Hola!! It's B. A. Binns again here with the Genre-Istas for August. (Where has the time gone?)
There’s an ancient cliché – Man works from sun to sun but a woman’ work is never done.
Try being a writer.
A woman writer.
I blogged once about the perils of being your own boss. Before I became a full-time author I had a few bossy bosses, the Jean-Luc Picard “make-it-so” kind. (Harry, if you read this I don’t mean you.)
Now that I’m in charge of me, I have the worst boss possible. I rarely pay myself. Lets be real, most of us lower-level authors earn way below minimum wage. Worse yet, I don’t seem to believe in giving myself a vacation. I rarely even take Sundays off.
Last Sunday was an exception. The end of July brought the end to editing a book I’ve been working on for years. I started it in 2009, out it aside to work on and complete three other novels and a set of short stories, and finally brought out of mothballs earlier this year. Now, with Labor Day approaching, not only have I sent my newest novel, BEING GOD (ISBN 978-0-9881821-0-3) out to the editor, I have finished my newest book, an adult romance titled THE LAST LOGAN so it's about to go out to my agent.
I took a day off.
Went to the movies to watch, of all things, Magic Mike. I swear I didn’t know it was about a group of hard-working male strippers until I was inside and saw Matthew McConaughey in ALL his magnificent glory. But it's more than just beefcake, at heart it’s a story about a guy working like ten different jobs to make his dream come true: his own custom furniture making business. He truely works hard for his money. It's a great girls night out film, and I spent most of the movie rooting for him to achieve his goal. Then rooting for him to grow up and realize there's a more important goal right in front of him.
It was like a real vacation.
But now, back to my own work. Did I mention that writing was also a life of solitude?
Tell me what you guys do on your vacations. If I finish my next project in the foreseeable future, I could use some ideas.
And feel free to visit with me on my website, babinns.com or my personal blog, barbarabinns.com.
6 comments:
You're right about looking in the mirror and seeing the WORST boss you've ever had. It used to be me, but with years (lots of years) I'm a little nicer to myself. Still many of my "vacations" are author events/conferences. Looking forward to the Writers Police Academy in September!
Hi B.A.,
Try writing and ranching. You rarely get a vacation. I do a lot of traveling but it's either writing,family, or judging related so in a way it's work. I'm looking forward to October when my hubby and I are going to San Francisco to watch a football game with his sister and her husband. They bought the tickets and said to get down there, otherwise we wouldn't have gone. We'll be calving at that time and have to find someone to check on the cows while we're gone.
Writing is a all the time job.
Hi B.A.,
Thoughtful post. I used to be harder on myself than I am now if I didn't get something done when I thought I should have.
My vacations consist mainly of attending writer conferences. I did take my birthday off last year. I celebrated alone by choice. No computers or telephones. I did watch a t.v. program in the evening that I'd been looking forward to. I ate simply because I didn't want to cook nor did I want to get dressed to go out and get something.
It was a full day devoted to me and it was wonderful. The most difficult part was many people around me couldn't understand why I didn't want anyone around me so it was hard for them to accept what I wanted for myself.
To me, a vacation means I'm doing for myself not someone else. My focus is on me and what I want to do. Used to go to the beach with a stack of books but haven't done that in a long time.
What I do now is spend some time each day just doing whatever I want to do. Right now, I'm watching The Olympics. Other times I'm reading a chapter or two in a book. Or I might call and talk to a friend. An hour or so of 'time out of time' in terms of my daily life.
Thanks for sharing abaout Magic Mike. There are a couple of movie trailers out there that might get me back in a theater for the first time in almost a decade.
ALL my vacations now revolve around writer's conferences and speaking engagements. I tellmyself it's getting twice as much done without spending twice the money, but truth is I'mnot sure Ieven remember how to relax anymore.
I seldom leave town except to go to a writer's event. Can't say 'never' because I did spend 4 days in California celebrating my aunt's 103rd birthday! I had a good time, am glad I went, but do not consider it a vacation.
You are getting twice as much done without spending twice the money IF (and that is a big word) you spend some of that conference time just on you - a massage at the hotel spa, an extra day to tour the sights, etc. Without that time-out-of-time spent just on me, it's work and not a vacation.
Reading yours and other author posts, I'd better rest up now because being published is Hard Work!
I can see I'm in good company with this group. We all definitely need to learn how to relax. I go to Kona every January for 3 weeks to write and escape the cold. No one is allowed to visit except my son because he doesn't talk to me. Kidding (sort of)! That's the only way I can make myself sit still and write instead of networking like mad trying to sell books locally. The last day of my trip, I go to the spa, drink daiquiris, eat onion rings and it's all about Cindy!
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