busy
dude_the flew back to Illinois yesterday, and I'm now playing catch-up (again), trying to make a dent in the mountain of work that accrued when I took a measly three-day weekend off. Three days. I take off three days and I can barely breathe for all the work that's piled up. Sheesh. I remember a time when I routinely took three-day weekends with blithe unconcern. I don't miss the circumstances of that luxury, but I do miss the luxury itself.Our taxes went out on Monday, right under the wire, and spurred by the state of our finances, I went casting around for other sources of income. I was investigating the possibility of writing grants and found one that catered to women writers and poets to the tune of $50K for two years.
"Huzzah," sez I, "someone trying to help poor, starving writers! I must apply." But upon further examination, I discover that the grant application requires a $35 application fee. So yeah, they're supporting poor, starving writers with other poor, starving writers.
Grumble. If I had a spare $35 to toss around, I wouldn't $@&#! need a grant.
Oh well. I probably wouldn't have had a chance anyway, being a genre writer and all. Still, foo.
Writing Stuff
In better news, I managed to land a very sweet freelance research/writing gig. It's a short-term contract job with a VERY tight deadline, but it pays nicely, and, get this--I'm still in shock over it--I'm actually getting to use my Developmental Psychology degree. *gasp* I'm researching source material and information for specific coursework on teaching educators of grades K-3.
How absolutely fabulous is that? I actually cracked open my old Child Development textbooks--including the one I worked on in graduate school!--to get me started. I knew I was keeping those around for a reason . . .
I'm so tickled to be able to use my degree, although also a little aghast at how rusty and out-of-date my knowledge base is. (And also by the fact that my APA Style Manual is so outmoded that it doesn't even mention how to cite Internet sources! Fortunately, the APA website does give out that info.) At least there's a certain falling-off-a-bicycle feel to it. Once I started getting in up to my elbows, it all started flooding back. And even more amusing, my adviser in grad. school literally wrote the book on the subject I'm researching, so not only is this Dev. Psych. stuff, but this is totally-up-my-alley Dev. Psych. stuff.
But as I said, the deadline's pretty stringent, which means I've shoved several other projects down my Things to Do list that I was working on. I'm hoping to get some of the smaller stuff done in between research jags, 'cause as I well remember from college, if I don't give my brain a rest when I'm going over the theoretical stuff, I hit a wall where my gray matter becomes an impenetrable chunk of overwhelmed, making it and me quite useless for anything.
I'm using my psychology degree! Squee!
Received:
- Note from Jason Sizemore asking for my Featured Writer reprint story for Apex Online. Y'know what I really like? When editors ask me to send them a story. Yay!
