Personal Stuff

On a personal note, I’ve mentioned several times that I am not able to afford health insurance. The good news is, we have a very well-equipped, HUGE “sliding fee” clinic here that I qualify for — and yesterday was sort of Reckoning Day for my generally inactive, slovenly lifestyle: I had a checkup at said clinic, with special concerns about my blood pressure. Seems when you’re sitting behind a computer most of the day, growing old, and slamming down various amounts of cheese and other dairy products, well, gosh, your health deteriorates and especially your blood pressure may rocket upwards. […] Read More >

How do you support your writing habit? Are you fortunate enough to be able to make a living writing full-time? Or do you rely on some sort of “day job” to pay the bills and write when you are able to fit it into a busy life? I’ve done both of the above. Right now I’m fortunate enough to have the time to write full-time — and squeeze out a living while I’m waiting for the writing to pay off better. At times, as have most writers, I’ve done a variety of full-time and part-time jobs. Once I applied (three […] Read More >

I have to confess that I’ve spent most of my writing life in a sort of tension between “wannabe” and “gottabe.” I’ve always told myself I want to be successful as a novelist. But most of my writing life has been taken up with writing I’ve had to do in order to pay the bills. I urge you, if it is at all possible, establish your writing priorities and focus as much as possible on those types of writing. Sacrifice whatever you can whenever you can to stick to the writing you love, and if you stray from that, reestablish […] Read More >

From time to time, I still hit the temp agencies looking for part-time or temporary work. (We all gotta eat and pay the bills, don’t we?) One of the odd things I see about most of these agencies is the way they are divided into such specialties. In our city, if you’re doing an aggressive admin job search, looking for administrative/clerical/office type jobs (like editing and writing, for example), there are two particular temp agencies you would focus on. But if you’re looking for something more physical from construction work to carpentry, you would go to two different agencies. If […] Read More >