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The Freeline Blog Swap: Robert Pepper on anti-vaccination, pseudoscience and the anti-anti-science movement
Freeline is a group for Australian freelance journalists. And this is a blog swap started over email where journalists somehow try to write guest posts for each other’s blogs despite the difference in specialisations, niches and beats. This is Robert Pepper’s swap with me – 4WD for science and he owns this material. You can also read my post on my love affair with the Jeep Wrangler on Robert’s blog: ‘Life’s Too Short For Boring Cars’. Freelance journalists are paradoxical people.  We love the freedom and independence that defines freelancing, yet our chosen profession is often lonely, interacting with the likes of editors only by fleeting email or hasty phone call.…
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Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop
Marisa Wikramanayake takes part in the Australia Day Book giveaway Blog Hop for 2014, giving away a choice of two books from the never ending giveaway pile.
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New project: Guys Read Gals
First off, I did not come up with the name. That was all Rob Kennedy‘s fault. Second, last I checked I am not a male member of the species so I am not actually an active participant – I am just there to make sure everything runs properly. And to carry a metaphorical whip so that the guys involved behave like the gentlemen that they are. So what is it? It’s a website. For men. To post reviews of the Australian female fiction authors they have read. And for women and men. To contribute insightful articles, interviews and opinion pieces on the topics of men reading  and/or Australian female fiction…
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Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop
So the lovely people at Book’d Out kickstarted this off. Basically each blog involved runs a competition of some sort and the point is to give away a book by an Australian author to a lucky winner or a book voucher or something like that. This means not only do I have to come up with the means by which you participate as a reader and I pick a winner but also what you will get if you do win. And it occurs to me that a book loved should be a book shared. And that I have some copies of my own book left. The competition starts: 25th January…
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How to network at an editors' conference
Or any other conference really. And by network, I mean meet, chatter, gossip with, not just pop up, deliver your 15 word elevator speech, exchange cards and dash off again. And for those who are still a bit behind, this is the 6th National IPEd Editors’ Conference we are discussing which will be held in Perth in Fremantle in April 2013. In about three months’ time in other words. Before the conference (one is assuming you have already registered for it): Find the program – I have made it easy for you, it’s here. Check out the list of who will be there as speakers and presenters for each session.…
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2013's very odd resolution list
This being the start of 2013, of course everyone is talking about New Year Resolutions. In fact, come December 1st everyone starts ruminating on this topic. And then of course there is a lot of angst over what one hasn’t done yet and that horrible nagging feeling that somehow you are running out of time to do X, Y and Z and therefore be happy. So in the interests of preserving some sanity here, because let’s be honest, me being me, I have very little sanity or so people tell me, let’s do this differently. What was 2012 like? Well, lets see. It was unexpectedly social at points – in…
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Live Tweet: The National Carbon Capture & Storage Conference, Perth
I am reporting on the National Carbon Capture & Storage Conference in Perth (part of National CCS Week) for Science Network WA. I am hoping to curate all the tweets live from the conference in this post so if it works and you cannot follow the hashtag #ccsconference then check back here and follow the conversation below. I am also hoping to live blog the event and I will add the twitter feed to the end of any posts I do. this is very much an experiment so cross your fingers! Tweets about “#ccsconference”
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I am the first result on Google!
Marisa discusses how she got her site to become number one in Google Search rankings, using information about her audience, the Google sitmape plugin, meta data and keywords, Google Maps and social media networks.
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A Blog Carnival's In Town:
First off, a blog carnival is a regular round up of weblog posts/entries/articles on a particular topic. This week, the lovely folk at thursdaybram.com have accepted two of my posts for their 61st round of articles on the Business of Freelance Writing. The two posts in question are Parts 1 and 2 of the list of things writers/freelancers need to know and both are on this site. Blog carnivals are great ways to get a lot of attention for the writing you publish online. You can submit your articles to blog carnivals by going to BlogCarnivals.com or else you have to wait for someone to notice you. Cheers, Marisa.