Tag: work

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safe, loved and informed

The days blur, one into another, just as much now that I have a lot of work to do as they did when I had none. They all begin the same, up at five am…ish, coffee and a brief read through of social media, then laptop booted up. That is where I stay for between ten and fourteen hours of my day, well, I do switch between laptops, depending on which work I have to work on, but pretty much it’s all the same.

I have to say, I am so tired y’all. It isn’t the work. I’m grateful to have something to do. I’m just tired. World-weary is a good phrase for it. This world right now is exhausting, and no amount of sleep is going to fix it.

Maybe we’ve been sleeping too long and it’s time to wake up.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about American history this week while I work. I’ve been very focused on the American Revolution and the Civil War. I’ve learned about a lot of people and battles I had never heard of before. Our history has been so whitewashed here in the US.

Add in some documentaries about black and brown folks, produced by black and brown folks, and I’m just so tired of this world. I can’t imagine how much worse it is for those not born to the privilege of this white skin that encases me.

We need to do better, people. We need to be better.

And as we barrel forward into the uncertainty of this virus infested world, with cases spiking, and deaths to certainly follow, we need to be kind. We need to be informed. We need to vow to care not only for ourselves, but for our fellow human beings. We need to demand the government do the same.

Hoping that you are safe, loved and informed, Readers. Safe, loved and informed.

Cover Photo by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash

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writer & editor at large

As we start a new week, I find myself very worried about money, but still optimistic overall. I have a little bit of work, with a vague promise of more on the horizon.  I haven’t been paid yet for  my first week, just submitted my hours for the second week, and we embark on the third.

The other job I was supposed to start is on hold, due to the fact that they can not complete the background check, because the courts in San Francisco are not open.  So that means I have space for more editing or writing work, if you happen to know of any work that needs doing.

I’m on Upwork, but will work with folks outside of that as well.

So other than that bit of the work I’m doing for one client, I’ve been working on The Blood Witch.  I hope to have this final edit done by the weekend.  Which is when the work to sell the book begins.  Which starts, as most things do, with research.  Then query letters, which will  hopefully lead to an agent, who can help with that whole selling part.

As I do, I’m also watching a lot of documentaries, particularly true crime documentaries.  I found a motherlode of new-to-me tv shows and movies on Hulu.

I hope you and your families are staying safe and not going a little stir crazy.  Be smart, as we start opening things back up.  This virus has not yet done its worst, and I fear that loosening restrictions too quickly will send a wrong message to too many people, opening us up for a strong resurgence of victims.  Mask up. Wash your hands.  Stay home if you can, and don’t let people closer than 6 feet.  You never know whose life you might be saving.  It could be your own.

I love you, Readers!  Happy Monday!

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does it matter that it’s Friday?

Happy Friday, Readers!  I meant to post earlier in the week, but I have actual, paying work at the moment, so my attention has been on that.

How are you coping?  I’ve had a few bad days, but between work on The Blood Witch and working in my container garden, I’ve found ways to keep my head up.  I hope you can say the same.

I’ve also been indulging in two of my favorite things, Star Wars and Supernatural.  I find it soothing to re-watch something I am so familiar with.

Today though I feel beat up and sore all over, probably from trying to do too much with very heavy stuff last night (ordered a bunch of soup and it all came in one box…like we’re talking 16 cans of soup. I’d have been better off taking a few cans out at a time, but no…like an idiot I tried to move the whole box).  I’m hoping a hot shower can help me feel a little better.

Aside from that, I’m going to try to finish up these edits I’m getting paid to do, if the website ever comes back up. Right now I’m just getting a blank page.  I assume no one in the support team is currently online.

And, maybe some work on the book.  Depends on how long my beat up body can tolerate the office chair.

I hope your Friday is filled with good things!  Remember, kindness matters.  Please be kind to yourself too.

Cover Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

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it’s okay…to not be okay

Earlier this week, I was feeling great about the possibilities of getting a job offer today.  Late yesterday I got an email saying that, like the last three jobs I felt sure I was going to get, the job has gone on hold while the company re-evaluates what they genuinely need.

To some degree, I’m used to it, as a technical writer. But, I have to admit that this time, it’s hitting me pretty hard.  The job boards have the same ten jobs or so that they’ve had for a month.  Everyone is re-evaluating.  Jobs are getting really scarce.

Earlier this week I was feeling pretty optimistic and I was happy to reach out to my extroverted friends, and read poetry on Facebook and help people get through this.  Today I’m feeling fairly hopeless.  Today I’m afraid.

