I consider myself an introvert. Even making telephone calls to a restaurant to ask if they are taking reservations for Mother’s Day makes me anxious. I have an awesome circle of friends, but friendships do not come easily to me.

My preferred mode of communication with people is email, with texting being a close second. I do not like to talk on the phone unless it is with a close friend or relative. Some people may say email is “the coward’s preferred method of communication,” and perhaps they are right to a certain degree. When I email or text someone, I cannot see their face. When I talk to someone face-to-face, I very often cannot look directly at their face. It is way too anxiety-provoking.

Despite all of what I just said, I like to welcome new members when they join the EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association). I get their names from the “What’s New at the EFA?” bulletin, which comes in my email and indicates in which city and state each new member lives.

I focus specifically on members who live either in Maryland or in the greater Washington, DC area, which are the areas closest to me (I live in a Maryland city that is a bedroom community of the greater DC area.) I look at each new member’s EFA profile and if it includes the member’s email address, I send them an email which reads something like this:

“Dear Ms. X,

My name is Suzelle Fiedler and I have been an EFA member for four years. I saw that you recently joined the EFA and that you live [in Maryland/in the greater DC area]. Welcome to the EFA!

I saw that you edit [person’s niche or niches]. I edit scientific research manuscripts, focusing on biochemistry (I have an MS in Biochemistry).

I hope you grow to love the EFA as much as I do.

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Suzelle Fiedler

Am I trying to stalk new members? Absolutely not! What I’m doing is called networking. If a member does not respond, I simply move on. If they do respond, often this leads to a friendly colleague relationship.

One final important thing: I do not reach out to men (or members whom I believe to be men). Things can get very complicated in a bad way when this is done.

If you are a freelancer of any kind, how do you network?

Here, in the condo which my husband and I call home, reside three computers. I have to say that each of them has a soft spot in my heart.

I will introduce you to our electronic companions.

First, there is our desktop computer, which we purchased in January 2015. That’s right—it is now eight years old. In computer years, that is about 105. If our desktop had its own voice, it would sound like Grandpa from The Simpsons. It is currently running Windows 10, although it was running Windows 7 when we bought it. Why do we still have it? Because it still works. It is slow now and I would never use it for my work, but I like to use it for “fun stuff.” It has an excellent pair of speakers, which keep me going with techno music when I do household cleaning and which have done an excellent job of introducing me to Bill McClintock’s famous YouTube mashups. My only real beef with our desktop is that it has neither a webcam nor a microphone, so no Zooming.

Then, there is my laptop, on which I am presently typing this post. I bought it in June 2020 to use for my editing and business-related things. I’m not sure how old three years is in laptop years; maybe middle age? I love my laptop, even though I often yell and mutter at it (I tend to be somewhat vocal when I make a typo). My laptop came with its own webcam and microphone, so I can easily Zoom on it. There have been times in the past when it has scared me after I landed on an infected website. That is when I have called the tech-savvy husband of one of my best friends and pleaded for help. The laptop has always survived, however, and I am hoping that it will last a few more years.

Finally, there is “Henry,” my iPhone 13 mini. Henry has taken me for many rides along the internet (lowercased “i” according to The Chicago Manual of Style). Unlike our other two computers, he also houses my iTunes collection and can connect to the sound bar in our living room via Bluetooth. (If only we didn’t have neighbors sharing our walls and floor…) He can also connect to my wireless ear buds (doesn’t everybody have those these days?) but does not have a jack for corded earphones. I somewhat miss corded earphones; if one falls out of your ear, you don’t lose it forever.

What kind(s) of computer systems do you have/like?

We freelance editors tend to have thick skin, which is essential for our profession. After all, an author might not agree with an edit or a comment that we make, and we need to hear them out without getting defensive or nasty or curling up on the floor and crying. (Well, the last one might be okay in certain circumstances, since the author cannot physically see us.)

When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I am an editor, most of them look impressed. If they ask me what I edit and I say, “Mostly scientific research manuscripts,” they look twice as impressed.

However, if they ask me for whom I work and I tell them I am a freelancer, I get the polite, fake smile and the “Oh.”

The word “freelancer,” for some, has some negative stereotypic connotations. The one that makes me the angriest is, “Freelancing is for people who can’t get real jobs.”

Oh, really? A real job? I don’t have a real job? Then what do I have—a fake job? I sat at my computer editing until midnight last night as part of my fake job?

(Uh-oh, there I go being oversensitive.)

Seriously, though—please don’t use the expression “real job” around freelancers when trying to describe a job in which one is not self-employed. It’s insulting.

“Staff job” and “W-2 job” are some alternatives one can use to describe a job in which one works for another entity. If you are comfortable with it, you can also use the name of the company that employs you, as in “my Springer job.” (For those who are unfamiliar, Springer publishes scientific journals.)

If you are a freelancer, do you find the expression “real job” taboo? What do you do or say when another person uses it? What are your favorite alternatives for this expression?

