Jake and Elwood... and Amanda. Hit it.

The Blues Brothers had it all.  They had the band, they had the sunglasses, and they could afford a FULL tank of gas.

Now halfway through my unemployment benefits, I was smart enough to come up with the idea of doing what I loved in order to earn money; writing.  I guess you could call it my version of getting the band back together.

There is a definite market for people who can write well... the problem is that the market is limited to upward hiring based on experience (public) and what materiel is available to be written about.

Though I have no problem writing articles and syndicates, I've found that the freelance market is not very consistent.  Translation: find more freelance jobs and a way to manage that income so that, come tax time, I don't run into the lovely "Jailhouse Rock" scene taking place after the car chase.

When people find out that I can write, it's amazing the kind of projects that can fall into my hands using word of mouth alone.  My net is filling with unwritten grants that people need written because, much like me, they need the money.

To start out, I took on some projects within my areas of interest; smaller ones like my daughter's garden club that (with any luck) will bring in several hundred to a few thousand dollars.  Casually speaking, I had a conversation with a friend who will likely need federal assistance for a non-profit organization to helps transition addicts through a detox programs, and back into leading positive lives society; an endeavor that will cost several hundred thousand dollars to start up.

This is opening prospective opportunities and, I am amazed to find that the best way to spread my reputation isn't so much in my own marketing as it is through word of mouth.

I've had some dead-end connections with publications specific to a discourse, but also some that were more open with professors working on second or third PhDs, in need of co-writers, editors, and research assistants for incomplete projects they hope to have prepared for publication within the next year.  And I "get it" on a very personal level.

"Stuck" happens.

"Losing wind" halfway through a book is where it tends to happen.

Working with other writers is clearly the window I've been waiting to find open in order to get started in prospectively working for myself.  More excitingly, this provides me with a way to get involved in a professional writing community.  It also has the power to open up to the wonderful critical voice of a coach that somehow turned into empty bleachers when my professional life got laid off.

I do my best writing when I'm working with other writers -both as a teacher and as a collaborator. My most consistent personal writing projects have been most monumental in content when I'm teaching, and my most proud inventions happen when I can discus them with others.

I'm hoping to make connections with professionals looking for co-writers to fund their research or writing endeavors through grants so that I can both earn an income while working with them, and learn how to do so on my own.

I may not be able to afford a full tank of gas yet, but I am getting refueled.  After all, life changes.  And I won't go down without one hell of a car-chase.