The Best Title One Could Hope To Come Up With

I started writing this at the end of my 3rd week at my latest temp job. Naturally there was a cup of Tim Horton's steeped tea next to me as I put pen to paper. The week has gone well, and it's great to be earning money again.

Writing has also been picking up. The end is in sight for I, Suicide, and new projects are coming together in my head. I'll be posting a new short story here soon. It's a bit of an experiment, with no fantasy elements at all! I know. I'm scared, too.

It is now Tuesday night of my 4th week at work. Still going well, I'm glad to say. I went to a friend's birthday party on the weekend, and I'm very glad I did. Socializing is good for me. I made a new friend!

Right now I'm watching Marvel's Agents of Shield. Good show. And I need to study it. Why? Stay tuned...

It's August, the last month of the summer. The majority of super awesome blockbuster movies have come out, the CNE is almost upon us, and we've had hot days aplenty!

The world of work continues to confound me. Or, to put a more positive spin on my employment woes, the world of work continues to provide valuable material for me to draw upon for my fiction. I've had a couple of interviews; the first one seemed to go really well, but I didn't get the job. The second one also went very well. Does that mean I'm screwed?

Not necessarily, no. Only a negative, pessimistic, down-in-the-dumps person would think that! I am not that person. At least, not today.

I continue to write, but my speed and productivity have gone down. And, I seem to be suffering from rewriter's block. I'll do a post on that soon. And I've had another significant rejection to deal with. I'll blog about that soon, too. Nevertheless, I continue to advance the plot of Zombie Jesus Day. I'm keeping up with Toronto.com articles, and I'm always adding new reviews to Biblical Proportions. Here's the latest one.

I haven't been to a con since Ad Astra, which is sad. I do love them. For one reason or another I've missed a bunch of them this summer. I hope to make it to Can Con and SFContario in the fall. Of course, it's hard to get all gung-ho about promoting my stuff when I have so very little stuff left to promote... There I go, getting down again. It's hard not to, with depression on top of stressful circumstances. I need to turn things around, but it's going to take a lot of passion, energy, and hard work.

I still believe in the dream. I just wish I felt like the dream believed in me.

June-Bugging, for want of a better title

May, my second-favourite month, has drawn to a close. Actually it drew to a close over a week ago, but who's counting? Well, me, I suppose.

Anyway, back to May. May is nice - not quite the boiling hot weather that is coming, but warm enough that there's usually no need to bundle up. I say usually, because the weather lately has been pretty wishy-washy. I suspect global warming at work. I also like May because that's the month when the summer movies begin. Already I've seen two sequels, one three times (that would be Star Trek: Into Darkness), and I have plans to see a reboot at the end of this week.

Now it is June. My latest work contract has come to an end, Violet and I have celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary, and I finally have new shoes. Hadn't I mentioned my desperate need for new shoes? Well, I needed them. And now I have them. Huzzah! Also, this week Violet graduates from George Brown college with a degree in graphic design. Huzzah for her!

I've done some more work for Toronto.com. I'm sure you all remember my article on wedding venues in Toronto; I've written a follow-up to that, and it should be posted soon. I've also seen the publication of my article on Toronto tourist hotspots. This one follows on from an article by my good friend Jeff Cottrill. It seems we'd both worked on the tourist hotspot assignment, each of us believing it was ours to write. One of us was wrong, and that one was me. Fortunately, our editor decided to run mine as a follow-up, so the work was not wasted. You can read it here.

Right now, I'm putting together some ideas for a new short story. Another good friend of mine is putting together an anthology, Neverland's Library. I plan to submit something, so coming up with that something is currently my top priority.

Oh, and I've had my hair cut. Apparently I look much younger. See for yourself! Here's before:

And after:


Ain't I adorable?

New Job, New Time

Tomorrow I start a new job for the same company I've been working for through Manpower for the last two-and-a-half months. I've been doing data entry for the WSIB up until now, but that work is drying up. Starting tomorrow, I'll be working in the mail centre, delivering stuff around the building and the neighbourhood.

And I'll be doing the 7:00AM - 3:00PM shift.

Yeah. Seven in the morning. I can do it - I've been getting downtown for 7:30 every morning for my 8:00AM start time. The thing is, I used that extra half an hour before work to write. I will lose that half-hour period from now on; I just don't have what it takes to get downtown any earlier. I'm pretty fantastic and awesome, but I'm not that fantastically awesome. I'm not even sure I'll have time to stop at Tim Horton's for tea (gasp!).

