If you want me to write for you

I started writing here in 2009 and have steadily watched the number of folks, like yourself, who read my blog, grow. It has been fantastic to hear from you in emails, read your comments and see you liking the Facebook page.

It is my responsibility to you that I have a blog that you want to come and read. Writing is based on relationships and shared experiences and connecting with one another and I take that seriously when I post. Writing is not my full-time job. It's not even my second full-time job (mom) or third on my list of priorities (I sit on a few boards and committees) but I love it and that is why I do it.

I have had the privilege of writing for Downeast Magazine and I have my monthly column in the Northwoods Sporting Journal. I am excited to share my stories and thoughts with other people.

That is why when a larger media outlet contacted me and asked me to be a freelance writer for them, I got excited. It was a chance for more people to read my writing and ideally come here to read more about me and my adventures. We agreed to a start date in October but no end date so that I could freelance for them and write as many or as few articles as we agreed upon. We signed the contract, emailed a few times and within a week, I had produced three articles for them.

It was fantastic to see my articles posted. I emailed my third article on November 1 and asked for more topics to write about. The next day, I got this reply "Great— received, thank you so much! I'm going to look at our conversation spreadsheet, and send you some topics to see if any spark your interest!" I waited. Deer season wrapped up and Thanksgiving came and went. Six weeks after the above email, I reached out again and asked about topics as well as when I could expect to get paid (it was closing in on 60 days since I had sent the invoice.) Nothing. I waited a week and resent the email. No reply. I waited two more weeks and emailed the CEO along with my contact there. I asked why I had not gotten paid when they had used all three of my articles. We had signed a contact and yet they were not following through on their end. No response.

Two weeks later and 2.5 months after receiving my last communication from them, I received an email. They hoped to pay me the follow Tuesday. That was two weeks ago. They continue to promote my articles on their social media platforms and have them up on their website. And I continue to be a little shell shocked at how a company could blatantly lie and cut off communication. I also know that I am not the only person that this has happened to. It just amazes me and let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to hire freelance writers: don't piss off people who write and already have a public forum (and readers) because if you can find us to ask us to write for you, others can find us and read about why we are not writing for you.

So, lesson learned and now, I have two simple guidelines for writing:
1. If I can not drive to your office, you pay me a deposit before I turn over my work.
2. I own my content. Always.

I will let you know if I ever get paid by this company but in my experiences with them, I am pretty sure that I am SOL.

Live and Learn

Taking Turkeys to Texas

There are a few less turkeys in Maine to hunt this year. A few months ago, Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation , captured and released more than 50 birds into East Texas with the hope of rebuilding their population. “Eastern turkeys are where the restocking efforts originally began,” explained Shawn Roberts, Director of Field Operations for the National Wild Turkey Federation, “We tried in the 1920’s but it didn’t work. We tried pen-raised birds and that didn’t work either. The only thing that was successful was to trap birds and relocate them to good habitat.” “We started this current effort in the early ‘80s and we had to begin looking outside the state to see if we could get them moved in. We didn’t want to violate The Lacey Act so we had to come up with a way to compensate the states that were giving up a resource either by trading other wildlife or paying them monetarily,” said Roberts. Texas is on the very edge o

Do Outdoor Women need to toughen up?

I hope you get shot out in the forest and wolves gnaw on your dying corpse…..WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE I’d like to rip off your f*$%ing head and pour gunpowder down your f*$%ing throat and light it on fire Only c*%t’s shoot animals and take pleasure in it. I hope you die a horrible painful death As I began to look at how female hunters were being bullied, I had to ask myself if it was because we were easy targets as women or if we needed to just toughen up a little. Once I started asking my fellow female hunters about their experiences, the things that they sent to me as examples of what they deal with daily made me sick to my stomach. I’d like to meet you outside someday with a gun in my hand, I would shoot you several times and laugh over your f*$%ing body as you die like you do to those poor animals that can’t defend themselves. MURDERER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Generally threats are basic name calling. They include sexist remarks, racist remarks a

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it.

and a strong cup of coffee

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