Hi friends. I still love you, but now that spring is all over the place and I’ve finished my internship to boot, there are literally a million things I have been wanting to do more than spend time in front of a computer! I have been doing a bunch of new photography work with a bunch of gorgeous models; if you’re into seeing that sort of thing I will direct you to my photography tumblr (NSFW).
Aside from photography I’ve been drinking in the park, went to my first hot yoga class (still recovering), have been doing some major spring cleaning, am preparing my summer garden (the tomato seeds I saved last year are growing! One step closer to surviving the zombie apocalypse!), and pretending I’m planning my wedding (I’m not, which doesn’t really stop people from asking for details). I haven’t made a lot of time for blogs or twitter (the latter of which is a painful reminder that the Stanley Cup playoffs are happening right now without my team), but I have made time for instagram, and for putting film into several of my vintage cameras!
I’ve been catching up on laundry and reading books, and there’s a new season of Mad Men (because apparently I just can’t quit you, Sunday nights on AMC), and I have been making some seriously gourmet cheese plates and boyfriend and I have been doing some small home improvements.
“If you stay, you can’t keep looking the other way.”
Andrea looks back on bad lays
After a couple Andrea-free episodes, the golden girl returns with what seems like a sound head on her shoulders again… until she runs away from Woodbury on foot.
“People like you–the good people–they always die. And the bad people, they do too. But the people like me, the weak people, we have inherited the earth.”
The away team
In spite of the episode’s big twist being spoiled about 2 seconds into “Previously on The Walking Dead,” “Clear” is one of the strongest episodes in S3, actually balancing action and character development instead of leaning too heavily on one or the other.
It’s no secret I’ve been busy. I’ve spent January/February buzzing around the greater Philadelphia area like a brightly-colored bee that keeps forgetting her shoes because technically I don’t think bees have feet. But feet are irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make here. I’ve fallen into the bad habit of making excuses for myself, using the list of things I could do as justification to ignore the things I should do.
Exhibit A: Yesterday I read Libba Bray’s “Beauty Queens” in the tub.
While I hope most writers will agree that reading is a fundamentally accepted Good Thing for would-be writers to do, lately I’ve gotten a bit out of hand. I’ve been reading free downloads from the Amazon/Nook/iBookstore with mixed results; I’ve quit midway through some, read others and enjoyed them, and shared some incredibly mean-spirited giggles at others. I even got a review copy of a really cool comic. It’s been the festival of reads and feels here, and I’ve been reviewing things both here and on Good Reads.
But I still haven’t been writing. It’s not from lack of desire or even lack of ideas; though I’ve been incubating thoughts like a motherfucker, I simply haven’t sat down to make it real. In 2013, I’ve written maybe 3000 words of fiction, which is a number I could do in a few hours if I really sat down and tried. I’ve got clear voices of specific characters in my head, and I’m torn between thinking this is genius or darkest madness. Voices in your head are supposed to be a bad thing, I’m told, but if they’re representative of fictional characters that have their own stories to tell does that still count as crazy?
Assuming I’m not insane, the problem is the loudest voices all come from different stories. I love them all; maybe they represent the best parts of me, or maybe they are all the things I wish I could be. They clamor and joke, vying for attention. How am I to choose which story I work on? Even the unsalvageable-seeming lost cause still grabs my attention–I love the characters and some of the scenes, but there’s just no story there, no action, no closure, nothing but meandering scenes in the lives of fake people. Do I work on the piece that’s closest to complete, my thanks-but-no-thanks Harper Voyager submission? Do I do some short stories and shelve the full-length projects a little while?
Writers, how do you choose what to work on when you’ve got several works in progress and they’re all asking for attention?
Okay, so the working girl thing is a bit of a lie, insofar as someone is not paying me to do things for them. Ladies and gentlemen, as I round the corner aproaching my twenty-ninth year, I might be the world’s oldest intern. If you haven’t heard me complain about the job market before, you might be in for a real treat. First off, I have a BA in English and Literature from a liberal arts college. Apparently that makes me ill-suited for most jobs:
In fact, when I saw Avenue Q in 2003/2004, I nearly pissed myself with laughter and terror. Here I am now, seven years out of college and unemployed. Entry-level jobs doing content or copy writing, editing, and things relevant to my degree and interests require 4+ years of experience in the field, which of course you can’t get without getting the job first. To my unending laughter, I was told on a content writing interview that this blog counts as content writing experience (finally, this blog pays dividends for something other than my ego). But I didn’t get that job.
I haven’t gotten any job I’ve applied or interviewed for.
HIRE ME
In an act of desperation, I began applying to internships with emails that started something like, “Hey, I know people don’t like to give internships to non-students, BUT–” Because let’s face it: College credit is the only way to make what is ostensible working for free make sense. However, as I’m already spending 24 hours a day doing things for free, I faced up to an ugly reality. Writing content for free for someone else will look way better on my curriculum vitae than, “I sit on my couch in Arcadia sweatpants, drinking gin and watching The Vampire Diaries while I blog about The Walking Dead.”
Surprisingly, this method has borne fruit. I am the proud owner of an internship two days a week. If it were a paying job, I’d be utterly in love with it already. As it stands, having to pay for the train to get to/from this place and therefore technically paying to work, I just like it a lot. The people are nice and the work is interesting, and when all’s said and done I get to walk 3 miles a day, eyeball strangers on SEPTA, do some writing, edit some copy, edit some pictures, and do some website data entry. There’s even a bonus of occasional arts and crafts, and I’ve been getting a hilarious refresher in long-forgotten jargon like ‘title case’ while debating what my love of the Oxford comma says about me.
Regardless of how I’m enjoying myself, though, what are the odds that this experience will actually make me more employable? Short of a Master’s and 4 years’ experience, is anything going to net me a job in writing or publishing? None of my fellow graduates with whom I’m still in contact are employed in our field. Did college fail us, or are we failing life? I’m qualified to work for free; really, who isn’t? If I couldn’t get a job where someone didn’t have to take the risk of paying me, I’d probably need to opt out on this whole life thing.
Speaking of work done for free, a photography trade shoot I did with gorgeous model Lady Lazarus has yielded a magazine cover/feature, in addition to a Zivity set. Our collaboration can be found as one of two alternating covers for Goomah Magazine right now (the other cover features a Scott Church photo of Nyxon).*
Magazine NSFW.
*Links may not be safe for work, and if you’re reading this at work anyway, shame on you for mocking me with your gainful employment.
I guess this is proof-positive that my learn-by-experience training in photography is doing more for me than my learn-by-college training in English and literature. And guess which one I’m still paying for! Regardless of what happens with my gainful employment in the writing field, it looks like my spring will be filled to bursting with freelance photography clients. I’ve got some product photography lined up, a startup clothing company as a new client, and a bunch more model shoots for Zivity scheduled (and I’ve got a couple free trial codes if you want to check it out!). If you care to keep tabs on these things, here’s a pile of NSFW links for your perusal:
“I didn’t realize the Messiah complex was contagious.”
And then there were nine.
Team Prison has resumed its debate about leaving the prison or staying to fight. The tense discussion is made more difficult by the presence of Merle, who has threatened or tried to kill at least half of the people present at one point or another (though he insists it was just business).
The group is divided into three camps; in addition to the prison and Woodbury, the Dixon brothers have splintered off on their own, to make their bickering hillbilly way through the woods.
RT @behrle: I am thinking of writing twitter erotica because in real life I only last this long 1 day ago
RT @DaveLozo: @twolinepass Two 40-year-old goalies, perhaps the most immobile blue line in the league. The potential for disaster is strong. 3 days ago
