Curious?

If you were expecting pictures of me bungy jumping, parachuting out of a plane, mountain climbing (The lady in the picture is NOT me),

or some other life-threatening skill to get your attention, so sorry. What you are going to get is an introduction to a prolific, eclectic, experienced writer. Or to put it another way — I’m an old lady who writes a LOT about a LOT of different stuff.

Really. I’ve been at this writing gig a long time, and now that I’m retired with health issues and need to make money, I thought — why not try profiting from my skill? According to the 10,000 or so “How To” articles I have read on Vocal and Medium, it should be a breeze to make $5,000 a month from writing. Yes, well, that’s a story for another time. I am currently working on a piece about the real truth about those articles. Do stay tuned for it.

I had been writing for Vocal for almost 4 months when I decided to branch out and try the Medium platform. When I started with Vocal, it never occurred to me to write a whole article about myself, but Medium encouraged it, so I did. Much to my surprise, it was one of my most-read articles. Therefore, I decided to do the same on Vocal and see what happens.

Sure, you can read a short summary of me in my Profile, but I figured this would get more exposure, and isn't that what it's all about on these platforms? The more exposure, the more people read your content. The more people read your content, the more pennies you make. And who can't use more pennies, right?

For now, I will give you a quick summary of my work. Although many of the articles/stories/blogs of mine that you have seen on Vocal and Medium are the same, you will find some content on Medium that has not been published on Vocal. You will also find a huge amount of content on my websites that has not been published on either Vocal or Medium. Since all the “Writing for the Internet” articles I have read tell me that readers respond to quick lists, rather than long narratives, here you are:

1. Starting way back — Providence Journal (Providence, Rhode Island) columnist for Weekly High School News

2. Developer and writer for my own award-winning website -www.thealzheimerspouse.com 2007–2015 — a site for support and information unique to spouses of Alzheimer patients — active in the middle and end of my husband’s battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Although the message boards are now inactive, all of the information can still be read. I wrote over 800 blogs. They can be found by clicking this link.

3. Developer and writer for my own website — www.talktimewithjoan.com — whimsical blogs on everyday life.

4. Vocal writer — First 3 months on the platform — 2 Top Story honors; 2 Creators We Love honors; 1000 reads milestone; 50 stories published milestone; Finalist in Fiction Challenge ( 13,000 entries; 1025 finalists chosen)

5. Started on Medium on February 4, 2022. Within less than two weeks, I hit the magic number of 100 followers needed in order to get paid for all of this writing. (I didn't amass 100 followers in the 24 hours another article promised, but hey, still not a bad timeline.) So far, I have 18 articles published on Medium.

6. New writer on Illumination Publication - stay tuned for new articles.

7. New writer on Boomers, Babes, and Bitches Publication - stay tuned for new articles.

My writing categories, which will be another article written and listed in my profile to help you find my work, include:

Weight Loss Series — 10+ part series published in segments — My Weightloss Journey Through Bariatric Surgery

Dog Loving Stories

“How To” articles related to writing

Life as a Widow

My Love Story

Inspirational Stories

Whimsical Stories about Everyday Life

Customer Service Fiascos

Exercise and Fitness

Fiction — short stories

Alzheimer's Disease Information

Pandemic Stories

Anything that jumps into my mind at the oddest times

So there you have it. All you need to know about me to inspire you to read my stuff and the addresses where I can be found:

https://joang48.medium.com/

https://vocal.media/authors/joan-gershman

www.thealzheimerspouse.com

www.talktimewithjoan.com

https://www.newswire.com/the-alzheimer-spouse-blog-named/77342

https://thecaregiversvoice.com/tcvs-caregiver-of-the-month/tcvs-caregiver-of-the-month-joan-gershman/

Facebook - Joan Stairman Gershman -https://www.facebook.com/joan.gershman

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joangershman/

Pinterest -https://www.pinterest.com/joanisknitting/_saved/

Yes, I'm on Twitter, but I am clueless as to how to work it and my name doesn't seem to work when I look it up in Google, so let's shelve that one for now.

I look forward to meeting and engaging with you via all of the Internet platform comment sections.