I have written books and short stories for more than forty years and have also written and directed a film. In between I have written hundreds of articles. I do not take on more work than I can handle as I like to deliver on time. My arithmetic is really simple: $1.50 per 100 words. My longest piece of writing for a customer was 12,500 words at $2.50 per 100 words. I am South African with dual citizenship as I am also a Canadian citizen and can write for both an American and English reader. My writing is crisp and concise, with no fluff to pad the article. I have two samples of my writing below. I don't write articles specifically to get a job. I have learned my lesson where I have done this once or twice believing in human nature, only to have them change their email and absconding with the article.
I can write enthusiastically if I am passionate about the subject, and write in an easy style. I prefer not to do technical articles as there are people better qualifed than I to write passionately about SEO and other technical subjects. I am not computer savvy, but know the human condition, being an author myself. By this time you have a fair grasp of my style. The thing I want to mention and which may actually spoil my chances for a really great company to do articles for, is that someone should speak up for writers where customers have unrealistic expectations, offer peanuts for writing services, and expect to get the best writing for their dollar. You get what you pay for. As I said to someone once: "I paid my writing dues by enhancing my skill as a writer over forty years. You are not paying me to type; you are paying me for my brain, my ideas, my ability with the deliciousness and arrangement of words. My words promote your business. If you want to employ someone who can't speak English and pay pennies, you get what you pay for."
My fee is $1.50 per 100 words. Whether you want 300-word articles, 500-word articles, or articles, scripts, books up to 10,000 or more words, contact me at
eyes@intekom.co.za
Writing sample 1
Getting your kids to eat more vegetables
Kids have always had an unhappy relationship with vegetables. They have memories of those little mustard-colored jars with food they had to endure in their high chairs and don’t want it any more. They don’t care if vegetables are good for them. Below are some ways to make more interesting side dishes and get them to love vegetables. Choose a funny or interesting name for every dish. Kids are kids because they are full of wonder. Eating healthily can also be interesting..
First, don’t get spicy with kids. They want sweet-tasting vegetables that don’t look like vegetables and tastes good. Be creative. Don’t just boil the carrots and turnips and serve it like that. Perhaps you can sprinkle cranberries over it – or raisins? Here are some interesting ways to get your child to love his food.
Recipe 1 – Yammy Yams
Put cut up pieces of yam in a pot with a cup of water. When the water starts to boil, add a table spoon of fresh ginger and a little salt. Turn the heat low and spoon in a handful of dried apricots cut in half. Turn it over once or twice. Let it simmer until the pot is dry. This makes a tasty, colorful side dish for grilled fish or roast chicken or even just a plain burger. You don’t have to have bread or a bun and fatty mayonnaise. Recipes for kids should be interesting, but also not loaded with sugars and fats.
Recipe 2 – Pumpkin Surprise
Take two filleted chicken breasts, cut it up into tiny pieces, put in pot with a tablespoon of chopped garlic and olive oil. At the same time put in two leeks cut up. Sprinkle a little salt. Let it cook for five minutes, stirring it in the pot. When the chicken is nicely browned, add a little soya sauce, and put in three cups of chopped up pumpkin. In fifteen minutes you will have delicious pumpkin flavored by tender chicken pieces. These are two dishes high in beta carotene for which you do not have to add bread or rice.
Recipe 3 – Veggie Vegas
Enhance your picnic lunch with spring onion and guacamole dip on the side. Foods don’t have to drown in cream cheese and fat. Mix up the color of the vegetables on the plate. Cut a boiled squash in half and fill it with braised carrots and peas. Avocado is a great food to add. You can have sliced avocado in salad and also as a smoothie dessert instead of ice cream. Avocado is known to be fattening, but not if you have it instead of fried food and meat. Have an avocado and banana and soya milk smoothie to replace one of their meals.
Sample 2
Saving a marriage from self-destructing
Is your marriage in the process of self-destructing? And is it worth saving? One quick way to find out is to revisit your vows and ask yourself whether you are giving your relationship the same love and respect as the day you had entered into matrimony. The marriage certificate is not a license for temporary fun. You can’t play at being married; you either enter into matrimony all the way, or you don’t get married at all. Marriage is not about one person’s needs. It is about two people’s needs, their feelings and their regard for each other. You don’t get married to legitimize an unwanted pregnancy and where there is no love and no desire to be with the other person.
Marriage is about two people who have agreed to share their lives and agreed to raise a family together; both are responsible for the maintenance of the marriage. We service our cars once a year, we do small oil changes in between; why don’t we apply the same logic in a marriage? Why don’t we do a personal assessment of our own behavior every few months to make sure the marriage vehicle is well oiled? Is a marriage just an institution we should aspire to for a short while, and then get out of and aspire to again with someone else? Is marriage just a passport from one partner to another?
Sometimes people marry for the wrong reasons. Their biological clock is ticking and they are starting to panic that they will not find the right partner. The chase is on and they are virtually on a hunting spree for the right person to marry. They are in a relationship for three months and cement the deal. When the marriage breaks down a year later because of cultural, religious and other differences, or one partner discovers that the other partner has an addiction, they can’t understand why they didn’t see the train coming. These people go from partner to partner thinking the next partner will fix everything; they can’t see that they have contributed to the demise of the marriage and that they are equally responsible.
The marriage experts would probably say that there is no relationship that cannot be worked out, but truthfully, some marriages deserve to die a quick and sudden death because it had never been entered into for the right reasons in the first place. The matrimonial home is not a dump site for your demons from the past. If marriage is entered into because two people are genuinely in love, and know that marriage is about the good as well as the bad and that there will always be obstacles to challenge us, you have a fighting chance to survive. Discard unrealistic expectations. Listen to the other partner articulate his or her needs. Take the same care with your appearance as before. Enter a discussion with an open mind. The key ingredient for marriage is respect. More and more people are living single lives today. If you are not cut out to share your space and your time with a partner, don’t get married.
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eyes@intekom.co.za and pass on this link to other customers
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