and I don't plan to announce it until I get it the way I want it. I've also only made my introduction post, but that was mainly to figure out how to post. If you really want to see the mess, go to Discover Southern Illinois. Once I get everything the way I want it, I'll let you know more about the blog.

So much for being brief…LOL… I'd better end here so I can get busy on those articles. I certainly don't want to miss any deadlines.

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