Caren Gussoff writer. geek. bon vivant. dot com

I am really at a loss for words here, which should hopefully convey my awe and gratitude. Chris is equally speechless. Thanks to you, Chris and I can now cover his tuition bombshell.

Since we’ve made the needed $600, I’m going to close down donations. If anything comes in after this point, I will return it to the donator.

Thank you, friends–both those we know and those that materialized from the mists of the internet to help strangers. Again, if you donated and did not receive a personal email from me, please step forward and send me a note at caren at spitkitten dot com. I have tuckerizations or crits to discuss with you, or want to confirm where to send you a copy of “The King of Seattle” short story.

Chris and I hope to be able to pay these kindnesses forward when he graduates. Thank you. Just…thank you.

Love,

Caren Gussoff and Christopher Sumption

Thanks to the tremendous generosity of many of you, we’ve now managed to raise $375 of the $600 we need to keep Chris in school. I think I’ve contacted everyone who has donated so far personally—if I’ve missed you, do email me at caren at spitkitten dot com and let me know. Some folks have inquired about buying tuckerizations or crits as gifts, so I’ve whipped up a very simple little printable certificate I can send you to give to your lucky recipient. Just let me know.

And remember, everyone who donates in any amount will also get a copy of the short story “The King of Seattle” the story upon which the novel is based. This story will never be published. It’s only for the donators as a thank you for helping a bright student out of a jam.

I’ll continue to accept donations until we meet goal or until December 21st, whichever comes first.
With much love,
Caren

My husband, Chris, is a really good artist. For the last 15 years, he’s been working as an office manager for various small businesses, a career which became far less viable with the economy as it is–affecting all businesses great and small (but definitely having a direct, profound effect on smaller companies). To make himself a more attractive candidate for large companies, he returned to school–Seattle Central Community College–in fall 2009, studying database administration and programming. He’s attending under the Washington State Worker Retraining Program. He applied for and was promised a Pell Grant to continue his studies past this quarter.

Today, December 10, he was informed by financial aid that although we do indeed qualify for a Pell Grant based on need, there is absolutely no money left to offer him. Nice news, especially since payment for Winter Quarter is due on December 21.

He can get a loan, for fall 2010 (Seattle Central doesn’t offer Stafford Loans, and the community college locations that do offer it don’t offer his coursework). He’s currently madly searching for scholarships. But we’ve got to find the money to pay for his tuition. We can split it into monthly payments, which we can totally plan for and swing, however, in this case, for this quarter, we have to come up with 600 dollars before December 21. Which we don’t have. At all. Not even close. If we knew a month ago, maybe…but now? Not so much.

So, for the first time ever, I am asking the interwebs for help. But not for nothing. I’m offering a few things to maybe help tempt you to part with some of your own precious cash:

1. A tuckerization in my novel-in-progress. The novel isn’t done, isn’t sold (see the progress meter to the right), but if it means anything, it’s earned me both the Gulliver Travel Grant and a Hedgebrook Residency for 2010, based on its potential. So, apparently, other people that aren’t related to me think this novel could actually go somewhere. I also have published before (see about me if you have no idea what I have ever done).
This tuckerization can be anything really. I’ll name a character after you, make them look or act like you, or add into my novel any thing, concept or idea that you would like to see.
I’m asking for a $50 donation for a tuckerization. There is no limit to this. I will tuckerize as many people are interested.

2. A crit, much like we offer over at Brain Harvest. I will do either a line edit style or a developmental edit for you. I’m a good editor, too. Pinky swear.
I’m asking for $25 to crit a short story fewer than 10,000 words or $50 to crit a story/ies between 10,000 and 25,000 words. This can be any genre (my first two books were literary fiction).
Story shorter than 10,000 words

Story longer than 10,000 words

3. The story package. I will offer people who donate this way a copy of an as-yet unpublished story, which will, forever and ever, remain unpublished and only in the hands of the people who choose to donate this way. I will never send it out. I will never post it anywhere. It is your story, should you decide to donate (BTW, if you’re curious, it’s the short story upon which the novel in progress is being based).
This is for any amount of donation.

Many, many thanks for reading this and spreading the word. I’ll post progress if and when we make some–towards the $600 goal.UPDATE: Thank you everyone who has donated or posted about this! So far, we’ve raised $250 of the 600.

UPDATE 12/12, 10:30PM: We’re at $350. You all are amazing!

UPDATE12/14, 1PM: Thank you! We did it!

xo
Caren

The Speculative Literature Foundation has the 2009 Gulliver Grant press release up:

http://www.speculativeliterature.org/Grants/SLFTravelGrant/TravelGrant2009.php

I’m really excited and very honored. Looks like I was up against some serious competition, just from the announcement of the honorable mentions.

I am going to use the grant to offset expenses to travel from Seattle up to Orcas and Whidbey Islands, and then southwest to Ocean Shores (during various times in February, March, and April 2010)  for research for the book.

