Hello!

The yellow rose now making its showy splash outside my office window reminds me that another season has passed (so quickly!) and that this year's slow transition from the cold rains of winter to the longer, warmer days of spring will soon be over. The changing season also reminds me that it's past time to get back in touch with colleagues, clients, and friends with my not-so-regular newsletter.

Website Launched. I've had my own splash recently - I launched a new website to more clearly reflect my recent work projects and service offerings. I hope you'll take a look and tell me what you think. My writing business continues to offer up surprises: I've had a steady stream of short-term copywriting projects lately, including team projects with other web and graphic designers and marketing professionals to provide content for direct mail, websites, and other marketing collateral. I'm really enjoying the blend of business, technical, and marketing projects that continue to emerge.

Vocabulary Creep. If you find yourself noticing new words and odd phrases creeping into conversations around you, now there's a place to check them out. Consult WordSpy, where you can learn the origin of terms such as facemail, wordnap or even butt calls (an unintended phone call you place when you sit on your cell phone).

Next Steps. I finished up a couple large jobs recently, so I'm ready to add one or two new writing projects in mid- to large-sized companies, hospitals or non-profits. If you happen to know someone in corporate communications, information technology, public relations, or marketing inside such a company, I'd be grateful for the contact.

Food for Thought. I can't resist sending you a link to the MIT Gibberish Generator, a site a writer friend told me about that puts out random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It allows site visitors to author papers of complete gibberish with titles such as "A Methodology for the Deployment of Interrupts." Some have even been accepted for presentation at scientific conferences! Now that's a scary thought for those of us who try to write clear, plain English. Have we become so accustomed to bad writing that we can't tell gibberish from a real attempt to communicate?

One good reason to send these newsletters is that I often hear back from you, which is always a treat. I also want to thank those of you who have sent new clients my way - it's an honor to work with your friends, colleagues and family members!

I hope you are well and enjoying this lovely spring weather.

Warm regards,

Christine Buck