I’ve been a professional writer for almost forty years and in that time, my work has become scattered all over. Some of my earliest pieces are radio news stories, which exist, if at all, on rickety tape cassettes that I’ve carried with me over the years. My feature magazine articles are in the archives of publications, some no longer publishing, and on tear sheets that I’ve also carried with me over the years. When I added teaching writing and editing to my resume, of course I kept records of those experiences too: syllabi, lesson plans, rosters. After I got my first PC in the mid-’80s, I was keeping what amounted to two set of books–downloads of all my work on floppy disks as well as the hard copies. Considering the fate of floppy disks, I was prescient, if not a bit compulsive about “keeping a record”.
I’m not sure to what end I intended that record–posterity? future biographers? insurance against dementia? I do know, however, that it gives me all the material I might need to create an eponymous web site. When I bought the url JaneGassner(dot)com, I had some vague inkling that someday I would use it, but how or why weren’t part the equation at all.
Someday, however, has become today and as such, both the how and the why are very much in the foreground. The least of these reasons is to create a single place where the best, if not the bulk, of my writing can be found. That’s what you’ll find in Writing & Writing About Writing: my pre- and post-computer era journalism as well the best of ByJane.com and MidLifeBloggers.com. That too will be the place on the site where I blog, especially about all things Writing.
WriteRight Tutoring is where you go if you need a writing tutor to get you (or your kids) through the rigors of college composition courses, research papers and graduate-level academic writing.
The Writer’s Whisperer is for writers of all genres and experience looking for an expert to coach, console, motivate, educate and in all ways help them realize their potential as writers.
You’ll find all of that, plus contact information at Jane Gassner.com I hope you’ll visit.
Congratulations on the new website and career direction, Jane. I wish you great success.
It’s interesting to look back and see our careers in radio, print and the Internet change and evolve so much. Floppy discs, and tapes and tear sheets… Times have changed. I’m glad you’ll have your work in one place…
Hope you are feeling good and strong. jj
I like. Very much.
Wonderful!
Congratulations, Jane, on this new site! I look forward to exploring it.
what a good idea to bring all your writing/editing/teaching under one roof–er, url. Like you, my writing is scattered under many umbrellas, many of which are out of business or don’t have their older archives online. I’ve started clearing out my files of tear sheets–such an old-world term now. But you have me re-thinking. Maybe I should scan all those old articles and set up a giant folder–url–to hold them. Thanks for raising the issue. Best of luck with your new site.