by Sue Horner | Oct 14, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s a secret about a lot of writers, or maybe just humans. We have fragile egos. We crave positive feedback, and when we don’t get much (or any), we’re often struck by a feeling of “I’m not as good as [fill in name of admired author...
by Sue Horner | Oct 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This spring, I posted about the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. I recently found out that The Bookseller has crowned the Diagram of Diagrams, bestowing the title of Oddest Book Title among all the winners of the past 30 years. You may be surprised to...
by Sue Horner | Sep 23, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I scared myself recently by turning down two jobs. Two! Before you wonder how well my brain is functioning, let me tell you why I turned away work, and why you should seriously consider doing the same when you have the option. Both jobs had unreasonable deadlines; I...
by Sue Horner | Sep 18, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Having just edited a client’s news release, I found David Meerman Scott’s post on weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon and other baloney quite topical! (Check it out for some awful examples of what not to write.) The release I worked on started out in the...
by Sue Horner | Sep 17, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Don’t you almost hate to watch the news, open a newspaper or check your stocks these days? The bad news is unrelenting. Formerly solid companies going bust. Layoffs. Gasoline prices through the roof. Catastrophic weather. It’s definitely an uncertain world we live in....
by Sue Horner | Sep 3, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Last week, I was juggling several different articles for two different employee publications. One somewhat daunting piece started off with three interviews, four people to quote and three pages of notes. I had 1,500 words to boil down into 500, a process I like to...
by Sue Horner | Aug 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
All summer, I kept working away on hot days, even with a pool coolly beckoning. “I’ll finish this project now and swim late in the day,” I told myself. I can’t tell you how many times a glorious sunny day turned dark as rain swept in about 4...
by Sue Horner | Aug 21, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Summer is my season, so even though I enjoy different seasons, this time of year always makes me feel a little down. I’m expecting to feel a little bluer than usual just over a week from now, when our youngest heads off to university. Many people talk about how...
by Sue Horner | Aug 19, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You claim you’re trying to quit. You sneak off to furtively indulge in just one more. You check your pockets often to make sure you have your secret vice with you. In the old days (the Dark Ages, as my kids would say), you’d be a smoker. These days, you’ve...
by Sue Horner | Aug 8, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
(Updated September 2017) A colleague in one of my networking groups, Rob Clark of The Elusive Fish, once likened social media to being at a party. He suggested that just as we would at a party, we need to get out and talk to people. Blogger Jean Gogolin (found through...
