We’re meeting another Work-At-Home Mom today, Darlene Bishop. We’ll just call her, “writer extraordinaire”. Tell us about yourself, Darlene!
A native Texan, I was dragged kicking and screaming to be raised in northern Indiana! Still a country girl at heart, I couldn’t wait to get back to the south. And even though it’s not Texas, East Tennessee is now my home… and I love it – especially the mountains!
As to family, I have one step-son who is married, one husband who is my baby and absolutely spoiled rotten, and have fostered 16 children over the years (though we’re not fostering now).
I’ve been working from home (mostly) full-time since 1998. After an illness that caused me to quit my job, I started offering writing, editing and website design services to online marketers as a way to earn some extra money while I was recuperating. That was in the days of the Internet boom, and my business grew so big, so fast that my husband was really upset at the amount of time I was spending on work. So I sold my business a couple years later and went back to an office management job. I hated it!
Because I’m a pastor, I especially missed the freedom and flexibility of working for myself. And I missed writing full-time. I’ve dreamed of being a writer all my life. That’s still my dream.
Since I had continued to work with a few of my favorite clients, it was easy and natural for me to go back to my business full-time again when my husband and I took our first co-pastorate. I’ve learned to control the number of clients I take on, though. I don’t want the business to grow as big as it did before. But I love the work and I’m so thankful to be able to work from home. It’s truly a blessing.
As a self-educated writer, I have devoured multitudes of books on writing principles and practiced every writing exercise in them. In college, I majored in business with a strong emphasis on writing. Later, my skills were used extensively in varied jobs from executive assistant to desktop publisher, and then to managing editor for a local newspaper.
My writing background includes articles for newspapers and newsletters and magazines, press releases, website content, and a many other business documents. In addition, I’ve written articles for print publications such as Woman’s Day, Publish, Business Today and others.
I still write for business clients but much of my writing is freelance and blogging for one of three blogs I own and others where I submit guest posts. I’m also working on a book due to be released sometime next year.
To Contact Darlene:
I can be reached a variety of ways online. Through any of my websites:
Darlene Bishop.com
You can also reach me through twitter – http://twitter.com/DeeBishop
What do you and the family enjoy doing for fun, Darlene?
I am an avid reader, especially Christian fiction. And I love to scrapbook, though I don’t have much time for it. My husband and I are buying some land in Dunlap, TN where we hope to be able for him to retire in the next couple years.
