A WORKING HOLIDAY - GETTING THE MOTIVATION GOING

To have been able to sit in the sun, in the shade of a welcome taverna, and be paid for a few hours work a day seemed like the essence of being a freelancer.	The thought made me look up the word. I knew of course that it meant a self-employed person, especially a writer or artist, who is not employed continuously but hired to do specific assignments.
Looking further into an American dictionary, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, I found three delightful definitions of the noun freelance, first used in about 1820:  1) a knight or roving soldier available for hire by a state or commander; 2) one who acts independently without regard to party lines or deference to authority; 3) one who pursues a profession without long-term commitments to any one employer.
The Internet continues that remarkable tradition. Next time I'll take a big screen notebook! Oh - and  a copy of Captain  Corelli's Mandolin.		"A Peach of a Story"

Every freelancer's dream is to make enough money either to manage comfortably at home or to go abroad to a better climate, and work and play, for example, from an idyllic Greek island. 

These days, it's easier than ever before.
 
 

The editor in Crete when a few years younger. . .  How long ago?  "Now when  I was young  and easy  about the  lilting house  and happy  as the grass  was green..."

 

Is there something in this diverse list that may have interested YOU? No special knowledge was needed for proofreading or copyediting any of these 25 titles from various publishers. Rates of pay are fairly generous; you can earn £12-£15 per hour for proofreading and more for copyediting.	5-minute quiz
If you don't know all the answers, rest assured neither did I until I looked them up. There's no need for the "Stressed Eric" syndrome.  (Stressed Eric is a UK television cartoon character  who is permanently stressed out.)	WHO WROTE THAT?  Test your knowledge of writers with this simple 5-minute quiz.

 

1.	A good book is the best of friends, the same to-day and for ever.
2.	A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
3.	A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.
4.	When you are old and full of sleep,  And nodding slowly by the fire, take down this book  And slowly read and dream of the soft look  Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.
5.	O! Let my books be then the eloquence  And dumb presagers of my speaking breast.
6.	The proper study of mankind is books.
7.	Sweet are the uses of adversity,  Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,  Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;  And this our life, exempt from public haunt,  Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,  Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
8.	There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

CLUES: The authors are (in mixed order): an English novelist; an English playwright (twice); an Irish poet; an English writer; an Anglo-American playwright and poet; an English poet; and a Scottish historian and political philosopher.

CLICK HERE FOR QUIZ ANSWERS  This way to the   Poem of the Week

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