Okay, so now the fallout from the Salon.com



article is beginning to trickle in...I've found several interesting blog entries and even more interesting comments on the blog entries. here they are:

John Scalzi's Whatever Blog there are comments from some notable writers...so make sure you read those too.

nihilistic kid

NOTE: some of the comments have some course language...so just be warned.

All that said, I have to admit that my opinion about the article hasn't changed...it still doesn't depress or scare me. It's one author's journey through the publishing process. Will that be my journey necessarily? No. Will I have more success? Perhaps..although I do have a hard time feeling sorry for a writer who nailed a 150k advance on a FIRST novel...but then again, who really didn't expect her career to go downhill from there? I would have taken the advance and put it in the bank (at least a good chunk of it), cuz, the biz being what it is, I would expect to get struck by lightening before seeing another advance like that. But that's just me.

One other issue I have: the author (Jane Austen Doe...clever) made almost $300,000 in advances...then there is the money she made ghostwriting the celebrity book. Add to that the income she received as a freelancer and the royalties she gets from her other books..I really can't see why she is complaining. I assume its because she is not living the Dream of Great American Novelist. Maybe so, but she has made more than most writers will ever see.

Oh and one more issue: many writers are taken aback that Ms. Austen Doe considers getting a "day job" a setback. That didn't bother me. I can see how it could be that way to her. Of course, we don't know what the day job is, and from what I can gather from the negative feedback, most of the writers that take offense to her feelings work day jobs in the writing industry. If she secured a writing-industry or teaching job, then I don't feel sorry for her. But if she's working as a CSR or Greet at Wal-mart, then she gets my sympathy.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the subject. I feel bad for what the author has gone through, and yet, I can't say she has truly suffered. She has published books...she has an agent...she's ahead of the game.

PS...anyone have any idea who SHE is?
- posted by Kim @ 3:48 AM

 
So, I just read the article at Salon.com
about the peril of the midlist author (if you aren't a subscriber, then you can get a day pass and search the March 22 articles).

I think is was supposed to depress me. And yet, I am filled with a strange sense of hope. Maybe hope isn't the right word..

Vindication. Yeah, that's what it is.

You see, I've always suspected that the publishing world was a seedy as the street corner that prostitutes occupy, but I really didn't have any proof. Now, thanks to that excellent article, I have proof. It's as if I have been stumbling around a pitch black room searching for the light switch and "click" I finally find it and the room is filled with light.

The article didn't depress me. It armed me. Now, I know that the publishing world is arbitrary and vicious and cut-throat and random. If I fail to succeed as a writer, then I no longer have only myself to blame. There are inept, uninterested publicists, agents that look for ways to screw you over, and publishers that are only interested in what you can make for them.

Yeah, I know, these aren't things I didn't already know. But for some reason, reading that someone else went through what I have always suspected made working toward a writing career not so daunting.

Now I will quit rambling and let you get onto reading someone else's blog. :-)
- posted by Kim @ 5:26 AM

 
I've almost completed my first week of the new shift



and so far it doesn't seem much different from the last one. Same job, same stupid people calling in with the same stupid problems...no big deal.

However, judging from what my former workmates have said about training for the new project, I'm going to wish that this project never ends.

I don't feel like going into details, but from what I have heard from both people in the training class and those already working on the project, customer service for a cable company suxs. Not that I really needed someone to tell me that. People never call the cable company for good things. If your cable it on and working fine, there is no need. The only time people happily call the cable company is if they are getting it hooked up, or they are ordering porno on Pay-per-view.

Not that I would know anything about ordering porn...but I would assume that people who do order it are happy about it.

Anyway...when most people call the cable company, its because either it's been turned off due to non-payment, or there is an outtage. Either way, people are jacked.

And in a few short months, I will get to talk to these people. I am such a lucky, lucky gal!

Oh well...that's enough whining for one day/night...take care y'all.
- posted by Kim @ 2:42 AM

 
Today is one of the saddest days
I've had in a long time. Someone poisoned my cat Cuddles...and he died today.
Vet said there was nothing that could be done, and he went so quickly, there
was really no chance of saving him.



