I’m working two jobs and not getting paid for either…
Yep, I’m one of those government workers dealing with the furlough situation. However, because I’m considered “excepted” or “essential”, that means I still go to work, even though I’m not actually getting paid. I can’t take sick or annual leave, either, because that automatically kicks me into the “furlough” status, and my pay is suspended until someone, somewhere, comes to their senses. So, I still work the same, long hours. I still have all the same responsibilities and expectations and deadlines…it’s just I can’t expect my next paycheck to reflect any of that, because all of the people who fund and process my check aren’t considered essential, and the government doesn’t have any money anyway. I’ll get the money back somewhere down the line, but those people (many of them my co-workers) who actually were furloughed? It’s a coin-flip as to whether they will ever see all that lost pay.
This blog and the opinions herein are generally apolitical, and I’m not about to change that now. I can say, however, that as a general principal it’s ridiculous that people who go to work won’t get paid on time and that people who were forcibly sent home from work may never get paid at all.
Of course, I’m not getting paid for my other job either – the one I do in the morning before heading off to the office. That’s the job where I string sentences together, trying to make sense of all the stories I carry around in my head. I’ve said it (here) before, and I’ll say it again – it may be creative, it may be art, but it’s still work – it’s a job, albeit a moonlighting one, that I approach as seriously and diligently as I do my “day” job. In some ways, it’s even harder…it’s more personal, more revealing, and it means so much to me. Like my furloughed co-workers, I may never see it pay off. Still, I keep at. I can’t imagine not.
Speaking of the work, the WIP is going well. Unlike A SHARPER DARK (which, as of now, has a new working title) with its distinct paranormal elements, my new book is a straight-a-head thriller. It’s shaping up as a tight, dark, violent book, that’s has some thematic similarities to TAIGA (and you can read the raw, unedited “as I wrote it” version of that here on this very blog for free) and builds very loosely on some of the ideas I was working with there. I enjoyed TAIGA because I enjoyed crafting and populating my fictional West Virginia town of Pullens, and in the new book I’ve created another little out of the way place, this time in the far corner of Texas. This new place is full of secrets, betrayal, madness, and a whole lot o’ bodies.
You know, all kinds of uplifting stuff to start the day. But the truth is, I couldn’t imagine starting it any other way…
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