Well, I’m about four weeks into my new life (post-Reuters News, where I’d been working for 28 years until I took a voluntary buyout) and I’m feeling…….great! I’ve been pretty busy doing the things that I want to do like playing the piano, writing my third novel and scheduling author school visits. So busy in fact, that I haven’t had much time to miss my reporting days — even if it is Awards Season! Besides, as you can tell from my last post, I still got to go to some cool Grammy parties and hang out with rock stars!
Looks like some freelancing lies ahead, which will keep me in the “reporting game.” But for right now I’m adjusting to my new “normal! and that means I am trying lots of new things. For instance, I’m very excited to start working with a great non-profit literacy mentoring organization called WriteGirl http://www.writegirl.org, which helps at-risk teens.
I spent all day yesterday at Occidental College for a WriteGirl volunteer orientation and met a great group of women writers. That’s one of the many benefits! There are many opportunities to work as a mentor with this group, whether it’s at monthly workshops, one-on-one meetings with a girl after school, or helping on an in-school basis serving pregnant, parenting and incarcerated teens attending alternative high schools throughout Los Angeles.
I’m going to opt for that third option and am looking forward to working with teens at the La Vida West Cal-Safe campus in Lawndale beginning later this month. Watch this space for more updates. Also hoping to catch a reading by WriteGirl mentees at Skylight Books in Los Feliz on February 15, from 4-5 pm! Come and check it out! In the meantime, here’s a blog post from the WriteGirl site. It’s a nice interview between a mentor and a mentee and shows how much both partners gain from this unusual experience!
http://www.writegirl.org/blog/2014/1/23/hello-world-a-mentormentee-interview
Have a great week!
SueZee's Blog 