Author and freelancer - the juggling act

This one falls in the ODDyssey category. I now have a new and improved back, but no job. I think I mentioned here before that the magazine I worked for couldn't wait while I had surgery and recovered from same. They were already down one writer.

I figured it was meant to be. Now I can go freelance like I wanted to do in the first place (but couldn't because we needed the benefits) while on unemployment and subsidized COBRA. Yesterday I spent an hour composing a proposal at elance.com only to have the job awarded while I was typing. Very frustrating. Why is it that no one wants to pay artists what their worth, by the way?

And I just paid $15 to have my employment verified. Why did I do that? Can't people just google and find that stuff? Harumph. I did it because I need to get noticed. That's all I've been doing for the past six years when I haven't been writing. I'm not vain. I know it's not enough to be a good writer. You have to be seen and get connected. But all of that was for my fiction, which, face it, until I hit the bestseller lists won't pay the bills by itself.

Hopefully, I can juggle both without developing a multiple personality disorder. Enough whining. On to science fiction.

Anyone who has been following me for long knows I love lists. So does Brian Gilmore over at Ranker. He sent me this one: Top 10 TV Shows That Overstayed Their Welcome. It fits here because many of them are speculative in nature. Of course, I think there are even more that were cut before their time - Firefly, Invasion, Torchwood and Jericho come immediately to mind. I still miss Max Headroom. That was British - from the 80s I think.

The discussion about Romance and Sci-fi rages on over at Tor where Heather Massey quotes my recent entry on the subject.

And because I love it when people send me stuff, especially when it isn't a request to review a book in a different genre, and like to give artists a break, here is an independent film for your enjoyment entitled The People Outside.



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