July Diversions: Emotional support raccoon and a freelance rates database

Some items of interest for this month

Hello and welcome to my monthly post where I share things of interest. Astute readers may have noticed that I am trying out a slightly different name for these monthly posts and that this is not the first time this year that I have changed it.

The short answer for why is that I am indecisive and am having trouble landing on a name I like.

I also spent way too much time searching Canva for an image and landed on the above friendly computer one. I keep trying to come up with a workflow that doesn’t involve me spending too much time searching for newsletter-related images but have not landed on it yet. Maybe I’ll put that on my vision board for the second half of the year.

In any event, keep reading for some monthly finds. (And yes, “Finds” is another name for this monthly email I’ve pondered!)

-JV

• Emotional support raccoon: I, like a lot of the internet, have appreciated the emotional support Jimothy the raccoon has been offering this month.

• Author scam email humor: Bess Kalb’s responses to a scammer made me laugh, especially because her book Buffalo Fluffalo has definitely already found an audience.

• Audiobook: I’ve been listening to Jeff Hiller’s memoir on audio and appreciate the humor and stories about his (longer) road to success. I started it because I enjoyed Somebody, Somewhere (the show that was Hiller’s big break), and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen it.

• Standup album: Some of the driving time I’ve spent with my kids this summer has involved listening to standup albums on Apple Music. We’ve been enjoying Tommy Ryland recently. I could use some other recs for comedians that might work content-wise for a 12- and 14-year-old, so let me know if you have any ideas.

• Cyclospora humor: Feels like this has been the summer of the poop joke with the cyclospora outbreak. I am not typically a big fan of bathroom humor, but what the Daily Show called it did make me laugh.

• This Threads post about creativity sounds right to me.

• Writing rates database. A question in the comments in my last post made me realize that it may be useful to share this rates database, which compiles what people have been paid by different publications.

• Book backstory podcasts: This Planet Money series on books gives some details about book production and sales that I think many writers would find interesting.

• Short humor: I was happy to contribute to this group-written Belladonna piece on new holidays. #JimothyForever

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Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

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