Fortunately, the mornings aren't my only writing times. I will still have my lunch hour, and more time after work to do my stuff. I'll miss that half-hour, though. I always feel better about my day when I've started it off with some solid creativity.

October Occupations

My Ottawa vacation is over, and October has begun. My search for employment continues; I could really use a good job that lasts a few months. Maybe even a year. Or two. I'd hoped to come back to such a job - I'd been chasing a data entry position before my holiday, but unfortunately that whole thing fell apart. A real shame, as it would have had good pay and benefits and everything.

I've finished the first draft of my latest novel, currently titled I'm So Goddamn Sick of Vampires. My next project is called Zombie Jesus Day, and I've already got a good start on it. I don't know if I've ever jumped so easily from one novel to another, at least not without a month of downtime in-between. ZJD is a concept I've been punting around in my mind for several months now, and I can't wait to tell it.

Apart from those projects, I still have several completed first drafts that need revisions and rewrites before they'll be ready for public consumption. I've also got I, Suicide and Evil 2 to return to, when I'm ready for them. I'm contractually bound to offer any sequel or spin-off of The Cupid War(such as I, Suicide) to Flux before any other publisher. Unless some kind of miracle happens and The Cupid War becomes a best-seller, Flux will not want to publish it.

Evil 2, however, is another story - all the unsold rights for Evil have reverted to me. No reason I can't pick up where I left off with that book, provided the story stands well enough on its own.

For now, though, I'm sticking with Zombie Jesus Day. It looks to be a very fun write. I'll need that kind of a project to help me through the job-searching days ahead. Fingers crossed I get some decent employment soon!

Work: Good For Writing?

I returned to work last week, and by work I mean a day job. My writing is my other job, but that still doesn't pay the bills. This day job is a data entry temp position acquired through the Manpower agency. My job is to book ad space in newspapers, or fix problems with existing booked ads. I'm still learning, and waiting to be completely set up on their system by IT. There's a bit of stress as I try to fill my brain with all the information I need to do my job. The question for me is, will this position be good for my writing? It doesn't matter so much to my creative side whether or not a job is good or bad. More important is how I feel about it. A job can be low-paying and fairly boring, but if I am well treated I will usually be happy. If, on the other hand, I am treated like I'm less valuable than the furniture, I find it very hard not to internalize it. A bad job can motivate me to write as a means of escape, but a lack of respect from a boss or co-workers will strangle my soul and kill my creativity. I won't necessarily lose the ability to write (although that has happened from time to time), but my output will slow considerably. So far, this job has been all right. My co-workers have been great, and my writing output has increased a little bit. I won't know for sure how conducive this position will be for my creative soul until I've been there a few weeks. I'll check back in a month, and maybe go into more detail about which jobs have helped and which jobs have hurt, and why. In the meantime, I'm considering the creation of a new blog about temp work. I've had more than a little experience working for agencies, so I have plenty to say. If this is something you think you'd like to read, leave me a comment below.

Back to Temp Work

After nearly eight months of unemployment, I have finally managed to land myself a job - Data entry for QMI Sales, "a full service media solution company." I obtained this position through Manpower, my current temp agency. It should run until the end of July; after that, we'll see. I've done plenty of data entry before, so there's no reason why I shouldn't excel. I might learn a thing or two from them about marketing, too. I start tomorrow; today is my last day of freedom. I anticipate this new job with my usual feelings of anxiety, but also with a great deal of relief. Financially, things are about to get a lot better. I'm also hoping for an increase in my writing output. You'd think I'd get more done when there's nowhere I need to be during the day, but that just isn't true. I need structure; a job gets me out of the house, and forces me to work my writing time around it. Under those circumstances, I have found myself to be a lot more creative. The fact that I'm a lot less stressed about money will also help tremendously. The question is, though, will this job be conducive to my writing life? I've had numerous temp jobs where I've been treated badly, and I can't write when I'm upset. I think I'm better equipped now to handle those situations, but it's still a concern for me. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a good boss and a happy atmosphere. This could turn out really well for me. It might even turn out to be a step in the right direction for my career. I'm thinking positive. Here goes!