I have recently changed one of my utilities from one option to another, meaning that I signed up with company A, and cancelled service with company B. Company A has been great. Personable, professional, punctual. The guy who came in to install my new equipment even took time to start interesting conversation as he worked.

Company B has left something to be desired. A quick timeline.

D (Decision) Day: I call company B and tell them to shut of my service in two days. They describe the process, which includes shutoff on D+2, and them shipping me a box to send them back their modem.

D+1: Company A’s chatty representative comes to my house and sets up my new service.

D+9: A sales rep from company B calls and asks if I really intend to shut down service with them (note that this is a week after the day they were instructed to). I say no thank you.

D+13: I get a call from the collections department of company A, asking — I’ll admit politely — why I haven’t turned in the modem. I tell them I was waiting for the box, which the rep says they never said they’d send. They arrange to send a courier out to pick it up in two days.

D+14: Courier shows up in the middle of my day, a day early. I give him the modem and collect my receipt.

D+16 (yesterday): I get another collections call asking where their modem is. I read them the receipt number from the courier.

I’m not just writing this to vent. Learning from other peoples’ mistakes is one of the best things we can do as professionals in any field. I’m not worried that these guys are going to torch my credit, or that I won’t get a full refund for the extra week they kept me on. Big companies usually make these things right. That’s not the problem here.

The problem here is that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, and neither of them are in touch with the foot they’re subcontracting part of the job to. It’s a problem of organization and communication.

As freelance writers, it’s easy to fall into the habit of “remembering” all of our deadlines and urgent communications. Heck, my rule for years was “if I’m tempted to buy a calendar, it’s time to simplify my life.” But if you want to make a full-time living, you need to keep your tasks and contacts organized.

There’s all manner of ways to make and keep that organization. I’d love to hear some of your ideas and methods. Doesn’t really matter how you meet your deadlines and keep your promises…

…but it matters a lot that you do so.

Thanks for listening.

Published in 2009, Josh Bazell’s first novel is some of the most fun I’ve had with fiction this decade. It’s popcorn fiction — nothing deep or philosophically challenging, just a good adventure yarn.

It has a few things to teach budding writers. The structure builds and maintains suspense. The prose is engaging and distinctive. Better still from a professional standpoint, the website for the book is very, very clever.

Click here for the website, and click “Excerpt” for print and audio samples from the book.  Be sure to check out the games and video trailer. These are great ideas for promoting our own work in a memorable way.

Warning. Beat the Reaper is not for children, not work safe and not for the easily offended. By the end of the excerpt, you will have been exposed to grossly vulgar language, casual sex, explicit violence, drug use and “fact” about the medical profession that will make you cringe every time you see a hospital for the rest of your life.

Not for the faint of heart, but wow is it fun.

Thanks for listening

Alert readers might recognize April Moore’s name from the comments on this very blog. She’s another writer — and illustrator — and occasionally stops in to drop her two cents into our wishing well.

April has finished a novel, and you can find her short fiction and art here and there. One of her darker — and more fascinating — projects is her blog. Folsom’s 93 is an episodic history of the men executed at Folsom prison. Some of the stories are gratifying accounts of society doing what it must to punish unthinkable crimes. Others are sadder, tales of undereducated men caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them are interesting, and told with a professional’s turn of phrase. Moore takes time along the way to tell us about other facets of life in Folsom, ranging from details of daily prison life to a discussion of a newly introduced parole system.

This is a well-done blog on a fascinating topic, and deserves a look. Find the front page here, then browse around. You’ll be glad you did.

Thanks for listening.

A couple of weeks ago, two people whose opinions I trust recommended Patrick Rothfus’ The Name of the Wind to me, independently of each other in separate conversations.

I don’t love fantasy, especially 800-page fantasy tomes that would make Larry McMurty weep. But I tried it….and it’s the best fantasy novel I’ve read in the last ten years. I could go on about details of character, voice, style, tone, the world, the magic system, but for today I want to focus on his action.

When we think of action in a work of fiction, we think of violence: epic battles, wrestling on rooftops, chase scenes. The Name of the Wind has all of these, but Rothfus brings the tension and conflict of a good battle to surprising venues.

• He makes a musical performance a nail-biting chapter by giving it important stakes.
• He captures the narrow margin of living above your means, turning a simple shopping trips into perilous excursions.
• He adds time pressure to journeys so as to make each step feel like winning a fight against time.