Subject: INTRO: Maude Campbell

Hi folks,

For those of you who remember me, I can't say that much has changed
since my original bio over a year ago. For those of you who have no
idea who I am, or who don't remember, here is a synopsis.

I live in Cleveland, OH, home of the Tribe and Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. I'm 36, single, and work as a freelance writer. I make
most of my income by writing medical articles for magazines that go
out to doctors in various specialties, sometimes writing for
journals, doing reports on major medical meetings for
pharmaceutical companies, and doing media consulting-type work for
public relations and pharmaceutical companies.

In order to do all this, I end up travelling a lot-mostly in the US
and Canada but I occassionally get to Europe, Mexico, the
Caribbean, etc. At first, the travel bit was rather intriguing but
I'm very tired of it now. I'm fatigued by having to go to the same
places time after time when there are soooooo many places in the
world that I really want to see and have never been to.

As far as the work-related writing goes, I would like to try to
break into travel writing or to do more consumer magazine articles
for some diversity. I have not managed to have the time to pursue
these things with any diligence as yet. Of course, I'd rather be
able to make a living writing fiction and poetry but I think that
doing ok at freelance writing of any type is pushing my luck
enough!

I started writing poetry and short stories when I was a kid-about
eight or nine, and by the time I was in high school I was
prolifically churning out poems. In retrospect, although I've
always written because of a real need to do so, I think the
quantity of stuff produced during high school was directly related
to the amount of drugs used:).

Anyway, I went to college-Marquette University-started out majoring
in premed, realized I had best quit the hippie stuff if I was going
to remain there, and bumped nose first into both calculus and
advanced biochem. At that point, I quickly switched my major to
journalism-very, very quickly.

Journalism suited me, I graduated, worked as a reporter for a
weekly then daily newspaper. The daily folded, I was desparate and
hooked up with a magazine publishing company where I was an editor
for the medical magazines for five years. I then realized that the
freelance writers had a much better deal going so in 1990 I went
out on my own.

I still miss reporting but I don't miss being on magazine staffs. I
do hope the freelance thing continues to go well because I've
become very used to working at home and setting my own hours. If I
had to go get a "real job" I'm not sure I would remember how to do
it.

And that is how I got here. I'm just basically muddling through
trying to find more time to write the things I really want to
write. Hope it's not too long and dull.

Maude
MaudeL@GNN.COM

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
of saddest thought.
          -Percy Bysshe Shelley, To a Skylark