Jobs

So, I'm a writer who doesn't really write much these days, but I've written enough in the past so I don't fall into that "well if you're not writing how can you call yourself a writer?" crap.  God knows I can drink and wallow in depression with the best of them.  A while back I'm thinking, I have to get back to writing, get back to a daily discipline.  Then I'm thinking, so what will I write about; what do I care enough about to write about.  Nothing came to the fore, which is sad, really.  I stopped writing because I became intensely involved in the study of buddhism, going to far as to move to a retreat centre for a while and traveling though Europe and India practicing and studying and, eventually, teaching.  I still do this, and it would be all I do except for the fact that it brings in no money.  Well, some, when you teach, but not enough to buy a meal out in Dublin.  

Back to me having to look for a job and/or getting off my ass and writing more.  To that end I'm applying for technical writing jobs with as much enthusiasm as I can muster.  Which is not much.  I think that may be coming across in the interviews.  Having my portfolio of work trapped in the broken hull of an old laptop isn't helping either.  But damn it's expensive to retrieve information from a dead drive.  One company quoted me 1500 euro.  As if.  I can arrange to send the drive to Belfast and have it retrieved for 500 euro or so, but that still stings.  How much do I want a tech writing job?  I don't know, I have to say.  Sitting around in a too cold or hot office staring at a computer screen and interviewing subject matter experts versus sleeping late and taking long walks in Phoenix Park with the dogs.  Hmmm.

On the writing front, I decided I should start writing something, even if it isn't my magnum opus.  Perhaps erotica.  I can write a titillating sex scene.  I looked at this one site, literotica, and others to see if there is a market out there for sex stories.  Well, there is indeed a market, and if the literotica site is anything to go by, then there are a lot of shockingly untalented writers out there filling it.  I have to admit that I purchased a sexed up Mills and Boone novel to get some idea of what was being sold.  While the sex scenes were laughable and not sexy at all, there was a thriller-like plot that wasn't horrible.  Perhaps a better genre for that writer.  Whatever.  I'm still not writing.

On happier news, for me at least, is that I'm at least getting back to regular exercise that I enjoy – yoga and dance.  I'm attending a regular Tuesday night yoga class and am taking belly dance lessons.  Next monday I start a salsa class with a bunch of middle aged ladies in a Dublin suburb.  I'm quite looking forward to it.