The Fat Girl's Guide to Living

We’ve got a great, growing family of bloggers here at FGG, with Michelle’s yummy weekly Foodie Fridays food porn column, Peony’s popular confessional, Sex and the Single Fat Girl, and now Charlie’s new monthly hit, It’s a Guy Thing.

Now we’re ready to add another new voice to our clan – a weekly contributor who can help with everything from researching and answering ASK FGG questions to interviewing for/writing up full guides on topics like fashion, health, skincare, recreation and just about everything else under the sun as relates to overweight women who wanna get living now.

Most weeks we’ll assign our new writer 1-2 blog posts based on reader questions or guide ideas already packed into our editorial well, but we’ll also encourage great ideas that are a unique, compelling and relevant match for our audience and editorial mission. Pay right now is $10/post – a small token for the brilliant contributor we know you are (and hey, you’ll be making more than we do) – but if you can hang tight with us while we’re building FGG’s potential, we promise our contributors will be the first to benefit in raises and other perks.

The writer we’re crossing our fingers for is:

:: Smart and witty; a skilled researcher with a curious inner journalist who’s not afraid to dig deep to get some great (and accurate) information, then present it with FGG’s signature light, upbeat but practical, no-nonsense style.

:: Comfortable and conversational (but always professional) when interviewing sources. Knows how to weed out the marketing speak from the real nitty gritty, can draw out the good stuff.

:: Self-sufficient with information-gathering and meeting deadlines, but OK with being edited for spelling, grammar, content and style when/where necessary.

:: Subscribes to FGG’s core philosophies and raison d’etre, and editorial policies, knows first-hand what it’s like to be an overweight woman with body image challenges, but also has the desire to do more, be more, live more.

:: Has experience writing/blogging for lifestyle and/or fashion publications, OR is a new/emerging writer with a strong writing style and an intimate understanding of plus-size fashion and related topics (though not all assignments will relate to fashion).

:: Has an eye for what’s fresh and unique, and/or can find a fresh/unique angle on just about anything.

What we are NOT interested in:

:: Angry, insulting (to anyone), “victim” or otherwise negative mentalities/material.

:: Excuse makers, serial deadline blowers or writers who need frequent prompting.

:: A writer who doesn’t consider it plagiarism if you “just kinda re-word content from other places a little bit.”

TO APPLY

Send the following to letters@fatgirlsguidetoliving.com by Jan 29, 2010:

1. Forget your resume. Give us an introduction to who you are, an overview of what you’ve done that’s relative to as many of the points we’re looking for (above) as possible, and tell us what you find compelling about writing for FGG.

2. Two writing samples — one short tip-style sample, and one longer feature-style sample. The more tied to FGG-style content, the better.

3. Three unique ideas for blog posts/guides that you feel would be a great fit for FGG. Include a title and short summary for each, along with your opening paragraph.

We’ll notify finalists by Feb 2, send along any follow-up questions we have, and select the writer that’s the best fit for FGG by February 5th. We’d like our new writer to be ready to dig in within a week or two after coming on board.

If you know a great writer who fits the bill, send them our way!

A handmade ornament from Toni’s childhood

We hope you’re all as busy as we are with holiday prep and cheer, but I wanted to break for a shout-out to all our fantastic readers: we hope your holidays are full of all the yummy goodness – in the kitchen and out – that you can imagine. We’re used to traveling all over for Christmas but logistics have us tethered to home this year and I’m SO very looking forward to the quiet, low-key day tomorrow.

If you’re celebrating, what are (or were, if you’re tuning in later) your plans this year?

We are thrilled to introduce our newest columnist, Charlie O’Hay, who will be writing from a guy’s point of view each month starting in January.

Charlie is a published poet whose work has appeared in over 100 literary magazines, including Gargoyle, The New York Quarterly, and West Branch. He was awarded a fellowship in poetry and literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 1995. He currently works as a freelance advertising copywriter and manuscript editor. He is married to Cecily Kellogg of Uppercase Woman and dad to a dynamic, beautiful daughter. Charlie blogs at It Ain’t All Pizzas and Cream.

Let’s extend a warm FGG welcome to Charlie! If you’ve got any questions for him ask away in the comments.

Self Portrait by Apple Green Amy

No post-turkey-day cooking photos landed in the FGG Girls group this week, but there’s a bunch of great new sassy images there, including this self portrait. I love the color pop in the eyes, lips, and hair – and the “up to something” ‘tude. That’s the FGG spirit!

Every week we select one photo from our Flick group as the FGG Photo of the Week. At month’s end, the girl behind the camera for one of those weekly photos wins a prize! November’s winner of our “cooking” challenge is photobonnie, for her entry “Stirring the Pot.” Congratulations, Bonnie! We have a custom-made FGG Book Bangle from Lonna’s Etsy shop for you. Email us at letters@fatgirlsguidetoliving.com so we can send it your way.

December elbows its way into our lives in two days, so grab that camera and  show us how you’re living.

We’ve gotten several fun responses to our request for a monthly male columnist. Keep ‘em coming our way! We’ll make the (difficult) decision on who gets the spot on December 1, and get started shaping that column right away for its January 2010 debut. If you’ve already sent your email in (thank you!), we’ll be responding to everyone with any questions, clarifications or request for more information a little later this month.

Here’s the original post:

We’re starting a monthly column in January covering a guy’s point of view, so consider this post a call for male guest columnists. Are you a fat guy facing the same challenges as our female readers? Would you like to write about sharing your life with a plump partner? Are you a single male who prefers curvy women, and would like to talk frankly about dating and sex (no fetishists, please!) Did you once judge fat people until you fell in love with or became one yourself?

Wherever you fall along those lines, all we ask is that you’re a great storyteller, can balance candid and sometimes humorous discussion with professional, respectful content, and that you have a solid sense for your platform. If that’s you, drop us a line and tell us a little more about you and what you’d like to write about each month. We’ll select the best man for the gig on December 1 and announce it here.

Ladies, if you know a guy who’d be great as a monthly FGG columnist, send them our way!

Questions? Ask away.

Image by LaPrimaDonna

We’re starting a monthly column in January covering a guy’s point of view, so consider this post a call for male guest columnists. Are you a fat guy facing the same challenges as our female readers? Would you like to write about sharing your life with a plump partner? Are you a single male who prefers curvy women, and would like to talk frankly about dating and sex (no fetishists, please!) Did you once judge fat people until you fell in love with or became one yourself?

Wherever you fall along those lines, all we ask is that you’re a great storyteller, can balance candid and sometimes humorous discussion with professional, respectful content, and that you have a solid sense for your platform. If that’s you, drop us a line and tell us a little more about you and what you’d like to write about each month. We’ll select the best man for the gig on December 1 and announce it here.

Ladies, if you know a guy who’d be great as a monthly FGG columnist, send them our way!