Angela’s Camera Is ALWAYS Close at Hand

Hi Angela!

Okay, how do you do it? How do you keep from fainting when your son is bleeding like that? My son merely had a tiny slice from a steak knife when he was seven and I had to sit down and put my head between my knees! My nephew cut his head open and, yup, his aunt had to sit down again.I admire you. And to be able to take pictures. That camera would have crashed to floor, with me following! I hope you have a calm rest of the summer.

Hugs,
Anne

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Hi Anne,

Well, at first I yelled, “OH MY GOD!!!”

And then I panicked and left Frank bleeding on the front porch (duh!) and ran the other way to yell to my mom that I had to take him to the E.R. and that I needed her keys. Then I realized I had no idea where the local hospital was in that town.

My mom ran out and, during those few seconds, Frank had walked in and was sitting at the kitchen table, dripping blood on her cow hair carpet (not that we noticed at the time). He was smiling and saying he was okay. So, I calmed down a bit. I looked at the biggest injury and noticed the hole wasn’t bleeding at that moment so I knew he was probably going to be okay.

While I waited for my mom to put her shoes on, my journalist instinct kicked in and I grabbed the camera. I take my camera everywhere in my purse, just in case. You just never know when it’ll come in handy!

The close-up shot of Frank’s head wound was actually taken at the hospital. It was Frank’s idea to zoom in. Of course, I refused to show him the picture, telling him he had to wait until the stitches were in (I didn’t want to scare him).

Hugs!
Ang

Chay Sends a Funny…

That is one holy hole in that kid’s head, I must say. Very Important: Tell him to sit leaning a little so the wound is facing the sky. That way all the beans won’t roll out. *grin*

Chaleen Duggan

EDITOR’S NOTE:
See a humorous article by Chaleen in today’s issue!

Appendicitis Pain Isn’t in the Same Place in All People!

Dear Angela,

I’m glad Max is better, but part of your column really concerns me. You said you knew it wasn’t appendicitis because the pain wasn’t on the right side. You can’t always tell where the appendix is – or where the pain of appendicitis will be. Assuming you know this can be detrimental, to say the least.

My niece, Helen, nearly died of peritonitis because she did not have pain on the right side – she had a stomachache. We did not realize she had appendicitis until her appendix had burst and she was critically ill. The surgeon who took care of her said her appendix was behind her stomach – clearly not a normal presentation. (And in our defense, we had taken her to the emergency room several times before with the same symptoms only to be told it was “a virus, keep her hydrated, it would run its course.”)

We found out afterward that my grandfather and my aunt both had an appendix on the left side – that the surgeon removing my grandfather’s appendix had to really search for it. One could assume that it’s a family trait, but then, who knows? Thank you for WritersWeekly – I really enjoy it.

Best wishes to you and yours,
Vivian O. Collins

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Vivian is right. Our daughter’s close friend has reverse presentation of her organs and physicians often don’t know about it until/unless a person has had an x-ray, sonogram, or other imaging procedure.

WATCH THAT TONE! Learn To Speak The Language That Editors

I read Sarojni Mehta-Lissak’s article. I don’t think that the “diligent freelancer” she described should be sitting in a comfortable armchair in a bookstore studying the magazine she/he wants to “get into.”

The diligent freelancer should instead have a subscription to the magazine, delivered regularly to his/her dwelling place.

Once a freelancer gets into a magazine and contributes to it regularly, he/she will get contributors’ copies gratis. So the initial paid subscription if used wisely to deeply understand what the brand of the magazine is all about, and with that knowledge to score a contract, can be thought of as an economical way of getting a long-term magazine subscription without paying money for it.

Editors can actually tell the difference between freelancers who know their publications inside and out and those who have breezed through one or two issues, devoting a few extra seconds to the image of some sultry model in an advertisement.

Let’s say a diligent freelancer was interested in a magazine that pays $500 for a 1000-word column, and wound up getting a regular column for 12 issues per year. That’s $6,000 in a year. So what would be the better career investment, with the goal of landing that column? $12, $15, or maybe even $24 for a subscription, giving you issues you can endlessly consult, or a walk to the bookstore armchair, that doesn’t allow you to actively compare and contrast what is going on between different issues of the same publication?

If a freelancer doesn’t have $12 for a magazine subscription, he/she should look to other budgetary areas to see where he can free up the funds. Toilet paper, for example, is a total waste of money, given that writers can so easily use in its place the many pages of paper they wind up discarding because of typos, factual errors, and coffee cup bottom rings.

Welcome home to Bangor!

Hugs,
Scott Rose