What happened the last time I got hate mail

To find out, check out my first article for Contently, "5 Ways to Use Hate Mail to Your Advantage." I learned a lot from the writers who shared their hate mail stories with me (not all of them made it into the final piece) and it helped me get some perspective on my unexpected hater. I was especially pleased because I've been reading Contently's great, well, content about freelance writing and hosting a writing portfolio on their site with many of my clips, which makes it handy to pass on to editors I'm pitching. I recommend it, and they were great to work with on this piece.

This also puts me on track to meet my goal of writing for one new publication per month (on average) in 2015. I have a lot more I'd love to blog about but I'm getting ready for my first trip to Thailand, where I plan to spend as little time as possible using my phone (save to take photos) or computer, and also writing two pieces a day for Salon, which may not sound like that much writing but takes up a good amount of my time. I will hopefully have a little time to post before I leave about my upcoming events and assorted other thoughts. Right now, I am trying to stay on top of the news and my writing assignments and spend time with my boyfriend before I head off yet again.

My favorite hate mail: why I'm like Hitler!

If you ever are stuck for something to read in public, here's a hint: go with the hate mail. It's comedy gold! Seriously.

Saturday night I performed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at The Brick Theater for the awesome John DeVore's show Broke. Culturebot taped it and you can catch a little of my banter with John, then me reading about why I'm like Hitler and other fun stuff about who should pay for dates (based on a 2006 Village Voice column I wrote):



The next Broke is May 23rd. Thanks to John for being such a hilarious, fun host and for having me on the show.

This topic comes up all the time.

Witness two recent posts:

Glamour's Smitten blog: "True Dating Confession: My boyfriend and I always split the bill."

Amelia at The Frisky calls going dutch a "dating trend" and shares her recent experience with it.