Check out my baby, M.L.T.S.!

Open publication - Free publishing - More beauty

M.L.T.S. Magazine finally launched its first issue last week. Check it out here, through Issuu, or head over to MagCloud and order your own paper copy for $15. Part of this goes toward helping us build our business!

I really hope you enjoy it. Check inside for a reprint of a previous VTPJ post!

Hopefully I'll be posting here more often in the next few weeks. I miss you guys and I hope you feel the same!

Sorry I've Been M.I.A. (I'm Also M.L.T.S.)

Please pardon my absence. By now, I'm sure you're aware I periodically go into hibernation, at times with warning, at others without. This time I haven't really been getting much rest. Instead, I've been busting my hump to try and launch M.L.T.S. Magazine, my new baby and Vered's The Penny Jar's little sister.

M.L.T.S., as Mama will heretofore refer to the magazine, is an online quarterly publication for college-aged women driven to achieve all their dreams. This is the modern girl who wants it all and wants to look great doing it. She is Wendy Healy, Nico Reilly, Victory Ford, in college. That's the elevator pitch, at least.

It is so much more than just this to me. It is my dream. For a while, I've wanted to start my own magazine. I first made my own magazine in 6th grade; I'm sure you've read this story. That little rag was called RoZgIrl, had a limited run of just 10 copies that I painstakingly copied on my parents' table-top copy machine. This magazine sparked controversy among my classmates and it never came out again. After that I tried to make Rosie magazine and Couture & Culture both a reality. Neither were produced on any scale.

With the creation of Issuu.com, a little more experience under my belt, and the emptyiness I felt following my separation from The Temple News, I finally decided now was the time to launch. As of right now, we've got a wordpress blog. The first issue will go live on or very soon after June 6th.

And apart from my mother who doesn't understand why I decided to push forth on this at this point in my life, it has had pretty good reception. The PR reps I've been in touch with to get stories, interviews, samples, etc, have all had kind things to say. Journalism students are loving the idea and applying in spades to write for us.

So while I'm sorry that I haven't been posting regularly here, you can imagine how pleased I am overall. Ahhhhhhh, I'm making something happen! It's a great feeling.

I'm going to try to get back to blogging here about my personal views on things. If you don't hear from me for a while, check out M.L.T.S. (or do so anyway!) and follow me on Tumblr, where I post quick notes, pictures, and videos. I hope others who have the desire to start their own projects consider Notes From An Editor their inspiration.

A Flash Collection

After playing with InDesign a little, I produced this: "A Hard Knock Life," a set of two flash fiction pieces.

Check it out!

Open publication - Free publishing - More stories

I'm considering publishing my novel in a serial format through issuu.com...

Love Lesson No. 3: Shared Interests Aren't Everything

This is a series of lessons I've learned about love, arranged in no particular order. These lessons have been gleaned from personal experience, friends' stories, movies, books, magazine articles, etc. If you want to share a lesson you've learned about love, email me (rosellaeleanor@gmail.com).

When Tom Hansen described how perfect Summer was for him, his little sister said something very wise. "Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate," she told him.

I make mistakes and when I do, I apologize

In my last post I called someone I work with some very unfair things. My basic complaint -- that this girl doesn't really communicate with me in a way I would like or consider appropriate -- remains, but by calling her names I am no better.

I am very sorry for the way I reacted.

This is not the first time I've had blogger's diarrhea. On occasion, because I'm only human, I blog about a situation that is upsetting me and although I know they're just my feelings and opinions, I write stuff that others might take as fact or hold against the person or thing I wrote about.

This is something we are made to consider in journalism classes and it's something I wish I'd considered this morning when I wrote that post.

There is a mature way to stand up for yourself when you feel like you're being talked down to, and name calling isn't it.

I only hope others can learn from my mistakes.

Walking tall

My mother's always pestering me about my posture, and yeah, I do need to learn how to pull my shoulders back and push my sweater puppies out there. But today, whether you can tell by my outward appearance or not, I'm walking proud.

For the past few days, I've noticed that I have this new sensation -- the feeling that someday someone is going to walk down the same streets I do now, thinking "Rosella Eleanor LaFevre walked this pavement!"

Love Lesson No. 2: The Honeymooners

This is a series of lessons I've learned about love, arranged in no particular order. These lessons have been gleaned from personal experience, friends' stories, movies, books, magazine articles, etc. If you want to share a lesson you've learned about love, email me (rosellaeleanor@gmail.com).

The most popular post I've ever written here is "Phasin'," which has up to this very moment received 143 pageviews. In that post, I wrote about the honeymoon phase which is supposed to be the first 90 days of any relationship. Today, I still believe that the honeymoon phase does not have to end -- or it can, at least, last a much longer time than three months.

Chris and I, as of Valentine's Day one week ago, have been together eight months and it still feels like we're phasin'.

Protecting your writing

For over a year, I've covered the adjuncts' move to unionize for The Temple News. Two of the stories I've written about adjuncts were uploaded to a website called AdjunctNation.com without the permission of myself, my editors or the paper sponsor.

When I discovered that one of these stories had been made subscriber-only content with a false disclaimer that the compensation went directly to the writers, and that the other had no byline at all, I contacted a lawyer. While he couldn't represent my case because his firm only takes on businesses as clients, he offered some advice. While he said copyright usually lies with the writer from the moment a story is written, I probably had no case because I hadn't registered my work with a copyright office.

This happened about a month ago, and since then, the website has taken down the non-byline story (and hasn't paid me for my other story which remains online).

Today, I found an explanation of a writer's rights on the website of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Because I don't want this to happen to anyone else (although I guess it is inevitable), I wanted to share this with you.

Wise Words: 'Puff up and bluff'

I've been a little nervous to pitch myself or my ideas to the media markets I want to see my byline in. But after reading the following advice from Laurel Touby, founder and senior vice president of mediabistro.com, I know I need to get over that.

"Sometimes you have to puff up and bluff about things. Too often, women feel as though they are not prepared for a task or an assignment and so they don't go after it. We expect that if we are great at what we do, someone will notice and offer us plum assignments. Well, that's not always the case. There are times when you have to say 'I can do that,' to a boss or potential employer and rise to the challenge. Don't be afraid. Guys do this all the time and get away with it!"

This advice is part of Jones New York's Little Black Book of Career Advice, a collection of wise words from lots of important women. It's a must-read!

Things we do that boys aren't supposed to see

When I'm alone, if even for just a few moments, I open the Photo Booth application on my MacBook. My face is one that looks different depending on the day, the way my hair falls, the lighting, the angle of the camera capturing it. For my own posterity, I sometimes like to take pictures, posing and puckering my lips, thereby creating a sort of growth chart of my good (and bad) looks. Some days I look older than others; some days I look cute and whimsical while on others I am serious and sad.

It's just something I do, but which Chris doesn't understand. He's finally caught me doing it, and I'm worried that him seeing this thing I'm embarrassed to do in front of anyone is the beginning of the end of our honeymoon phase.