I'm a bit behind at present because I've had some freelance articles to write. An article for Abilities Magazine (another disability publication), a piece on writing query letters for fantasy books for Writing-World.com, and two short pieces (one on selling academic sessays, one on writing for disability markets) to FundsForWriters.com.

I enjoy writing non-fiction for several reasons:

1) It teaches you different writing skills from fiction. And it's all about practise, practise, practise

2) It's good to take a break and have variation

3) You can learn new things. I always love an excuse to research.

4) It can help you break into difficult markets. I've sold two non-fic essays to Strange Horizons now. That's a very popular fantasy/sci-fi market, but not nearly as competitive submitting non-fic. And I can still put Strange Horizons on my writing CV.

5) It's easier to sell and easier to earn money. This is not so much because I'm money hungry but because selling and earning reaffirms your writing dreams and spurs you to keep trying. When you get down about not selling any fiction, query a couple of non-fiction pieces, especially to smaller markets. I get the FundsForWriters and FundsForWriters Small Markets newsletters every week which contain lists of excellent markets.

So that's my ramble about non-fic. Onward to the novel at hand!