Modern Times

So, while Adam's car, which finally died, gets towed to the shop, I can sneak in a blog, although I promised I'd cook dinner while he followed the tow truck to the shop in my car.

Okay, so I know it's totally cheesy, but I read this book I checked out of the library (single income families don't One Click their books as they did when they were two income families without student loans) called How to Be a Freelance Writer. Of course, I don't need it anymore, since I've gotten a job offer (oh, you thought I told you everything, did you? Even I can keep a few things up my sleeve). When I checked it out, I didn't realize it was written in 1981. The crux of the information is still accurate, of course: targeting pieces, writing query letters, dealing with editors. But some of it is simply laughable. I mean, 1981 doesn't seem that long ago. I remember it. Yet reading this book, 1981 was another era. Advice such as:

• "...editors will assign stories to writers who type their queries on manual typewriters, but no manual can ever give your final drafts the high-tech professional appearance of an electric. The pros use electrics."
  
• use carbon paper to make copies of query letters because it's important you keep a draft for yourself and it will save you lots of money on photocopying.
  
• "As you probably know, many libraries have installed computer terminals to help patrons locate various research materials. If your local library has such a computer, by all means, learn how to use it."
  
• You can record phone conversations for interviews by using a device available at Radio Shack. A cord connects to the recorder, and you place a suction cup over the listening end of the phone.
  
• "The next step up from a machine such as the Electronic 75 [a typewriter with computer memory] is a full-fledged word processor. The most sophisticated of these computer age, text-editing machines consists of three separate units: a keyboard, a televisionlike cathode ray tube, and a printing unit.... a word processor uses magnetic disks that offer a removable memory. Such disks function much like the cassette cartridges used in tape recorders.... you can get a 'hard' copy of the text by merely pressing the 'print' button....the price for a full-fledged modular word processor ranged from $7,500 to more than $20,000...."
  
• A section entitled: "Is There an Answering Machine in Your Future?"
  
• "To save money on your long-distance phone calls, remember that Ma Bell charges her highest rates on weekdays between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, local time.... consider subscribing to a special long-distance service such as M.C.I. or Sprint.... in addition to your long-distance charges, you'll also be billed a flat monthly fee.... such services will not permit you to dial every phone in the U.S.....In order to subscribe you must have a touch-tone phone, and you must be willing to press twelve extra buttons before dialing each long-distance call."
  
• "...budgeting on a freelancer's volatile income can prove as vexing as trying to unscramble a Rubik's Cube puzzle."
  
• "[He wrote] a story on the metric system for Braniff's Flying Colors."
  

I'm sorry but this just cracked me up. I think the Arlington library needs to update their books.