I get email

Hello Ms. Pink-Slipped, Reverse Cowgirl, War Projecteer, great online writer and social media strategist

I'm not positive how or what to write! Do I try for concision, be thorough and wordy (and probably lose you!) or try to be mentioned on the great "I Get Email"? I'll just blurt things out

1, Me: I'm a 21-year-old UCSC student. Tomorrow I go to South Africa for volunteer work, followed by Botswana for a 5 month study abroad program. I just finished a 5 month program in Italy. I'm hastily getting affairs in order before I leave (including revamping my blog and social sites...aha..ha..ha...hopefully) and don't know what my internet/tele comm. abilities will be after tomorrow. Hence finally writing a couple of my favorite bloggers.

2, You: are inspiring. Really. I'm trying to do what you do. Weird, right? Unemployed to freelance, no job security, wanting meaningful fulfillment...and hopefully getting satisfaction on our own grit in work we love. For me, that's using new media for fiction and non-fiction movies, preferably in an international and socially-conscious context. Social media plays a big role in the pre..., post..., and production phases.

(Based on your blog) You're honest about personal problems without whining. You are resilient, smart, and capable, and through that you are a great feminist and an example for women. Furthermore, you're an example for making something of yourself as a writer in unconventional ways in our unconventional times, with the available unconventional means. I've gotten a web(?) crush on you based on your intellect, and that taught me something about women and (my) perception them. I hope you already know (why else would you blog?) but your blog helps and teaches us other, younger, less-experienced and -wise social media tacticians. It's taught me, at least, and I wanted to say thanks, and please keep on keeping on.

3, Advice: I've worked since I was 14, starting in orchards in 100 degree heat in the CA Central Valley, and I've worked ever since. Only in college, with loans, have I had some unemployment, and I'm sure come time for debt payback it'll be a hell of a grind (especially in cinema, freelancing with no steady paycheck). I relate to how tired you are, how you have to constantly sell your self to employers, the long (read: endless) hours demanded by writing...you know. Good for you for critically analyzing yourself and, well, keeping on. Last post, about negotiating for a raise -- good for you for talking it out with the landlord, taking time for yourself to cool off. Mature, and I'm glad you achieved your main goal for the raise.

Sometimes, I think the only advice I can give is a medium of some kind. Top of my head? I recommend you take time for yourself and watch a movie -- a good story always helps me relax my body and sort out my mind, without tiring me out. I can work through them, too, but that sometimes defeats the purpose. The best remind me that I don't have it that bad / inspire me to keep going. I recommend City of God and its shorter semi-sequel, City of Men.

Take care, best of luck, don't rip your hair out (but if you do, and you write about it, others learn from it and care)

[Redacted]

[Image via La Petite Claudine]

Get money, honey

My latest on my Forbes blog PINK SLIPPED is about how to get a raise. You know you want one. Don't you?

I start thinking all that stuff I read about women not liking to ask for raises is true. Maybe women have martyr complexes. Maybe women feel like they are worth less. Maybe women think fighting for what they want is bad.

[READ]

Back to war

I'm very pleased to say I'm returning to work on The War Project.

The War Project is an independent project I started last year focusing on the stories of OIF and OEF combat veterans.

Tomorrow, I'll do my first interview since last year. The project was sidelined when the possibility of being downsized presented itself. Now, I'm ready to refocus my energies on it.

I've found that if I feel my life has no meaning, I am unhappy.

The War Project makes me feel like my life has meaning.

I get comments

"I consider myself lucky."

I’ve been following you since your first Downsized blog, and remember thinking to myself: why’s she looking for a job? Clearly she’s got what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

I don’t consider you lucky at all. I consider you in action. In the financial boot camps I run, I get the opportunity to advise people who are out of work or know they soon will be, and lately one of my key pieces of advice: Read Susannah Breslin. Why? Because you’ve taken unemployment by the balls, you’ve not whined, you’ve trekked multiple paths and you’ve used every tool in your tool box.

I know you’ve inspired some of my clients by your transparency and guts. I imagine you’ve inspired thousands of others too. -- Stacey Powell

[Image]

From downsized to self-employed

Here's my latest post on my Forbes blog PINK SLIPPED: "How I Went from Downsized to Self-employed in Four Months."

Oftentimes, I read other posts at ForbesWoman that stress the importance of sisterhood, that your innate female characteristics of nurturing and support will get you through the hard times, that acting like a man in the professional realm will be your great undoing.

I disagree. In fact, based on other articles I read, I began to gather that I was having trouble finding jobs initially because I was acting like a girl.

[Read it]

Don't be afraid to fail

This Milton Glaser advice is really great. Watch it. [via Evil Jeanius]

I get email

Dear Susannah,

Your career seems destined to be TV. Take copies of your TV [...] performance to all possible employment situations. I watched you and you are hot on all levels and I was so impressed by your performance that I just have to watch more of your gutsy stuff on TV again. Push for more appearances.

Such independence. Are you a an Aquarian or Libra perhaps? As a long time Sun sign astrologer (astrol-physics researcher) I like to profile people so need to know your Sun sign. Yes astrology is 90 percent crap (as verified 1950-1980 by Sorbonne trained statistician Michel Gauquelin and his wife Francosise Gauquelin), but the temperament subsection of astrology to do with the matching up of people does work.

I'm age 75. ( My wife did not like you, said "She's a bitch") - :)

Please keep me posted as one in your fan club

xo,
[redacted]

I married a serial killer

Here's a video of me reading a short story at the Encyclopedia Show in Austin last year. The theme for the evening was serial killers, and my story was about Ed Gein. You can read the story here: "I Am Ed Gein's Widow."

The new limited edition

Over at Forbes, I wrote about a porn star who published a memoir with a very unique limited edition twist.

A new limited-edition book by an adult film star aims to sell copies by offering buyers something they won’t find elsewhere.

Girlvert: A Porno Memoir is priced at a whopping $200 and limited to a mere 50.

So, what’s the twist?

[Read it]

Girls

Me and Xeni.

What war journalism and porn journalism have in common

In my latest on my Forbes blog PINK SLIPPED, I write about what war journalism and porn journalism have in common.

"If you start a noble effort and encounter problems, and just stop — it is wrong," the Daila Lama said in a speech yesterday as he accepted a humanitarian award from Amnesty International, Xeni Jardin writes. The flip side of the emotional consequences of writing about those states that exist beyond the pale is that as much as they are trauma sites, they are also thrilling places to be. For a certain type of journalist, this is our crack. It is difficult to replicate the high. You are drawn like a moth to a flame. You dream of return. Just one more time.

[Read it]

I'm in Forbes magazine

If I was The Daily What, I'd title this post, "Well, This Is Cool of the Day."

Forbes Media Chief Product Officer Lewis Dvorkin writes about my ongoing journalism sausage series in the next Forbes magazine.

There’s an intriguing story/conversation going on now at Forbes.com. Susannah Breslin, one of our 500 or so contributors, is talking about reinventing herself (her Web page is titled, “Pink Slipped”). In a series of posts, Susannah offers tips to journalists (tweeted by Katie Couric, for what it’s worth) on how to get back in the game.

[Read it]

I'm on Team Coco

I'm really pleased to share that my latest freelancing gig is working with Team Coco. As in Conan O'Brien. As in "Conan," the TV show.

Team Coco is all about public shaving, toilets 2.0, and men I would like to marry.

Team Coco = #winning.