If you read this often, you might’ve noticed TigerCubGirl has been posting here more frequently than I have, and I haven’t really churned out a good, proper review or blog in a while. Well, there’s a reason for that, and it means a few changes to how I do things.
I’ve recently accepted two blogging positions that came across my “desk” – OK, more like my BlackBerry and Twitter – right around the same time. First, I’m the newest blogger and reviewer at GamerXChange.net, a gaming blog that launched just this past January. I learned that GXC’s founder, Geoff or @GxC_SimplyG on Twitter, was seeking six new writers a few months ago. I submitted an application, he read and was impressed by my reviews of Homefront and WWE All-Stars, and he decided I would be a good fit for his site. In fact, my first review will post hopefully sometime later today, a run-down of the final downloadable Mass Effect 2 chapter, Arrival.
This is where the changes start.
Unfortunately, I will not be posting my full game reviews here any longer, unless I do a one-off exclusive or feature. If I post the same thing here in its entirety that I post at GXC, that starts hurting my eventual Google rating and costs me searches. What I will do is post brief previews of my reviews, with a link to the website. I hope the people who visit and like the other things I write will similarly be intrigued enough, if gamers they be, to open a whole new window/tab and check out what I do elsewhere, just as I hope you’re also regularly checking out GeekGems.com. This is great exposure that I stand a chance to gain with a more frequently viewed site, and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to continue getting my name out. I may eventually establish a Facebook page solely for my writing under the Sleepless Colin name and check into whether or not I could include a full archive of my reviews there.
Another reason I haven’t posted as much: I’ve taken on something fairly unusual to help make my ends meet. For the next month, I’m a paid volunteer in a Quintiles clinical research trial. For those outside the Kansas City area who don’t know the name “Quintiles”, they’re a firm that assists with the testing of non-FDA-approved medications. I’m undergoing three four-night overnight stays during April and May to help test two drugs that treat urinary tract infections.
For that four weeks of doing little more than laying in a bed watching TV, reading, gaming and letting nurses repeatedly draw blood from me, I’m being paid $2,650. At least some of that is going to end up re-invested in my freelance writing/media ventures. Specifically, I’m eyeing a laptop and a microphone set. This probably won't be my last trial, either. I would like to do a couple more of these by August so I can set aside still more funds. God knows, I have the time right now.
That also means that my writing is restricting to the banks of PCs with high-speed Internet located in the Quintiles rec room. They’re good computers, but I can only use them when available. I’m actually going to try to step up my production during this time, though. Yeah, I know, leave it to me to attempt the most ass-backwards, illogical things possible. But I’m going to try!
That’s in part because of the third big change: at least on a trial basis, I have a paying freelance gig as a new “reporter” for Yidio.com. That means I’ll be getting paid by the 150-word-plus article to summarize and stylize TV and movie news. If I play my cards right, this could be another gig that not only nets me exposure, but lets me become essentially self-employed. I’ve always told Scarlett that I envied the freedom of setting her own hours more than a little bit. Well, now I get to try that hat on for size myself.
The BEST news, though? Writing is about to essentially become my life. I cannot begin telling you the sense of freedom and accomplishment I’m feeling right now . . . but I assure you, very soon, I am going to try.
In the meantime, I hope you all keep reading. Because I don’t see my writing stopping anytime soon.
