lil , thank you for your recent advice - and you too thenewgreen - just know it's under consideration and probably safe to consider the matter "PENDING" for the next week if not more. Just know that I appreciate your feedback, understand where your comments are coming from, and think you two are probably in the rights on this, but am not quite willing to bite the bullet. insomniasexx's jubilant, ebullient post helped drive home that post too. On to happier, less ambiguous news - (sorry guys I'm just kind of tired of hashing out the subject I'm being oblique about above) - last night I went to a "local" poetry workshop at UPenn's Kelly Writers' House. It was really, really great. The group is moderately sized (10 people were there last night) and people are all sorts of different ages and backgrounds. I was sitting there at the beginning and I had my copy of Rukeyser's Elegies that I'm reading through and someone else pulled out his copy of translated poetry by a poet I'm not familiar with but whose name I should really gather, and someone else commented they had a Wallace Stevens book in their bag, and I sat there thinking "I DON'T KNOW THE LAST TIME I WAS SURROUNDED BY SO MANY PEOPLE WITH POETRY BOOKS" and it was great. Magnificent. There are different skill levels to be sure but everyone is so passionate about poetry, and I think that's really where the value lies in a workshop environment. It's a biweekly thing and if, as I suspect may be the case, I find myself with extra time to burn at some future point, I think it's a great way to keep busy and also just make me even more engaged and involved in poetry. I also got some really good feedback on a poem, by which I mean some great suggestions on how to improve it. I'm just a little writing nut, ain't I. AND AND AND AND Yesterday I got my very first acceptance of 2015! Two poems taken by Star(ASTERISK)Line, which is the Science Fiction Poetry Association's lit mag. (Yeah, who knew there was a Science Fiction Poetry Association?) Neither are strictly science fiction but more "speculative" poetry, which can be scifi, fantasy, or (this is me) fantastic with elements of magical realism. AND AND AND! They're paying me! All of $.03 cents/word which comes out to $11.19 but they're going to send me a check and I'm going to cash it on my phone and then IMMA FUCKIN FRAME THAT SHIT. I conned someone into paying me for putting words on a page people! HA! Tricked those suckers! :D Don't you know all the words are in the dictionary mang??? You can find 'em all there and rearrange them yourselves! I'm also meeting with a realtor after work today. House searches in my future, but I have time - there's no rush. Now, I should use some of this writing-fueled enthusiasm to do...you guessed it...more writing. So far looks like good news all around in the pubski. I like that. It's nice. I'm really proud of you guys who are reporting these big successes. Here's to ya. clinks glass
Yes. If she's wiley enough, she could expense the gas it took to get to the poetry gathering, the hotel, the dinner etc.
...within limits. The IRS takes a dim view of anyone with a business that loses money hand over fist in that business for more than five years. But before they can take a dim view, they have to look. And they're suffering cutbacks like everyone else. And the odds of getting a random audit are pushing a thousand to one. And the odds of getting a non-random audit are suspiciously proportional to income. And even if you're audited the worst that happens is you have to give the money back. Don't you work for a bank?
You should probably set up an LLC for your poetry
In the UK: http://www.writersbureau.com/writing/what-writers-can-claim-against-tax.htm Claim. Claim, claim, claim: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tax-deductions-writers.html And: http://www.gentlemenranters.com/60.html Probably much similar in the US.
Dude! You got paid for your poetry, that's awesome!!!