Why would anyone poison such a sweet, loving cat? Cudz never hurt anyone. He
was a laid back, "stoner cat"...think Spicolli from Fast Times...no
matter what strays came though this house ( we are suckers for a stray with
a hard luck story), he never fell prey to the "Alpha Male" syndrome.
It is just so unfair that someone would harm a cat that never harmed anyone...
I'm rambling, I know..and I probably shouldn't have bothered to post anything...but
I had to do something. Cudz was a wonderful 4-yo cat that I will miss terribly,
no matter how many other felines come through my door..
So, Cuds, I hope your trip across the Rainbow Bridge was a swift one. I'm sure
your brother Fireball was there waiting for you. Tell him I said "hi"
and that I still miss him too.
- posted by Kim @ 2:10 PM

 
Today was the last day of
my normal schedule at the "day job". I was going to go to the party that was going on at the local bar, but I decided not to...since I can't say good-bye to a project that I am still working on. But come June 14th...oh Buddy!

It's going to be weird to head into work Monday not only an hour and a half later than I'm used to, but to work with people I haven't worked with in ages. We'll see if it's a good thing that I stayed with the project or not soon enough.

I have never been so glad to see a weekend in my life. This week has been draining. One of my workmates wrote a letter to the project, basically outlining her feelings about the project ending and having to switch to a new project. It made people cry.

It made me want to get out my red ink pen. ***smack*** BAD CO-WORKER! BAD!

It was a nice letter..with a nice sentiment. It's just that it was so PollyAnna-ish it made my teeth itch. I kept waiting for the whole project to break into "Tomorrow" or hold hands and sing "Kumbaya". You all know that I am not thrilled about the project ending, but I didn't shed any tears over it, nor did I feel the need to tell everyone that things will work out, and we'll all grow from the experience. Maybe because for me, it's just a job. It's one of the best non-writing jobs I've ever had, and most certainly one of the best paying, but ultimately it's not something that I plan to do for the rest of my life. Now, if it were a newspaper, and I was forced to go from writing articles to obituaries...THEN maybe I would shed some tears.

Well, I'm going to go and try to do some work on my novel...I have to get up early tomorrow morning...go to the bank, do some shopping, and drop Taylor off at the hairdresser. While she's getting coiffed...and costing me $90 -- yeah, you read that right -- NINETY DOLLARS, I'm going to sit in a nearby coffee shop and hopefully get some writing done.

Perhaps I'll check in this weekend...if not, I'll probably see you Monday. Have great weekends everyone! :-)
- posted by Kim @ 2:25 AM

 
So, I go to work today...



and I get my new schedule. I work the same days, but my hours have changed. As of next Monday I will work 6pm - 2:30am. No big deal...it's only an hour and a half later than the shift I already work.

However (oh, like you didn't see this coming!), there are people who are upset that I got this schedule. Why you ask? Good question. I never got an actual answer...just dirty looks and remarks like, "well, must be nice to not have to turn your whole life upside down like the rest of us."

Huh?

So, I'm not sure what the problem is, and I honestly don't care. My schedule is just that, MY schedule. Just because I had the forethought to go to my Sup and let her know that I would be willing to take that shift and less willing to take another one is no reason to be pissed at me. I did what anyone else who had possible conflicts with a new schedule should have done. If they weren't smart enough to do that, then shame on them!

Okay..enough about that. Onto more "interesting topics"...

I finished the new outline and layout of Three Wishes. I just finished reading it over in its new form and I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm marathoning this week (don't know if I can do it this weekend or not..we will have to see), and I figure I can finish this round of rewrites in about two weeks. That of course also depends on how much work I can get done at my "day job" or if I can leave early. I'll keep you posted. I'm still doing a happy dance over the ending. I think it's pretty clever, if I dare say so. :-)

Other than that, I'm not doing any writing. Nothing else is holding my interest at the moment. I have several article ideas floating around in the gray matter, but until I finish Three Wishes (and find a new name...it doesn't fit the book anymore *sigh*) nothing else is generating itself onto the page. I keep looking at the fortune that I have taped to my monitor, and I'm increasingly convinced that this book could be the thing that gets me from "Kim,wannabe novelist" to "KA Francis, author of (need a new name!)". Don't know why I feel so strongly about this book, but I do, so I am going to run with it and see where it takes me.

On that note (I believe it's the "E" just above middle "C"..bad joke, sorry), I'm going to head back to work. Enjoy the rest of your week...I'll probably check back in again before the weekend.
- posted by Kim @ 1:20 AM

 
****WARNING****



The following post is an official, bonafide whine...but it DOES have a resolution. Read at your own risk.

I have spent most of the weekend working on the query and synopsis for Three Wishes and I came to one pathetic conclusion. The book has MAJOR problems. For example, the book had no real ending, and to make things worse, I didn't know HOW I wanted it to end. There were also some other plot issues to contend with...points that needed to be tied up, characters that needed resolutions...etc. In a ft of frustration, I did the only thing i could think to do....I sat down and wrote the story outline..not from what I had already written, but how I wanted to story to go.