Logically, I know these things come in waves, but I also know that we haven’t seen the worst of this.

I need to pay bills.  I need to pay rent.  But at the same time, I’m afraid to spend anything because I’m so unsure of when there will be more money.  If I spend nothing of my last unemployment check, or of the next two unemployment checks, I will just make my rent in May.

On Tuesday, I have an interview at Target to work overnights stocking shelves because it pays slightly better than unemployment, yet at the same time, I don’t want to take the job from someone who might need it more than I do.

I know we’re all in the same boat.  We’re all doing our best to keep that boat afloat in an ocean of uncertainty and fear.  And I know that I’ll find my optimism again, but for today it’s okay to not be okay.

I’m going to finish up this coffee and wait for the recruiter to call me for a remote tech writer job I heard about late yesterday.  Maybe this is the one?

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this is not the dystopian future I imagined

Hello, Readers!  I hope you are all taking good care of yourself as we isolate ourselves and hope this virus situation doesn’t get any worse.  I’m trying to stay optimistic, but I’ll admit it can be hard.

It’s so weird to see the traffic map completely green!  I’ve been in the SF Bay Area for twenty years, and I’ve never seen it before!  My town, which is normally filled with people out walking is a ghost town.

As someone who has read a LOT of dystopian stories, I’ll admit, when I considered what our future might look like, how our society would fall apart, I did not have my money on virus-caused-economy-crash.

So, how are you occupying your time, Readers?  I hope you have coffee and good books to read.  I’m still job hunting, and in a time like this there are still a lot of job postings, but not so much with the hiring.  It’s going to get worse before it gets better, so remember to wash your hands, stop touching your face, and take care of one another.

This crisis can make us better people, if we let it.  It is already helping out Mother Earth.  Check in on the elderly and vulnerable in your neighborhoods, and remember to keep your distance.

Meanwhile, I have a short story to write and a novel to start editing.  Hopefully some more editing work will be coming my way soon.  Happy Friday, my friends.

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sheltering in place (and Forever in audio)

I feel like there should be something witty or comforting to say right now, but the world around us is falling to pieces, people can’t work, can’t make money and the bills still come.  All around me people who work in stores and salons and theaters are filing unemployment claims to try to scrape by while we shelter in place.

For most of us born after the last world war, this is unprecedented.

It’s an odd thing. As an agoraphobe, this is largely how I live anyway, but now that I have to live this way, I find myself frustrated a little at not being able to just decide to build up my courage and take myself out somewhere…to the park, to eat…whatever.

I probably wouldn’t anyway, but we always want what we can’t have, right?

Shelter in Place…a term we have used mostly as a means to keep people safe during terrifying emergencies like an active shooter, an escaped convict. Who thought we would ever use it to keep people safe from a virus?

Well, if you need something to occupy some of your time, my vampire novel, Forever, is now available in audiobook format and I have some free codes if you’re interested in reviewing it. Just hit me up on my Facebook page.

And with that, dear Readers, I am off to make some more coffee, drink some more water and prepare myself for a day of phone interviews.  Stay safe, wash your hands, shelter in place and we’ll get through this thing together.

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the impostor

My beta readers have started to come back with their feedback on the zero draft of The Blood Witch, a thing that always makes me both nervous and excited at the same time.  A lot of people think that writing the book is the hard part, but for me it is always that first flush of feedback.

This is the time when impostor syndrome ratchets up my anxiety into the stratosphere.  What if I’m wrong and the story sucks?  What if people are lying to me about my ability to write?  What if none of them like it?

Then when the actual feedback starts coming in, I have to work overtime to keep my brain from saying “See, I told you.  You suck.  Even they think so,” when in fact the feedback is largely positive, with the bits each reader thought needed more information, or didn’t quite work, which is, after all, the reason for beta readers.  Eyes other than mine, able to pick out the places where the story needs work.

Some of what I’ve heard so far are things I knew, things already on my list of “needs fixing” and/or “needs work”.  Some of it comes from folks who are not US natives, which helps a lot, because I don’t think about things like “non-US folk won’t know how our foster care system works” while I’m writing.

I’m still waiting for a few folks, so I’m not going to start edits just yet, just update my lists and maybe start a read through of my own to add to those lists as well.

The day job continues to be elusive for the moment, but I’m hoping something is coming my way soon.  Had a pretty decent interview on Friday, and I submitted a bunch of applications in the last few days, including one to Lucasfilm for an editing position (fingers crossed).

Did you remember to spring forward this morning?  It’s later than you think it is!  Time for coffee and a peruse of Facebook and Linked In before I go start some laundry and other fun chores.

