J. K. Rowlings!

In case you don't know who this writer is, she is the author of the Harry Potter books!

I was watching a documentary about a "year in the life" of her life. She seems very ordinary and very normal - I say that because she is estimated to be worth millions because of her Harry Potter books! She is a millionaire many times over!

What did stand out for me was how she talked about how her writing was so closely related to her own life. She had a hard time dealing with the death of her mother and parts of that also show up in her writing as well!

For a time she lived on "benefits" which I take to mean that she was getting some sort of government assistance like government grants and food stamps and the like! (Now you have to remember that this is over in England and I would love it if our own government had programs to help financially support struggling writers!)

I loved the fact that she still likes baking nd it seems that her financial wealth has gotten her too crazy!

She has said that people have written to her asking for money and that at times she has even granted their requests! Now she has set up a charitable trust.

I guess the thing that stands out most to me about this author is the fact that she wrote her books from her heart and wasn't just writing for money - in fact she had even resolved herself to the fact that her first book might have never even gotten published!

So her story is very inspirational! And it does give one hope!

Interested In A Job As A Speech Writer?

It seems that our own government has an opening for a speech writer! Thats right! Our own government has a job opening for a speech writer. It never occurred to me to look towards the government when looking for writing jobs but I found out that the government has a lot of job openings for many different kinds of jobs - including those related to writing.

If you want to find out more about this specific job opening then you can go to the blog post where I got the information from.

The Government Has A Job Opening For A Writer!

Here is some of the details:

The government has an opening for a speech writer! The specific agency is the Department of the Army. The listed salary is around $67,000 per year. The location of the opening is in Alabama. There is only 1 job vacancy for this position.

While it sounds like a great opportunity, personally it is not for me but I thought that others might be interested in something like this.

You keep hearing so much about government grants and such that any good news from our government is welcomed!

Woman Named Britain's First Female Poet Laureate!

I saw this article online and thought that it would be great to post it here! I'm always glad to hear good news when it involves those that write - especially when they are female like me!

Of course I'm not from Britain nor have I ever been there but I would like to go there and visit some time!

I would just like to congratulate this woman and you can read more about this by clicking here.

A Writing Contest

I found a writing contest on Renderosity.com which looks like a place for artists of all kinds. The name of the contest is "Alone In The Dark" and you can find out more about it by clicking here. I believe that you have to be a member to enter but becoming a member is free and the site looks very interesting. I should also warn you that this particular writing contest requires that you submit an image as well. I didn't see any entries yet so I can't tell you exactly what kind of image you have to submit but I'm guessing that it has to be some sort of 2D or 3D image that you create yourself.

So if you're looking for a creative outlet for your writing, just click the link above and check it out!

Joanna Pacitti?

Joanna Pacitti is a singer/songwriter who appeared on American Idol singing Pat Benatar's "We Belong". She isn't a stranger to the music world though!

• she was previously signed with A&M and Geffen Records

She moved to LA from Philadelphia (my own home town) when she was only 16!