The really important thing to address this morning seems to be the ongoing demise of astronet. I wrote my first astrology column when I was in college, back in 1987.
My horoscopes have been on the web since 1994. Chronologically, Genie [Libra] solicited me for a weekly column in the summer of 1995, something I was already doing on a web site of my own making. I’m proud of this, some remnants of the original ASCII code are still intact — it was so long ago, I had to bang two rocks together to make binary code. I wish I still had the e–mail note, but back in 1995, I was told I could take my own web site down after Astronet/AOL picked me up.
Since my site was already generating money, I opted not to go that route. A year or two into the astronet experience, they finally got around to paying me for my work. A recent discussion with some better paid writers has lead me to believe that I was not being “paid to scale” for my work. But from my point of view, I was doing okay — rent on trailer in South Austin still isn’t very much.
In the following years, I got checks from two or three different corporate entities as astronet changed ownership. Late last year, or maybe it was this year, iVillage merged with women.com, and iVillage has Kelli Fox’s astrology.com while women.com had Genie’s astronet.com. Last February, I was alerted that astronet might go away. Or something might happen. Then, as I’ve noted before, the target date was sometime in June. So it’s no surprise to me. Still hurts the old cash flow. My handler at astronet has been busy assuring me that everything will work out. I’ve turned in requested — and contracted — copy through August; the contracts run until the end of September.
Can’t say the handler [Gemini] was at fault, either, as she’s done a good job of keeping me up–to–date on what might happen. The kicker is, some of the astronet writers will probably be offered positions with astrology.com. Of course, I’ve heard nothing about this; therefore, I can only assume that it’s not me. Such is the way the Fates spin the web of life. With apologies to Hunter Thompson, “When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing.”
- Aperture: ƒ/1.8
- Camera: iPad Pro (11-inch)
- Flash fired: no
- Focal length: 3mm
- ISO: 64
- Shutter speed: 1/60s
