Feeeeelings

And then I got published in a newspaper

Remember my list of 25 thing to do before I turn 25, which I wrote back in April? Of course you do! You’re a loyal reader of An Opportune Moment! (Aren’t you?) Well, over the last couple of months, I’ve been chipping away at that list, and I decided it was high time you all received an update.

The first item I’m officially checking off the list is #8: Get paid for any sort of writing. I included this on the list because I thought that once I had been paid to write, I would feel confident calling myself a writer.

Well, I’ve been paid for something that I wrote. In print, even! And my business cards say, “freelance writer and travel blogger,” and writing is my main income stream.

But… um… I still feel weird telling people I’m a writer.

Mostly because people think I look like I’m 17, and I have all of this anxiety over being taken seriously. I’m terrified someone is going to ask me, “oh, where have you been published?” or “have you written a book?” To which the answers are: “a weekly newspaper in Rhode Island and online,” and “no, you jerk.”

But, I digress — I got my first clip back in May in The Charlestown Press, a free weekly newspaper in Charlestown, Rhode Island.

photographic evidence
photographic evidence

The Charlestown Press doesn’t have a website, but many of its feature articles also run in The Westerly Sun, a daily newspaper out of Westerly, Rhode Island. So, don’t strain your eyes trying to read my article in the above photo. Just follow this link to The Westerly Sun‘s online version: Theater company finds a challenge in God’s Ear. (Unfortunately, The Sun has already archived my article, which means it looks ugly, but the text is all there.)

And now, because my goal wasn’t to be published in a newspaper, it was to be paid for my writing:

Ta-da! I'm sure you understand why I redacted my address.
Ta-da! (I’m sure you understand why I redacted my address.)

It takes a lot of $60 checks to make rent, but a writer has to start somewhere.

Emma Holliday is well-traveled. After 5 years in Boston, she and her husband upended their lives to move to Berlin where she is currently writing a (funny) book about travel and grief and attempting to learn German.

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