Following up on my first set of personal tips and advice on saving money in a brutally dismal economy–which, for the artsy types that avoid 9-5, may last longer than the rest of y’all–is my spiel on saving money on food/grocery bills (which was the most requested topic via email). Remember, this is all from personal experience and some of this, I realize, may seem a bit extreme or–even, yes–wacko. YMMV.

• The very best tip I can give you is to learn to cook. Not only that, learn to like to cook.  But, if your repertoire pretty much involves toast and boiling water for pasta, start by learning to cook, at least. Take out some basic cookbooks from the library or keep an eye out for free cooking classes at local Whole Foods (and places like that). Experiment–but not too much at first. Wait until you’ve made a few dishes following recipes exactly, with success, and you understand the basic chemistry of how foods cook and what tastes good with what.
• Play the grocery game. I’ve never played the Grocery Game, but I do know quite a few people who have. This works well, from what I am told, if you have a family to shop for. Essentially, the GG, for a few bucks a week, consolidates every special, coupon, and rebate for products you buy at major chain grocery stores. I’ve heard of people who use the GG to wind up with a $200 cart of groceries for less than $20 out the door.
• Do what everyone else tell you: clip coupons, shop the perimeter of the store (avoiding frozen and packaged foods), plan meals in advance, don’t shop hungry, etc. You can find articles on this everywhere. It’s all usually good advice.
• Build up your basics pantry. Your basics pantry are the ingredients (aside from spices) you use often and can combine to make other things. In our house, our basics pantry includes eggs, flour, butter, milk, canned black beans, canned tomatoes, sugar, and unsweetened baking chocolate. If we have these ingredients, I can usually use them–along with whatever else we happen to have–to make some sort of meal. Your basics pantry will probably contain different things based on your taste. But once you’ve figured out what those are, always try and keep them on hand.
• The most extreme, but personally interesting  tip is to go freegatarian. That’s right. Freegatarian. Also known as freeganism, freegatarians try and, well, salvage all the good stuff that would be, otherwise, thrown away. Tons of food are simply tossed because they’ve passed their aesthetic prime–rather than because they’ve become inconsumable. Finding food that would otherwise go to waste is remarkably easy. Sometimes you can ask the folks that work at restaurants and grocery stores, although that usually only flies at Trader Joes and organic markets (they are the most receptive). There’s also lots of info on the internet from other freegatarians who are very generous with sharing their intelligence about where to find things (including where and when to visit the alley behind Theo Chocolates or Top Pot Donuts, yum).  The most challenging and fun thing about freeganism is that you have to be open to happy surprises, coming home with 3 pounds of slightly bruised gala apples one day (pie!) or packages of just wilting fresh herbs the next (which can be air dried for later use*. If you have a good basics pantry, you can usually figure out something to make with your prize (Allrecipes.com has a lovely search feature where you can search by ingredient for recipe ideas).
• Get a garden or a P-Patch and grow your own food. Last summer was my first year doing this and I am so excited to do this again. I didn’t plant some things early enough and I lost all my pumpkins to blight, but we had fresh herbs, garlic, peppers and chard all summer (and well into fall). This next season, I’m going to add more tomatoes and do strawberries (which do well in the PNW summers). Getting started can take a small investment, but I used mostly found containers (lots of coffee cans) and have been keeping a compost bin (we go through coffee like madpeople and coffee grounds make for excellent compost), so my only expense will be some fresh soil and seeds–and really, if I had my crap together, I’d get in on all the seed swaps that happen both locally and on the internet to get a good seed store together for even less money.
• And finally, scavenge your neighborhood. You’d be shocked at the food that grows wild and local all over the place. Within one block in my neighborhood, there’s a field filled with dandelion greens and at least 3 lots where blackberries take over**. I keep my husband in blackberry pie all season that way, and nothing beats fresh berries that are twice the size of what you find at the market. Also, look for neighbors who have more bounty than they can handle (and ask before taking). Our neighbor has a fig tree that always bears more than she could ever hope to eat…so, voila. Fresh mission figs for us.

 
*For those of you in the back row freaking out about “dirty” food, freegatarians wash their finds. Wash them well–just like you should be doing even if you buy your food at Safeway. Think for a second how many people fondle each piece of produce in the grocery store before you get it home.
**Again, a good wash/rinse and they are just fine. Delicious.

I really do love doing research. I’ve been doing a lot of it (on plagues, pandemics, and public health) as I work on this draft of the novel (if you’re remotely curious, I’ve been keeping a running bibliography on what I’m reading for the novel over here). Today, I came across a gem that I just have to share (and for the ethnically Jewish out there, it’ll probably explain quite a bit about our mothers’ constant fascination with our digestive health while we were growing up), a reference to a “plague” thrust upon the Philistines as punishment for stealing the Ark of God.

From the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 5: 6-12

6: But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
9: And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
12: And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

After exercising the full extent of my google-fu, I came to learn that emerods can mean…hemorrhoids. Yes. Jehovah smote them with hemorrhoids.