Easter is not only my favorite holiday, but it has serious faith-based significance for me. Therefore, I will be away from my blog on Easter Sunday, April 9th. I will be back here on Sunday, April 16th (sometimes WordPress time-stamps my blog with Monday’s date, but I always blog on Sunday or Saturday).

We have only scratched the surface. We are not doing enough.

I’m talking about addressing the mental health crisis.

One of the few positive things about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it brought the mental health crisis in the US to light. A countless number of people suffered from anxiety and depression during this time and many continue to suffer, as TV news has told us repeatedly during the last three years.

The TV news has also given us advice, advice, and more advice on how to reduce the effects of anxiety and depression.

This is all a good start, but we need to do more.

It seems that on TV (and in society in general) we can talk about depression and anxiety all we want, but the minute we start talking about more severe mental illnesses—bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, to name two—everyone runs away, including the news media.

Why is this?

Is it because people with severe mental illness are portrayed as dangerous and as monsters in many movies, entertainment TV, and books?

Is it because we like to film individuals whom we assume are mentally ill having fits in public and plaster their images on YouTube and TikTok so that our friends can laugh at them and call them “Karens” and who knows what else?

Is this right? Is this compassionate? Is this fair?

I think you know the answer to those questions.

I have to admit that I did not go to medical school, so I can hardly call myself an expert on mental illness. However, I can say that I have relatives and friends with severe mental illnesses, and life has been a struggle for them many a time. Several of them have been hospitalized due to their condition. They are ashamed of it and don’t want to reveal it to anyone, all because of the stigma surrounding it.

This stigma is what we have to fight. And we do so by talking openly about severe mental illness. We need to open up about schizophrenia and bipolar, as well as keep discussing depression and anxiety.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that my relatives and friends with mental illness have been very successful in their lives and careers. But they would not have been able to do so without treatment, and people in general don’t seek treatment without information. And we get information by talking about the condition.

Are we ready to break the stigma?

No—not that kind of date. I’m talking about the dates on the calendar—the ones we must write every day.

There are many ways to write dates. Let’s use the date on which I am writing this blog post (March 26, 2023) as an example.

The way I wrote the date above is probably one of the most descriptive ways to write a date (and would be even more descriptive if I added the day of the week: Sunday, March 26, 2023). This format is widely used in the United States. However, in many other parts of the world, the following is preferred: Sunday, 26 March 2023. The day comes before the month, with no comma after the month. You say tomato, I say tomahto.

A very common abbreviation for dates looks like this in the US: 3/26/2023 (or 3/26/23 if you didn’t live through the Y2K scare). Personally, I have never liked this format, though I wrote dates this way for decades when I was younger. It robs the month of its personality and replaces it with a dull number. “March” to me means St. Patrick’s Day, the beginning of spring, college basketball, and sometimes Easter. What is “3” supposed to mean?

Seven years ago, in order to update my laboratory skills, I took two courses in cell culture and biomanufacturing at a local community college. Early in the course, our professor taught us how we were to write in our lab notebooks, including dates. We had to write them like this: 26 Mar 2023. The day first, then the three-letter abbreviation for the month, then the four-digit year. The professor drummed the format into our heads to the point where I will only write the date in that format now, even seven years after I took the courses (and got A’s in each of them). Anything else just seems completely wrong.

Of course, if you are an editor, the way in which the date must be written depends on the style guide that your journal or book is using. Please check the style guide before correcting dates!

What is your preferred way to write dates?

Windows. It’s what all PC users (like me) call home when we work.

(If you are a Mac user, I have nothing against you at all, but I must warn you that this post will not be relevant to you, since I do not know the Mac operating system. However, I would like to learn it someday.)

I first became aware of Windows around 1990. I was on my high school’s newspaper (I was the copy editor) and the editors of each section often used software called PageMaker, which ran in Windows. Of all the computers in our school, the ones in the journalism room were the only ones with Windows. I’m not joking. The others had, among other software, WordPerfect. That’s how old I am, folks.

My husband and I have a couple of computers between us; one is the laptop on which I am typing this post. The other is a desktop that we got at the beginning of (gasp!) 2015. Yes, it is eight years old. It has done a good job for the last eight years, but it is now as slow as molasses. Still, my husband uses it every day and I use it for “fun stuff” like watching YouTube videos or listening to music. My laptop is pretty much reserved for my work.

Both of our computers are currently running Windows 10. Our now-ancient desktop ran Windows 7 when we bought it. It automatically upgraded to Windows 10 a few years later. At the time, I was quite anxious about this. I was on Facebook at the time and I posted, “Our computer automatically upgraded to Windows 10 last night. Should I be concerned?”

My cousin replied, “Go back to 7 right now! Windows 10 will spy on you!” Very reassuring. However, we decided to keep Windows 10. I have no idea whether it is spying on us.

These days, my laptop prompts me about once a week to upgrade to Windows 11. The idea of this scares me. I have seen posts written on the EFA Discussion List about people who have lost their macros and had PerfectIt crash when they upgraded to Windows 11. Therefore, I am skeptical and paranoid. I have a gut feeling that one day my laptop will automatically upgrade, and then I will be thrown to the wolves. I will have to reinstall my macros and write to PerfectIt’s parent company’s tech support. That day has not come yet, however.