Happy Sunday, Readers!  May it rain kindness upon you.

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the games people play

Wow, how did we get to March so fast?!  Seems like we were only just sludging our way through the year of January, and now we’ve made a slide into March.  My plans to take over the world have fallen seriously behind.  Something must be done!

No, seriously, while things are ugly in the world of politics and the scare of a global pandemic is emptying shelves in the stores around the country, and the fact that I still do not have gainful employment, I’m doing pretty good.  At least through April, because I have my rent paid that far ahead.  So, I better find something pretty fast.

Honestly, I’d be surprised if some of the sluggishness in hiring is the uncertainty of the world right now.  I’ve seen the same technical writer jobs with the same companies posted and reposted on all the job boards since early in January.  At least one of them every few weeks since last summer, YIKES.

Add to that the fact that I refuse, at fifty one years old, to spend four hours of my day (on a good day) in the car to get to and from a job, and I’m left here trying to manifest a job that has yet to come into sight.  It is out there though.  I’m sure of it.

In the meantime, I write, I rummage and ransack job boards, I keep lists of places and jobs I have applied to, and I have rediscovered my love for story based video games.  I suck at them (as an example, I spent almost two hours yesterday trying to defeat the first serious “boss” in Jedi: Fallen Order…and gave up for the day without doing it…got her down to about half health a couple of times, but I’m not coordinated enough to dodge and stuff, and she’s wicked fast).

I am considering developing an online course for writers struggling with the concepts of Point of View and maybe a few others like it, but I have no concept of what to charge for something like that.  I’ve been coaching and beta-reading for years, but always in areas I can’t claim on a resume, so I’m thinking maybe I could formalize what I’ve been doing.  I’m also going to revamp my editing offerings, make them simpler.

Plus, it’s time for Pride to ramp up.  Had my first management meeting yesterday.  Got some exciting new ideas flowing there.  I hope it pays off.

For now, the coffee is hot and I need to start my daily haunting of Linked In and Glassdoor and Indeed…I’ve stopped using Monster (because holy hell the crap recruiters try to shovel in my direction from there) and even Career Builder (for much the same reason) which used to be my go-to sites for job hunting.

Happy Wednesday, Readers.  May kindness find you!

 

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taking the next step

I’m sitting here in the dark, quiet morning, sipping on coffee and getting words down on the page.  In a little bit I will go dig at the job boards and such for new, exciting places to submit my resume to, but for now it’s just me and my story.

Yesterday was a good writing day with close to five thousand words by the time I was done, and that was largely the climax of the book.  I love when words come so easily.  I’m not far from done with my zero draft now.

My love for these characters is large.  My MC is more like me than any other character I have ever written, or maybe she’s more like the me I wanted to be.  Either way, she is maybe my favorite character since Amara in Forever.

Once I’m done, I’ll compile the project (I’m working in Scrivener as an experiment) and export it to a word or pdf document and have a couple beta readers give it a good read to identify anything too out there, too unbelievable and plot holes.

Then it will be time for my first edit pass.  After that, I’ll pay a professional editor to give it a good working over.  And another edit pass.  At that point, I’ll be ready to start querying agents, which I’ve never done and is rather terrifying. But it’s time to take the next step in my writing career.

Happy Monday, Readers!  I need more coffee.

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wine, women and song…or at least the wine

It’s another early Saturday morning, so of course that means I’m writing while I drink my Death Wish coffee, except when a certain kitty comes and demands cuddles.  Cuddles trump everything.  I spent a good chunk of yesterday doing neglected housework, and there’s a bunch more of it to do, but not today.

I have a wine club box to pick up out in Lodi today, so I’m planning to go kidnap my mother and take her out for food of some kind and probably a run to a store or two (possibly to get some yarn to work on a few projects).

I’m in a pretty good place regarding work.  I have two jobs that have been offered to me, though both are contract positions and I would rather have a permanent one, and I have two permanent jobs that I have passed the first hurdle in the gauntlet of interviews. I have a good feeling that I will be starting a new job pretty soon.

In fact, I feel pretty good right now about the entire direction this year has started to take.  I have a new job on the horizon.  I have a planned excursion to Batuu West at the end of March, a trip to Austin and another Batuu adventure in August, and come October I will be back in Denver for Sirens.

Not a bad year so far.  All it needs is for that new permanent job to materialize.  I hope your 2020 is shaping up to be awesome too, Readers!  Happy Saturday…also known as half-price chocolate day.  Go get you some sweet!

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