There’s also a bunch of scholarly research that contends that emerods actually refers, in this instance, to bubonic swellings–which is, probably, more likely. But, hemorrhoid smiting paints a much, uh, richer picture, doesn’t it?

Just wanted to share a quick and potentially amazing place I just happened to find during my nightly “avoiding doing work” internet jags—the Seattle Free School. This jives really nicely with the second blog post I’ve been tinkering at, on saving monies: part deux.
Anyway, free classes. On interesting stuff. Really. I just signed up for a hot process soap making course on December 3rd. There’s also a Russian cooking class I’m eyeballing.
Did I mention the classes are free?

Dang, I really love this book.

“No one has ever written truly immortal poetry about how good their dog looks in knitted garments.”

Amen, brother.

All around me, the economy is showing. Friends and family are eating up their savings cushions. Writers and editors I know are in low level panic. Etc. Etc.

I was laid off from my last full time gig two months ago, but really, I haven’t worked a day job with any regularity since I went to Clarion West in summer 08. My husband, Chris, an artist, has recently returned to school to upgrade his day job skills. Having been raised poor myself, and living in a house of two relatively creative people, we’ve managed, thus far, to continue living.

I usually speak in broad strokes here in this blog, but I’m starting to feel obligated to try and share some of the tips and tricks we use here in the Gussoff-Sumption camp to stay afloat (and by afloat, I mean bobbing around the surface getting occasional gasps of air, not racing across in a honking and luxurious yacht. These are not get rich tips. These are staying fed and clothed tips with the electricity on).

Today, I’ll share three internet sites that have helped us get by. If these are interesting to you and seem helpful, let me know by commenting or by sending me an email. I’m happy to go on to cover keeping your fridge filled, scaring up health care, and so forth, if folks are interested.

–Go to the content mills, or “work for hire.” There’s always a lot of poorly paying gigs out there. Suck it up and take one. You won’t be writing art. So what? Use a pen name if it bothers you (I don’t, but really, do people care? Half the time my content mill articles don’t give bylines, and when they do, whatever). A place I have direct experience with is Demand Studios (who’ve gotten a lot of mixed press lately). The pay is relatively low, but the articles can be, well, interesting (I’ve written articles on making chicken manure tea, using Hoyer lifts, making plaid pants for punks, knitting hats, using Suboxone, getting diagnosed with psoriasis…) and once you get the hang of what they want, you can make 30 bucks an hour. They pay twice a week, they pay on time, and they will now be offering health insurance (!!!!!!!) for freelancers who average 30 articles/month for more than 3 consecutive months. The application process is straightforward. The work is steady. I’ve worked with them on and off for 2 years, and they’ve never screwed me. They’re honest about what they want, how they want it, and when they want it. Right now, they are my main source of income. If you’re a broke writer or editor, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to go apply already.

–Low paying content mill jobs require lots of internet searches. Get free stuff to treat yourself with while you have to search anyway. There are lots of “reward” sites out there (they seem to come and go), but the one I use right now is swagbucks (which has been around for awhile). I really don’t ever promote this kind of stuff, but swagbucks is easy and free.
You use their search engine (which uses Google, only with more sponsored links) and you earn “swagbucks” which you can then trade in for a variety of stuff–most notably and interestingly, Amazon gift cards. The prizes are real and actually show up, the site is legit, and they don’t spam you. The search results are pretty diluted, so reserve your serious searches for Google straight up. But for causal searching, you may as well get free stuff. In fact, I’m pretty close to getting a $50 Amazon gift card, which will be one of my husband’s holiday gifts. If you sign up, I’d appreciate you using my referral link, but you don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable.

–Join Freecycle. I’ve gotten great stuff from local folks who were trying to declutter, including the office chairs Chris and I are sitting on right now and a breadmaker that I use at least once a week. I’ve been able to give people stuff we didn’t need, including an extra toaster, a bathroom scale, and a gigantic sack of yarn scraps–all to folks that can use them. It’s awesome. Really. Not just because it kept the stuff out of landfills, but because, hey, you know, free stuff we/they needed. There’s a Freecycle group in just about every metropolitan area and most have email lists or newsletters that list stuff people are looking for or are giving away.

A super sweet one line review of my mini space opera in BIG OTHER : “Caren Gussoff offers a fine cyberpunk junket in her story “Correspondence.” ” Thanks, John Madera! I love the word “junket.”

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately guest blogging for Jeff VanderMeer while he is on tour. It’s especially cool because the other guest bloggers are so brilliant that they make me seem much smarter just by posting near them.

Also, in odd news, I’ve become one of the Seattle Literary Scene Examiners for Examiner.com. Kind of a random and strange little gig, but becoming pretty awesome. I’m keeping up with this stuff because it’s uh, my life, so I may as well grow some discipline and write about it. I can see wicked potential to pimp my friends and loved ones in here (because you people do such really cool things, anyway). I’m planning on spotlighting Seattle writers and editors weekly, so drop me a line if you are interested in being featured (caren at spitkitten dot com).