Lo and behold...not only did I manage to resolve all the plot points, but I also had...are you ready...AN ENDING!

I guesstimate that it's going to take me a couple of weeks to do the rewrites and final edits, but I can honestly say that now I will have a book that people will want to read. That's a pretty exciting thing.

In other news...I did a bunch of Spring cleaning..the kitchen, and bathroom are done and the living room is almost finished. I need to buy a new area rug for the living room floor, plus the floor could use a good scrubbing. Taylor said she would get to it next weekend if I don't do it first. Of course, if I do it, then I'm out of commission for the next three days...so as much as I would like it done earlier, I'm most likely going to wait til Taylor does it. After all, that's why I pay her the big bucks. LOL

Nothing new on the job front...'cept I have to do a shift bid for my new schedule. For those of you unfamiliar, a shift bid is when you pick a shift from a list and then when your turn comes, tell the HR people and hope someone who has more seniority didn't already pick it. Shouldn't be much of a problem since there is only one person ahead of me in seniority, but I have been burned in the past. Of course, it might help if I knew what the new shifts were. Won't find out til tomorrow, and the bid is probably Tuesday or Wednesday. Talk about lack of advanced notice.

Well, that's about it. As soon as I know something difinitive about my job, I'm sure I'll post it here...and I'll keep you in the loop about the progress on the latest round of rewrites of Three Wishes.

Wish me luck on both!

- posted by Kim @ 4:03 AM

 
Just a few thoughts...



For this sunny spring-like Friday morning.

Today I find out when I have to jump to the other project at work, and what my new shift will be. If I stay with the project I'm on til the end, then I believe I will be switching to midnights for 90 days starting on March 15. Otherwise, I will be switching to afternoons (full-time) for the 4-week training. I work part-time overlap afternoon/midnight now (4:30pm - 1am).

Now that the initial shock has worn off (having to go to a new project or resign...the fact that my old project is giving up the ghost was no suprise to me) I thinking it might not be so bad to jump to the other project. I mean, when I think about it, I'm doing the same job, just for different people with different needs. Either way, I'm still taking calls from cranky people. Computers or cable...doesn't really matter.

Changing topics...I have been redesigning my website...the new one should be up and fully-fiunctional (ie..the pages will be there, whether there is something on them is different story entrirely!) I'm really liking the new design. I think it suits me...and I bit the bullet...

MY picture is on the site. Yes, I've been lying all this time. I do show up on film...I just normally don't like what develops. LOL Anyway, more about the site when I finish it.

I have trimmed my "PLEASE Please please take me on as a client" list down from 15 or so to 7. The remainder have been moved to my "Please please take me on as a client" list. This weekend I will write the queries, synopses, and collateral materials that each of the agents have asked for, (would it kill them to have uniform guidelines? My head is spinning trying to keep up with what each agent wants!) and next week, I will send them out. My stomach is churning just thinking about it.

Oh wait, maybe I'm just hungry.

On that note, I am going to go forage in the kitchen and find something to eat. have a great day y'all!
- posted by Kim @ 10:05 AM

 
The *THUNK* you hear is my head smacking off my desk.



I've long held the belief that the reason women have more common sense than men is chromosomal. Women, (XX) have common sense, while men (XY) often seem to be lacking it. I think this is bcause that extra leg that makes a Y an X is where the common sense genes are held.

It's just a theory...do with it what you will.

Anyway, the reason for the post. Hubby and I often have conversations that leave me scratching my head, but this one's a doozie. Lemme set up the scenario: I'm sitting at my desk this afternoon, trimming my dream agent list down a bit by reading the research from websites and warning pages I had printed out when my husband walks through the door.

Him: What's for lunch?

Me: Whatever you want to fix.

Him: You didn't fix lunch?

Me: Nope. It was me, the cats and the dog, and they still have food from this morning.

Him: Well, I'm hungry.

Lemme interject here. This was not so much a comment as it was a thinly-veiled command. This was the point where I was to stop what I was doing, go into the kitchen and fix him something to eat. Yeah, right.

Me: So go fix yourself something to eat.

Him: *insert whiny sigh here* But I just got home from work and I'm tired.

Me: Honey, I'm in the middle of something. If you can wait a little bit, I'll fix us both something.

Him: How long?

Me: I don't know...about an hour?

Him: An HOUR?!? I don't want to wait that long!

Me: then fix yourself something.

Him: Why haven't you already fixed lunch? You knew I was going to be home.

