A number of organizations offer financial assistance to professional writers in severe financial distress because of illness, serious career reverses, or other catastrophes that affect their ability to work and earn. This assistance generally takes the form of open-ended, interest-free loans or outright grants to help pay medical bills, rent or mortgage, or other expenses.
Resources
Freelancer Nancy Allison continues her search for the best writer websites on the Internet. This month, she talks with John Moir about the single-minded strategy of his site, Return of the Condor.
For her first review of a writer's website, Nancy Allison talks with NASW member Emily Sohn, a versatile science writer with an intriguing site, TidePoolsInc.
What's a hashtag, you ask? It's a handy device that allows you to follow a particular event or topic on Twitter. Get set up with Twitter and you can follow your colleagues who are attending the AAAS conference later this week, as well as contribute to the conversation. Get commentary on former vice president Al Gore's talk as it happens, find out where the cool people are meeting for dinner, and much more. Catherine Dold shows you how.
Past time for a roundup of a few Web sites particularly useful to freelance science writers, not least because they are all free. All but one, anyway.
"I can't remember or even imagine having to use a typewriter to do my job . . . " Emma Patten-Hitt writes about the importance in her working life of her e-mail pager, a fast laptop, voice recognition software — but not a Palm.