Hello everyone!

My latest author newsletter will be released today. I've included my info for meetings at the Lori Foster Convention as well as giving away a previously published title of mine--a sizzling-hot one that has two stories tied together--and a nice li'l contest.

If you're not a subscriber, what I'm doing now (Yahell has ticked me off one too many times) is send a PDF of my newsletter as well as a normal one through my newsletter group. Starting with this edition, you can also access newsletters on the group in the FILES section.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bickbrownZHnewsletter

Yes...yes, I know I've been scarce of late.

Somehow I find myself with 17 pending manuscripts to edit, not to mention the work of my private authors. My hours have moved up to nearly full time at the carryout, and I'm working hard and fast to finish a WIP I'll be sending to my agent soon.

In the meantime, I'm dealing with kids at home, trying to put a garden in between raindrops, and have more stress right now than I do sense.

I'll be back in a coupla weeks!

www.faithbicknellbrown.com

So many people think that the life of a writer is glamorous. I hate to disappoint them, but unless the writer is a big NYC author name, the writing life can suck canal water.

Many who knew me as Zinnia before I came out about my identity loved the stories I blogged about regarding the chickens and the 6 kids. Well, the chickens were for comedic relief, but the six kids (which I kept as all boys in my blog because they were the majority) are real.

Anyone who has a big family or grew up in one knows that the funds needed to support such a family are high and most often difficult to come by.  Think of the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours (the original movie) and recall the scenes where they went to the store and where the prepared meals—and no, I’m not kidding!  For a while, we even had 7 kids (that’s ten people in one household) living under our roof, but three of those boys have now moved on, so there are only 6 of us under this roof now—and getting by is still difficult, especially during the current economic chaos.

But being a professional freelance writer and editor, I’m often told I must make a killing off of editing manuscripts for others and my stories.

Uh, wrong.

First, freelancing is either feast or famine. And with magazines and e-zines schedules, I can sell a story now and not get paid for it until this time next year. Most publications like this have gone to the payment on publication method, which sucks. The sales a writer makes with an e-publisher depends on the publisher itself, the genre he or she writes, promotions, size of h/her reader base, and so on.

And nowadays, a first-time novelist (in NYC it’s a term used for an author who hasn’t had a NYC published novel before) doesn’t get that big of an advance, especially with the current economy. (And don’t get me started on Myers and the sparkly vampire Twilight series...yuck!)

So, although my hubby works fulltime, I work nights at a local carryout to help with expenses and it still doesn’t help much when raising such a big family.

And then when you add the problem of health coverage to the mix, hoo-boy! Health coverage? What frickin’ health coverage? My kids get state-run Healthy Start coverage because to put everyone on my hubby’s crappy health plan it’s takes half of our monthly income and that’s not counting the high deductibles and high co-payments for meds and office visits. Due to this, we qualified for supplemental coverage through the state; in other words, when coverage causes a hardship in Ohio, we qualified for state health insurance; and they paid part and the hubby’s insurance picked up part.

Got a letter Friday from the state letting us know that our insurance for me and the hubby is now no more.  After a while, we were put on transitional coverage which means we had 12 months to find new insurance.

Uh. Hello? There is no affordable family insurance out there! The hubby has insurance he pays nearly $200 a month just for him!

And yes, there are insurance policies out there for freelance writers and authors, but they’re not cheap either.

So if you think the life of a writer is full of money and glamour, it’s a job just like any other out there only we, as writers, enjoy our jobs and can become other personalities, stepping into new worlds.

But it would be nice to get a break and land a contract like Stephen King or Nora Roberts gets. At least then I could afford health insurance for my family.

www.faithbicknellbrown.com