originally posted March 2, 2013
May 2021: reformatted; one link deleted; no text revisions
You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but the-freelance-editor is once again located in Raleigh, North Carolina! No; I never thought I would be back, either (I never even thought I would leave Orlando), but when a good opportunity knocked I could not resist the temptation.
The whirlwind that brought me back began shortly before Thanksgiving last year, after finding out that an editorial position had opened up at the North Carolina Museum of History. This was not the same position I vacated roughly thirteen years ago, when I left to help care for aging relatives outside and around Orlando, but it was a comparable position—working primarily with the museum’s events and programs staff, its membership and fund-raising arms, and its web presence.
After lots of encouragement (and just a little pause), I applied for the position, and a week before Christmas, I was driving to Raleigh, not just for an interview but also to revisit the setting and its current players. In what I gather is a customary feeling, I did not feel I had interviewed well; however, I had been able to see how the museum and the city had changed and to catch up with a friend or two. Surprisingly, just a few days later, I got news that I had made the short list and that the decision would be contingent largely on the comments of references. While I took that as a promising omen, I was beginning to wonder what those references had said as Christmas week . . . then New Years week . . . then another week dragged by. But the call—the text, actually—did come: “How many days would you need to get here?”
I’m not sure they expected me so quickly, but I booked a hotel room for the following week and drove back to start the next Tuesday, January 15!
What this means to my existing and future clients is that I’ll be more in tune with the editorial world, again. While I will be working as a full-time editor at the museum, I will no longer have to change gears from accounting during the day to editing at night; I’ll be editor-oriented at all times. And, while I’ll be getting back into the swing of things for a few months, I do plan to get back to you—slowly at first, by working with bloggers and business clients, I suspect; then, graduating back to lengthier, more in-depth projects.
Thanks for all the help, all the support, and all the patience during my transition. I’m as anxious to get back to my passion as all of you!
Hoping you’re finding yours, too,
Stephen, the-freelance-editor.com
e-mail: editorial –at– Im Your Editor –dot– com
text: 832-233-0041 (temporary)
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UPDATE: Shortly after receiving my fifteen-year service award, I decided to part ways with the Museum of History, again. My contributions during this stint included providing editorial services for dozens of exhibits, scores of educational activities, hundreds of program and event listings, years of print programming calendars, a few museum magazine issues, and some web-related work—for a few different calendar and event sites and for Longleaf Film Festival.
image information: Featured image, via theHistoryMom, features a recent revision to the museum’s presentation of educational worksheets, activity guides, and hands-on backpacks for individual and family learning.
