So, my friends, here it is. I've been doing a little freelance writing lately and have actually been getting paid for it. Go figure. Keep this blog a secret because if the people paying me knew it was here, they might stop signing checks and start getting my stuff for free.
Anyway, a piece that I wrote a while ago has been picked up by the people who write the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and they want to pay me to publish it in a new book they are releasing at the first of the year. Here is my dilemma-- I make fun of those books.
Have you read some of the titles? Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul. Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover's Soul. Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker's Soul. (These are REAL books, people!) Are you kidding me??? There are enough "inspiring" stories about people who like oceans and coffee and scrapbooking to fill three whole books?
The most remarkable one to me is the one about the cat lover's soul. That's just ridiculous. I hate cats.
I have suggestions for new Chicken Soup books. How about Chicken Soup for the Dinosaur Lover's Soul? Maybe Chicken Soup for the Second Cousin Lover's Soul? Wait. I think that's illegal in most states. How about Chicken Soup for the Road Bike Lover's Soul. I might have to buy that one. Best one yet: Chicken Soup for the Chicken Soup Hater's Soul. Best seller there.
My secret confession is that I've been published in one of their books before-- and I feel a little guilty about it. However, no one I know has ever noticed it (or at least said anything to me if they have), so I felt pretty safe. And it paid for part of my Puerto Rico trip.
So, what do I do? Do I take the money and run, or do I stick to my guns and keep making fun of a weird social phenomenon? I wish I would have thought to write this story under a pseudonym.
I'll have to do that from now on. If you are ever reading a Chicken Soup book in your grandmother's bathroom (where I'm convinced all of the Chicken Soup books end up), and you read a great story by Gimberlee K. Barrett, I promise it's not me.
4 comments:
Take the money and run and keep on making fun.
I agree with Calli!
Of course you take the money. That's a no brainer Kim...it's not prostitution or anything truly amoral :) You better let us know which one it comes out in so we can all make fun too!
Take the money and laugh all the way to the bank.
I have scrapbooked about my love of cats and gotten paid for those lies. I have been paid for a lot of scrapbooked lies.
It's okay.
Money is money, and Puerto Rico is very pretty in a Utah January.
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