Life Lines

Ten days is way too long to go without a new post. It's a decade in blog years, maybe more. On the one hand, I hate to push the puppy down the line (see below). On the other, I've been melancholy, and that's death to a blog. But it's life, isn't it?


Hence the mood-smashing picture, which is a Mexican serape, believe it or not. The weaver seems to have grabbed all the colors of life at once. This is the way to carry the world on your back!


Speaking of Making Beautiful Things, I've taken out my loom beading once again, certain that one day my colorful flat necklaces will be selling like hotcakes.

And speaking of day jobs, translation is slow. The last work was cancelled by the customer before I even had a chance to start. Nothing to do with me, thank heavens, but it was cancelled just the same. The Invisible Day Job is back.

Funny, but the intended point of this blog was to chat about balancing a day job with being creative. Instead, it's turning into how (or how not) to create work out of thin air! Creating work is actually a job in itself, so I'm not missing much but the income. Small matter.

Nevertheless, staying positive is the best way to go. So here goes.

I thank God for the money in my pocket and the roof over my head. I thank Him for the air, thin and all, and for all the people I've loved and who have loved me. I thank Him for all the money that is surely on its way, along with a day job, and I'll finally be able to complain once again about not having enough time to be creative.

If you've got a day job, be thankful for it.

Follow Your Nose

My agency sent me more work today. The Invisible Day Job seems to be gathering steam. Please join me in the Happy Dance, and may your day job be treating you kindly, too.

Now, about following one's nose...

A year ago, I subscribed to SCBWI, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, for no other reason than my dream has always been to publish a picture book. It was a slightly silly move, since in every other way my life was facing the opposite direction.

The bimonthly bulletins started coming in the mail. I filed them away unopened, and not without some pain. They were like love letters to myself from a parallel life. A wistful twinge to the heart and into the cabinet they went.

This morning, I took myself out for breakfast. As an afterthought, I grabbed a handful of these colorful magazines and shoved them in my bag, half intending to look inside. At the table, with nothing else to read, I opened the cover on top.

My friends, I've been hoarding a gold mine! Articles and tips, publishers, editors, names and e-mail addresses, a schedule of events, and on and on.

I sighed and ordered another cup of coffee. For weeks, I've sat at my computer, trawling the depths for the handful of publishers still open to queries, and all the while I've been locking their names away in my file cabinet, unread.

One could say the resources popped out of the closet at exactly the right moment, and I would tend to agree. I was following my nose when I joined SCBWI and it paid off. I'm a squirrel that way. Someday, I think, I'll need this. Better have it on hand in case all the world's bookstores burn down on the same day.

Tip for Wednesday: Follow your nose. It's connected directly to your heart.

Marketing and Me

A fish up a tree.

Marketing is my nemesis. It hides in my closet and jumps me in the dark. And it seems that everything is marketing. Outside of the day job, that is.

In a funny way, I cling to my translation job because I work through agencies that find clients for me. True, I get paid a bit less this way than I would with direct clients, but it's worth gold not to have to market myself.

A day job keeps me in a rhythm and gives me something to bitch about. But when the work isn't regular, I have to switch gears and become marketer and product at the same time.

Like many Americans these days, I'm trying to patchwork several jobs into one cohesive income. I love the idea of freelance writing. Pack up the old computer and type my way down the road. Send in an article and rake in the dough.

Over time, I've come to the conclusion that magazine articles are a dismal way to earn a living unless you're at the top of the pile. There's no guarantee of publication with most venues and they don't pay much in the end. But I think I may have found a market that makes sense in my life.

This morning, I downloaded a book by Bob Bly on writing articles for corporate magazines. Unlike the commercial magazine market, corporate magazines actually pay for articles. I'm thinking that this may be a market segment that won't have me spinning my wheels.

In a bold and scary marketing move, I'm also thinking of becoming an affiliate of Bob's. He charges reasonable prices for his products and I think what he's offering is both helpful and trustworthy.


It probably also wouldn't hurt for me to affiliate with the American Writers & Artists, Inc. AWAI offers a range of intriguing possibilities for those of us with creative leanings to make money working at home, next to our artistic pursuits. I've benefited from several of them over the years.

If you're like me, you'll have to squint your eyes to see past the in-your-face copywriting format of their advertising, but please take the time to do it. There's real substance and opportunity there.

Okay, enough marketing for today. Time to go look at some color...and write an article on prioritizing so I can read it to myself.

Adios for now, from Up The Tree.

From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Four years ago, I wrote an article called 11 Tips To Surviving a Day Job With Your Creativity Intact. Chris Dunmire posted it on the Creativity Portal website and it took off around the Internet.

I'm linking to it here because if it was helpful four years ago, it may be helpful still. If you happen to click the link before Chris has a chance to change my byline, you'll notice I was writing under a different name. Don't let this throw you. A day job is a day job no matter what you call yourself.

By the way, Creativity Portal is a great site, with or without me. Have fun exploring!

Oh yes, one more thing. I found today's picture on another lovely site featuring flying fractal art balloons. Want some inspiration for making money at what you love? Visit Sky Dyes. I have no vested interest in this business. I was just looking for something that looked like it landed...

...from a galaxy far, far away.

Thank God For Cheesecake

I used to take my journal to cafes and ruminate for hours. These days, I take my little Mac and sit with the 20-somethings, dispatching e-mails and posting to my blog. Age is really only on the outside.
I still sometimes take my journal, by the way. It's amazing how many knots come untangled with a cup of coffee and a piece of cheesecake.

Of course, there are ways to untie internal knots without cheesecake. About a hundred years ago, when I was struggling with my Masters thesis and had no idea anymore what I was even writing about, my wise advisor assigned me an essay a day until further notice. Essay writing, that is, not reading.

Every day, I had to commit to paper a page and a half or so of composed, integral thought. For me, this was a very different process to journal writing. It imposed the stricter parameters of a formal essay and forced me to get to the no-nonsense heart of one single idea. It also made me hold my subject at arm's length, and this led to clearer and more objective thought that often carried me far from the original tangle of emotions to a lyrical piece of writing that could stand on its own merit.

This was back in the days when people still wrote with paper and pen, before word processors. The consumption of ink was astronomical, but the conceptual process was pretty much the same. Start writing, find out what you have to say, and make it intelligible to someone else. And, if possible, beautiful.

It only took ten days of essays for me to move beyond my block, but it taught me a skill I've carried with me for twenty-five years.

Of course, I'd rather have cheesecake, hands down.

I still have a million things to do at once, including getting my agent query off this week, which is a bundle of tasks in itself: cover letter, synopsis, and sample chapter.

Competing with the query on my list is my eBook, The Day-Job Survival (and Escape) Kit . I wrote DJSK three years ago as a manual of insights and exercises for making your day job as inspired as your art and sold it for a short time on my own website. I've decided to update it and get it out there again, but in a much bigger way. And I know all too well what this means. The dreaded marketing.

Oh, if only I could write all day long and let marketing magically happen on its own. But these days writers have to be prepared to promote their own work, publisher or no publisher. For non-sharks like me, this is a knot of the first magnitude.

You'll be hearing about Step Two of this incredible journey very soon.

Step One? Order one large cheesecake to go.