I used to think my life was a straight line. Now I go for round because it's easier to find the center.
One of the toughest things about working a day job at home is keeping a balance between what you want to do and what you have to do. Personally, I want nothing more than to follow my nose through bags of unfinished creative projects. Abandon me on a desert island with nothing but leftover yarn and a pen. Heaven!
The next best thing is a job I can dispatch quickly and get to the real stuff of life.
But my translation agencies have been silent lately and my reliable, rhythm-setting work has turned into The Invisible Day Job. Instead, my To-Do list is growing: get books published, create websites, write articles--oh, and by the way, how about bringing in some money?
Do I panic? No way. I decide instead to sit down and crochet, sort things out like a ruminating cow.
Back at the computer, I join a critique group for Young Adult authors--that is, people who write books for the YA market. I decide to change agents and print out the query requirements for an agency in New York. I locate pages of options for publishing through an established eBook publisher. I join LinkedIn and start networking with people in the field (not an easy task for me). I make more lists and write more e-mails and move myself forward just a few more inches on the track.
And now it's time to crochet again.
It's 104° in the shade but already I'm picturing the Christmas markets and turning out yard after yard of lush, colorful, beautiful cotton scarves. I'm perched on my chair in the center of a lovely mandala, hooking away, watching the color streams flow and tumble around my chair into piles of gold on the floor.
Okay, a little over the top. But working with my hands always helps me zero in on that one essential monkey in the brain, the one that just won't sit still. Today, the question was where to start when there are a million things to do.
The answer? In the middle.
A round-about post today, but sometimes that's the shape of life.
One of the toughest things about working a day job at home is keeping a balance between what you want to do and what you have to do. Personally, I want nothing more than to follow my nose through bags of unfinished creative projects. Abandon me on a desert island with nothing but leftover yarn and a pen. Heaven!
The next best thing is a job I can dispatch quickly and get to the real stuff of life.
But my translation agencies have been silent lately and my reliable, rhythm-setting work has turned into The Invisible Day Job. Instead, my To-Do list is growing: get books published, create websites, write articles--oh, and by the way, how about bringing in some money?
Do I panic? No way. I decide instead to sit down and crochet, sort things out like a ruminating cow.
Back at the computer, I join a critique group for Young Adult authors--that is, people who write books for the YA market. I decide to change agents and print out the query requirements for an agency in New York. I locate pages of options for publishing through an established eBook publisher. I join LinkedIn and start networking with people in the field (not an easy task for me). I make more lists and write more e-mails and move myself forward just a few more inches on the track.
And now it's time to crochet again.
It's 104° in the shade but already I'm picturing the Christmas markets and turning out yard after yard of lush, colorful, beautiful cotton scarves. I'm perched on my chair in the center of a lovely mandala, hooking away, watching the color streams flow and tumble around my chair into piles of gold on the floor.
Okay, a little over the top. But working with my hands always helps me zero in on that one essential monkey in the brain, the one that just won't sit still. Today, the question was where to start when there are a million things to do.
The answer? In the middle.
A round-about post today, but sometimes that's the shape of life.
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