How to land your dream job…
You hear and see that phrase a lot now because there a lot of jobs available in this pandemic economy. Employers are desperate for employees; and employees are taking advantage, moving up and looking for their dream job. I landed mine long before Covid, though. I always wanted to be a storyteller, and that’s what I started doing even before I left a completely different day-job. True, I couldn’t have fed a family with the royalties I’ve earned, but it is my dream job.
What few readers I have—I have no way of counting all of them because I know some are reading borrowed or pirated books, hopefully the former and not the latter—all my readers make my storytelling worthwhile because the real motivation for writers of fiction should be that their stories entertain, thrill, and educate those readers who want quality entertainment, huge thrills, and interesting and universal themes in their fiction reading. To me, that’s worth a lot more than a huge royalties check.
Of course, it would be better if more writers doing their dream job could have the benefits of a real job, i.e. make a decent living with good benefits while doing it. Nowadays, that’s nearly impossible. While that doesn’t bother me—I write a lot of fiction that I just give away now—it’s not a dream job many people can afford to pursue. And readers will suffer from that situation.
One can make money writing, of course. There’s journalism and investigative reporting, for example. Writers can create ad copy and verses for greeting cards. They can write and edit all sorts of manuals for today’s high tech devices. But none of that is storytelling.
In my new novel Intolerance, Declan O’Hara reprises his role of writer that he had in the novella “Poetic Justice.” He’s an Irish writer who makes most of his money with investigative journalism, creating his poetry and mystery novels on the side. Something like that is what most writers have to do if they want to make enough money to live on. That fate in itself is sad enough, but Declan lives with it and keeps his cool, as does his new wife, Detective Inspector Margaret Bent.
I suppose this situation is a turn-off for many would-be authors who see fiction writing as their dream job. They and many others might call me a masochist. It’s true that now our love for storytelling has to be so strong that we’ll stick with it no matter what occurs. I plan to do just that, and I hope others can manage to do the same. After all, it’s my dream job, even though it’s not really a well-paying one; and I’m an avid reader too, so I need other authors’ stories.
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The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. This novel forms a bridge between the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” and “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series and the “Clones and Mutants” series. DHS agent Ashley Scott is looking towards retirement but finds danger instead as she discovers a vast conspiracy. She also finds romance with an investigative journalist. The conspiracy, which involves a plan to assassinate a presidential candidate, sends them both running for their lives. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