Okay, so I knew he was going to be home, but last I checked, he worked til 6 and got home around 6:30. It was 2pm...but I should have known he would be home 4 1/2 hours early.

Uh huh. Okay, sure. Whatever.

Me: And how was I supposed to know you'd come home early? I was expecting you for dinner, not lunch.

Him: well, if you weren't online yakking with your friends, you would have known.

Me: Back the bus up. I haven't been online all day.

Him: You're online right now.

Me: I am not!

Him: You are too! There's the little Internet icon right there! (He pointed to a symbol in my taskbar)

Me: That's the printer icon you idiot!

Him: Don't call me an idiot!

Me: Don't act like one!

Him: I can't believe you aren't going to fix me lunch after I went to work and made money to support this family.

Me: Ha! When was the last time you offered to make ME lunch? When was the last time I came home from work...after working 8 HOURS and you had fixed dinner?

Him: Dinner was waiting for you when you came home last Friday.

Me: You ordered a pizza! And it had green peppers on it. You know I hate green peppers!

Him: Well, it was the thought that counted.

Me: The only thought you had was, "Hey, if I order this pizza with crap on it Kim won't eat, then I'll have leftovers for tomorrow.

Him: Well, since you won't fix me lunch, it seemed like the perfect plan.

I hate when he does that. He'll bring up a topic, take me all over the world with it, then *bang* he brings it full circle (to support HIS opinions, of course) and we are back where we started. Only now, I'm ticked instead of amused.

Me: Tell ya what. Order a pizza with extra green peppers. Now you'll have lunch and dinner and maybe I'll get some work done.

Him: What? Now you aren't going to fix me dinner?

Like the only person in this house I cook for is him. As if I am his personal short-order cook.

Cha, yeah.

Me: Keep up this attitude and you won't get dinner tomorrow night either.

Him: That's not fair. You are so lazy it's pathetic.

Me: I'm lazy? I didn't storm into the house, ignore the other person, go into the kitchen come back and whine that I was hungry. I'm not the one who is hungry but won't fix something to eat because I don't feel like it. And I'm not the one who is standing in the living room calling other people names because they won't stop what they are doing to accommodate me!

Him: What are you trying to say?

Me: Fix your own damn lunch, I've got work to do.

Him: My mom would have had lunch waiting for me.

Cringe. My late mother-in-law was a wonderful woman. But she let men walk all over her (her own admission). She had a serious flaw in the self-respect department, especially where men were concerned. She indeed would have had lunch waiting for him just in case he came home early, checking on it and keeping it warm, just in case. But she also cut the crusts off his bread, separated the green beans from the corn in the succotash, and ironed his socks.

I'm NOT my mother-in-law. I don't have the above-mentioned self-respect issues, and I'm not going to cater (excuse the pun) to a man who doesn't even have the decency to call and let me know he's coming home early. Of course, I wasn't going to say these things to him.

Me: Your mother was a saint.

Him: Are you going to fix me some lunch or not?

Me: I told you, I'll fix something a bit later. If you want something now, then go ahead and fix something.

Him: Never mind, forget it. I'm going to go take a nap. Maybe when I wake up, you will have found your way clear to fix dinner.

Me: Dinner is at 6:30 as usual.

Now, I know I could have stopped what I was doing and fixed lunch for both of us. I know that my actions were a bit childish and caused a seemingly needless argument, but there are bigger issues here. My husband has no respect for my work time. When he came home, I wasn't playing a game or writing an email or writing in my blog. I was researching agents and publishers, trying to trim down my list so that I was targeting the best agents for my book, meanwhile writing down snippets of sections of the query letter as they were coming to me. In other words, I was doing what I have been doing every afternoon for almost 6 years. I was working.

But he expected me to just stop what I was doing and cater to his needs..needs he wouldn't have had if he would have stayed at work (note: he takes a lunch to work, so either he ate it, or left it there...not sure which and I didn't want to ask). Needs that he was just as capable of filling as I was.

So, lemme recap: husband was ticked cuz I wouldn't stop working to fix him lunch cuz he left work early, the roll I had been on was derailed, and suddenly, I was starving.

As if he read my mind, hubby came back downstairs.

Him: I'm going to order a pizza. What do you want on your half?

Me: Same as you. But..

Him: Yeah, I know...no green peppers.

That's how it ended. The Pizza (No green pepper on my side please) Accord.

Welcome to my world. LOL


- posted by Kim @ 4:20 AM

 
Well, how quickly things can change from one moment to the next...



