Aliya S. King

Good day dear readers!

A few things to note:

1. We all have a date tonight at 8PM.

Yup. That’s right.

Tonight, from 8-9:30, I’ll be answering ALL your questions related to the future of journalism. Along with my colleague, Chloe Hilliard, I’ll take your questions and give my honest opinion on the future of print, how to pitch an editor and any other questions you lob my way.

Only one catch: It’s on Twitter.

Now, if you have just groaned, that’s a sign that you need to get over it and get on Twitter. I posted about it last week. It’s not scary. I promise. Well, that’s a lie. It is kind of scary. But you’ll get used to it. I promise.

If you live in Twitterville, come visit me tonight. Here’s the best way to do it.

Log on to tweetchat.com, enter your log-in information. When it asks you what room to enter, type in #jsticks. You will only see Tweets pertaining to our chat.

Hope to see you there!

2. Guest Bloggers.

Remember waaaay back in the day, (three months ago), when I posted every single day? My dear readers loved it. I almost burned out of blogging completely. When I look back on the archives, I’m like whoa. I wrote these posts every day? No wonder I gained ten pounds, stopped working out and Tog was yelling out YAY! French Fries! every time we passed a fast-food restaurant. (Very embarrassing when you’re in the car with your health-nut mom).

Well, we’re back on tofu and quinoa up in this piece. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to provide you with great content as often as I can.  I’ve realized, from reading the comments and talking to my dear readers on Twitter, that you all are just as capable of producing great content.

So let’s go.

Wednesday will henceforth be Guest Blogger day. I have already reached out to some of my favorite commenters/Twitterers and have some great posts lined up.

Do you have an idea for a post that you’d like to write? Maybe you’re a new writer. Well this is a great place to cut your teeth. Maybe you’re a vet. This is a great place to get something off your chest that might not work at the day job. (Veteran writers: feel free to use a pseudonym if you need to go there. Or feel free to use your real name and promote whatever project you’ve got going on.)

I know every single person who logs on to my site has something interesting to say: I want to hear it.

Don’t know what to write? Check out my categories to the right. Steal one of them. Tell me about breaking into your first publication. Tell me about your experiences as a blogger. Give me the back story behind an interview. Give me a Guilty Admission. Tell me your Pet Peeve.

Are you a decent photographer? Shoot me a day in your life, caption them and send ’em to me.

Or come up with something all on your own.

Hit me up at Aliyasking@gmail.com with your ideas.

Please keep in mind: I may not get back to you right away. But I will get back to you. Also, for my new writers: just because you pitch, doesn’t mean you’ll be published here. We’ll go over your pitch and see if it works. And once it’s submitted, there will be an editing process. So be prepared to work. I’m a friendly blogger. But I’m a mean editor. It’ll be worth it though, promise.

3. TFW

Just a reminder. Would you like to workshop your fiction with me and other dear readers? I’m gathering prose from interested students for my Fiction Workshop. The workshop is online, located here. If you want the password, hit me up at aliyasking@gmail.com.

4. Come work for me!

Okay. So I have an assistant. His name is Shydel. Shydel was a student in my African-American History class back in 1998. Years later, we both ran away from home to pursue our dreams. Today, he runs my life. And I mean every aspect of it. He knows more about the financials in this house than TH. He does an Excel spreadsheet of my expenses every month, reaches out to interview subjects on my behalf and keeps a running database of therapists I can interview for my relationship stories for UPSCALE. After four years, he’s even started getting additional research bylines in stories I write. (He copped his first co-writing byline with me for my very last KING story.) He even faux-sits Tog on occasion. (We call it faux-sitting because he will only babysit after she’s asleep. Sigh.) What he won’t do is transcribe. I hate that. How do you work for someone and just straight-up say, “Sorry, I don’t transcribe.” It’s the 21st century equivalent to “I don’t do windows.”

Anyway. I realized a few months ago that I needed Shydel’s help with my blog. I told him that I needed him to work, (ahem, for free), on helping me run the blog. He agreed to work on the blog (and only the blog) for free in exchange for helping him craft his pitches, introducing him to editors and helping him in the freelance world. I gave Shydel a bunch of small tasks to help me get my blog running right. That was a month ago. Fool ain’t done one thing on there. Not one! I can’t stand him.

So. Shydel, you’re fired. From blogging duties.

I need an intern.

The pay? There ain’t no pay. But if you’re a brand new writer, you’ll have my ear. And that might be worth a little something. Not much. But a little something.

What would it involve? Phone calls, research. Intern-y stuff. Here’s an example: I want to write a blog post about learning how to make-up my face. I have never ever successfully learned how to apply makeup. I need to track down a makeup artist who would be willing to meet up with me in person and show me what works for my coloring. I’d tape the whole thing. And write a blog post about it, including a bit of video.

My intern would track down a makeup artist for me. And maybe pull some images for the story.

Simple, right?

I’ve also been meaning to write a post related to Tog and this horrible bad habit she has. I want to get a quote from a child psychologist on how to handle it. My intern would research a psychologist and set up an interview.

That sort of thing.

You can do this gig from anywhere in the country. (Or out of the country). As long as you’re quick on the email, we’re good to go.

Send a resume and a paragraph on why’d you like to do it to aliyasking@gmail.com

Whew. You got all that?

Okay. Let’s go!!

Dear readers, will you meet up with me in cyberspace at 8PM tonight? Are you going to submit fiction to the online workshop? Would you like to be a guest blogger? Interested in interning?

I’d love to hear from you…

P.S. If you missed it, I urge you to check out yesterday’s post on my dear readers and their dear mothers. Loved it.

This entry was posted on May 11, 2009 at 9:23 am and is filed under Housekeeping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.