REFERENCE IS THE ESSENCE OF NONFICTION
© Roxianne Moore
As I write this, I feel as if the world is collapsing around me, or at the very least the sky is falling down. Okay, so maybe it's just the bits of plaster that keep hitting me on the head as the roofers tear off the old roof that let water drip down inside the walls of my office. Maybe a posh office in downtown Pittsburgh wouldn't be so bad. But would I be able to listen to The Clarks' latest CD and go to the kitchen for endless cups of coffee if I did have a downtown office? Freelancing does have its downside, like interruptions from my four-year old, and having to postpone a phone interview because the roofers are making too much noise. But after fourteen years of working from home, with a couple of brief stints as a full-time employee, I can't imagine being anywhere else. If I were working for a newspaper, I wouldn't be able to spend two hours online tracking down the information to give my article a fine edge. And I wouldn't be free to explore topics that might make a good article somewhere down the road. Besides the freedom, I like the variety of freelancing. I can write copy for a business newsletter one day, a piece on childhood in the middle ages for Renaissance magazine the next. In between, I might explore the Net for information on poisons for my novel. In fact, if I worked for a newspaper, I probably wouldn't have time for writing a novel, let alone being on the virtual staff of a magazine. As I said in my first article, I have been online since 1985. At the time, although a lot of good information was available, I didn't make use of most of it because I couldn't afford to pay a surcharge for each article I downloaded, or an hourly rate for a search service. All that has changed. Now, when I need some information, I know how and where to find it. With a flat-rate for my Internet service (for as long as that lasts), I don't have to set an egg timer to make sure I don't exceed my budget. The Web has so much more to offer than the online services of old. Yes, I know this wealth of information has been available for years - but only to a select few.
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