About five minutes after I published yesterday's quirky post, I got a call from my supervisor from my "day job". Seems the project that I have been working on, the project that promised us a "long-term relationship as we forged optimistically into the 21st Century", the project that swore that we were too valuable to lose and that new business was on the immediate horizon...pulled out effective March 15th. A skeleton crew will be needed to tie up loose ends, but those jobs will be over by June 15.

In other words, I'm out of a job.

Damn. I kinda liked that job. It was really really good pay for the work I did, the hours were flexible (well, for me they were...you know the saying, make yourself indespensible and they will beg you to work for them-- HA! Worked for me, just not our team -- go figure), and I really liked the people I worked with.

Listen to me writing about it in past tense already. I still have a job at least til two-weeks from Monday...and most likely, since I have senority, I'll have a job til June 15th. Might be nice to have a summer vacation...

But there is just one hitch. Well, two really, but one hitch hinges on honother...er..I mean another.

I have the "option" (the quotes will make more sense in a bit) of jumping to another project. If I choose to do so, I can still stay on my surrent project til the bitter end, and go into the last 4-week training class for the other project. I would keep my senority, pay scale and benefits and I could continue to choose hours that work for me.

Sounds like a win-win situation, right?

Wrong. It sucks and it sucks BIG. Here's why:

The project that we have the "option" to join (yeah the quotes again..I'm getting there...) is one that cannot KEEP employees. It is horrid. It is complicated. It is hard.

It's customer service work for a cable company. If I thought c.s work for a computer manufacturer was annoying, how am I going to keep my cool when Mr. Smith from Crappytown, USA calls up and wants to know why we turned off his cable, and he will truly be oblivious to the fact that his account is 4-months past due and has a balance of $650, of which $400 is pay-per-view porn. Then he will be completely incensed when I tell him that a $50 payment, even over the phone will not be enough to get it turned back on.

Oh yeah, can I PLEASE do this for a living? I don't talk to nearly enough clueless people, and I welcome the honor of getting cussed out. It fills me with such a warm, fuzzy feeling....

So, no, this is not a great "option" for me. Now for the reason I kept putting "option" in quotes.

If I don't take this "option", then in effect, I am resigning from my job and I won't be eligible for unemployment.

How ya like them apples?

So I have some decisions to make, and not a whole lot of time to make them. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts...I'm sure many of you have opinions...we are, for the most part, writers.

I'm going to go check the mail, and if my child support is in there, go have a Big Mac, Fries, and a vanilla shake. Oh to hell with it, even if the check's not there, I'm going anyway. :-)

Later all!
- posted by Kim @ 12:55 PM

 
Musical interlude leading into the last verse...





When I'm deep inside of me
Don't be too concerned
I won't ask for nothing while I'm gone.

But when I want sincerity
Tell me, where else can I turn
Cuz you're the one that I depend upon

Honesty is such lonely word
When everyone is untrue
Honesty is hardly ever heard
And mostly what I need from you

Nope. Not being cryptic...just singing along to Billy Joel's "Honesty". I love Billy Joel's music.

Music is a huge part of my life (as if my last few posts didn't make that apparent).
Ooohh...now it's Dust in the Wind by Kansas...sing along...

I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wond

Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind.

Don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind
all we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind.

I love those lyrics..powerful message, yet simplistic in execution. Of course, since I am a child of the 80's I cannot think of the song without visualizing Bill and Ted luring Socrates into the phone booth. If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me know and I will explain.

As you have most likely guessed (and if you are still reading at this point, God bless ya! LOL) I am blogging and listening to music. But I am killing time til the printing and downloading I am doing is completed. Then I have some reading and some work to do.

It's "I'm going to get an agent if it kills me, and it probably will, but that's okay, at least I will have died trying!" time. So I have complied a list of ten "oh please please PLEASE take me on as a client". Their submission requirements are printing out as I type this.

Ohh Ohh..."Hey You!" by Pink Floyd. Sing along if you know this one...

It was only fantasy
The wall was too high as you can see
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain

Hey you!
Out there on the road
Always doing what your told
Can you help me?

Hey You!
Out there beyond the wall
Breaking bottles in the hall
can you help me?

Hey You!
Don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall....

Still printing. didn't realize there were so many pages. Getting....over--whelmed...so..many...options....so...mu...ch...to...re...a...d...

Okay, that's enough from me from now. You guys are going to think I went completely over the deep end. I'm going to sign off for now..but always remember and never forget:

My mama told me good
My mama told me strong
She said, "Be true to yourself and you can't go wrong!"
But there's just one thing that you must understand
You can fool with your brother,
But don't mess with a Missionary man!




- posted by Kim @ 1:04 PM