I should be writing more and letting my day job get under my skin less. My department, as it is and has been constituted and functioned, is on the way out. So far only by attrition, and as we techs become fewer, more of our work is handed off to hired-gun contractors. The writing is on the wall.
There's likely to be enough left to keep me employed for five more years. Maybe longer, depending on trends in the industry, but counting, really counting on this gig for the near term is probably unwise. It may not outlast my house payments.
The only other skill I have is stringing words together. Towards that end, I have been working on the timeline for the "Hidden Frontier" universe. I do have stories in thew works, planned for novella to novel length, and a little less "Mary Sue" than earlier works set in the HF universe. The USAS Lupine stories are a lot of fun and I don't plan to abandon my alter ego -- but I need to step away from it and the first-person narrative to tell any wider stories.
Of every Hidden Frontier story I have ever written, I'm most frustrated with "The Veteran." I know there's more of a story there than I have managed to tell, and better ways to tell it, and one of these days, I'll be able to do it justice.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
3 comments:
For whatever my useless opinion is worth, it ain't a Mary Sue story if the character doesn't Save All Of The Days (unless of course you want it to be, in which case I apologize and defer). Spacer Ecks reminds me more of a Willie Keith type (Alter Ego Informed by Relevant Experience and Made Interesting/Sympathetic by Narrative Skill).
I feel for you as I have been through the "we dont need any staff" so you're laid off routine on a Friday but fortunate in that I got a call (litererally) the following Monday saying err, could you come back in and help us out as a contractor? So dont despair. BUT do get your freelance duckies in a row and start talking to others in your area who may have contacts for contract work. You dont get all the bells and whistles with respect to benefits and its definetly a different perspective but you do get to negoriate money and you can, within reason, give yourself a raise as you now have to provide your own benefits etc. - not to mention make a profit. Which surprisingly people do actually understand.
What EdB said. Hired guns may be expendable but they're well paid. Figure out what all your private costs are, the accounting side as well as benefits, and come up with a plan. I got laid off on a Monday and the next Monday asked what my contract rate was to sit in the same exact desk and do the same exact job.
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