Do you use Windows 11? What has been your experience with it so far?

That’s why my husband and I went last weekend to a well-known tax preparation organization. The woman who did our taxes was highly professional and friendly and knew what she was doing. But I digress.

For a (too-long) time, we did our taxes on our own. Doing so would take about a day, lots of groaning, and the last of our patience. Gone were the days when we had only one W-2 for each of our jobs and could use the simple 1040EZ. Suddenly, we also had 1099s for my freelancing and had to fill out Schedule C, Schedule 1, and Schedule SE. And do lots of math. Did I mention that I never liked math?

Let’s talk about these forms for a minute, for those who may not be familiar with them.

Schedule C is for reporting income or loss from a business you operated or a profession you practiced as a sole proprietor. (Source: IRS) This applies to yours truly, since I operate Fiedler Editorial as a sole proprietor. I must report my profit (or loss) for the year on this form. My business expenses are also listed; whether I use a professional or not, I must keep good records of what I spend money on, how much money, and when and where I spent it. (NOTE: Our tax preparer really liked the printout of the expenses spreadsheet that I kept throughout the year. It pays to be neat.)

Schedule 1 is, in a freelance editor’s case, income from self-employment. (Source: IRS) It is also for several kinds of other income not directly reported on the 1040, but I won’t get into all of those here and bore you to death.

Schedule SE, which stands for Self-Employment, is for figuring the tax due on net earnings from self-employment. The Social Security Administration uses the information from Schedule SE to figure your benefits under the Social Security program.(Source: IRS) Everybody (that I know of) wants Social Security benefits once they qualify, and if you don’t have an employer who is taking money out of your paycheck for Social Security (i.e., you are self-employed), then you had better be filling out the Schedule SE.

I wish you the best on your tax preparation this year, whether you use a tax expert or not, and I hope you get a nice refund.

An editor who works from home must deal with many distractions, and from nowhere do most distractions come than outside her window. At least, such is the case with yours truly.

In our condo’s second bedroom, which my husband and I made into an office, there is one window, which happens to be located behind and to the right of my work desk. For the most part, I like that window, because it lets the light into the office and I thrive on sunlight (Give me some Vitamin D!). Also, when the weather is nice, I turn off the heat/AC and open the window, letting it bless me with fresh air.

Alas, not all that comes from the window is good for editing. Despite the fact that I live on a fairly quiet, suburban street, many distractions come from the window and threaten my concentration while I am working. I have to make an effort to keep my brain focused on my editing and not on the following potential interrupters:

Cars. Ninety percent of cars I don’t even notice, but if one with a missing muffler or a blaring stereo goes down the street, it can threaten to break my focus.

Kids playing. This is usually only an issue around three o’clock in the afternoon, when the neighborhood kids get off the school bus. Now, don’t get me wrong—kids need to play outside every day. But I just might have to close the window while they are doing so.

The city street-cleaning vehicle. I’m not sure what else to call this weird-looking, cube-shaped thing. All I know is that on Thursdays, it travels slowly and noisily along the curb with its brushes spinning as it keeps our street clean.

And last, but not least, there is the occasional emergency vehicle going by with its siren screaming. God bless the first responders who rush to the scene of an emergency. But it’s just that…well…the wail of the siren can be quite anxiety-provoking for me.

So what do I do to stay focused? I have to catch myself when I sense my mind starting to wander. This takes discipline and a strong will. After all, I am not in the office to look out the window. I am in the office to work.

What distracts you the most when you are working?

When one is running a small editing business, a bulletin board can be an ideal thing to have. Mine hangs directly above my work desk (and below my nemesis—the heat/AC vent that makes loud white noise when it is blowing air—but that’s another post for another time). I wrote a post a long time ago about my bulletin board, but it has changed some over time, so I thought it was time for an update.

My bulletin board helps keep me organized and makes sure that I do not lose important information. One thing I that I always keep pinned to it is my collection of time records for the month—that is, the records of the time I spent working on each task that was on my plate during the month. When the last day of the month comes, I look at the time records and invoice accordingly, after which time they are filed. Can you imagine what would happen if I lost one of these time records? Perish the thought.

A bulletin board item which has made its home on my board since last summer is my list of macros. This lists each macro that I have installed on Word and the keyboard shortcut that I assigned to it. Most of them I have memorized (which is the goal when using macros), but it’s always good to have a “cheat sheet” in this case.

There’s also the email printout showing that I registered for the EFA Conference, which is taking place in Alexandria, Virginia in August. Yes, I registered for it and I am officially going! Yay!

My favorite residents of my bulletin board are the things I pinned there that bring me encouragement. There are two small printouts of compliments I received from my first “long distance” clients, as well as a certificate of completion from an advanced copyediting course that I took some years ago. My most cherished items, however, are the Bible verses I wrote on sticky notes and the postcard sent to me by a good friend showing a picture of a rainbow with the words “BETTER DAYS AHEAD.”

Indeed.

If you have a bulletin board, what kinds of things do you like to keep on it?