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The Themestream Essays

Between August 2000 and March 2001, I wrote a series of (more-or-less) weekly essays for themestream.com.

Themestream operated a pay-per-click royalty system. For every person who read one of my articles, I made a small amount of money. A very small amount.

Need I say I never made enough to quit my day job? But those 30 essays were the first things I had published under my own name that ever earned me money. The amount wasn't important. The feeling of accomplishment was priceless.

And I got the opportunity to write on subjects and in styles that I could never do in my "day job". And I got invaluable feedback. And I made friendships and contacts that have lasted long after the site closed.

Themestream folded in March 2001. It is greatly missed by the huge community of amateur and professional writers who published there.

The following essays were all originally published on Themestream and are reproduced with no additional editing. Each is around 1,000 words (or a little more). Copyright is mine in all cases. Feedback is welcome.

1. I'm not a real writer. But I do play one on TV
   20 August 2000
2. Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam
   26 August 2000
3. Copyright: Right to Copy?
   8 September 2000
4. What Men can Learn from Romantic Fiction
   17 September 2000
5. There is No Such Thing as Science Fiction
   23 September 2000
6. They Blew up my Rock
   30 September 2000
7. Live . . . In Concert
   5 October 2000
8. First Flight (1 of 2)
   14 October 2000
9. First Flight (2 of 2)
   14 October 2000
10. Votes for Sale!
    21 October 2000
11. A New President, Seek You?
    23 October 2000
12. The Case Against Dialogue
    4 November 2000
13. Concerto for Group and Orchestra
    12 November 2000
14. Concerto for Group and Orchestra - Back from the Dead
    14 November 2000
15. Party Like it's 1999
    22 November 2000
16. I Just Saw a Naked Lady!
    2 December 2000
17. Why I Hate Working on the World Wide Web
    13 December 2000
18. Santa Stop Here
    16 December 2000
19. The Wizard of Oz is One Because
    6 January 2001
20. Wannsee
    20 January 2001
21. The Farmer, The Fox, The Hen, and the Grain
    26 January 2001
22. The Perversion of HTML
    2 February 2001
23. Dark Angel (a Review)
    10 February 2001
24. What Price Sunflowers?
    9 March 2001
25. Do U Proofread?
    13 March 2001
26. The Last Bright Light (a review)
    18 March 2001
27. The Award for Best Foreign Language Film Goes To...
    24 March 2001
28. The Day the Music Died
29. Pronk!

All comments to: david@heroes.force9.co.uk

© 2002 by David Meadows. All rights reserved.