FREELANCING

I've spent the day looking for writing gigs. I have a couple of long-term jobs but they're certainly not enough to pay the mortgage and I really don't fancy being homeless.

I've signed up with a new agency (see the link top right) and I'm already with Elance, so I make a bit of money; it's certainly not enough though. The problem is that folk don't understand the true financial worth of the writer's art; it's like that old comeback you get when telling somebody you have written and published a book - 'oh yeah, I keep meaning to do that too.' Well, if it's that bloody easy, go on and do it then!

I am not the only jobbing writer who, on more than a few occasions, has worked at far below the national minimum wage. I suppose if I'd written a best seller I could name my own price.

In my experience, writers write because they're the quiet dreamers of the world; not the sort of people who take financial negotiations in their stride. Oh, we may come across as assertive and confident on the surface but all of us tend to prefer our own inner worlds. Perhaps that is the root of our problem - we're not in your face enough to demand our true worth.

I shall try to turn over a new leaf (geddit!)

Meantime, I'm busily knitting a pair of socks to enter into the Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous February Sockdown.

If you knit but haven't yet discovered Ravelry get on over there at once! It's a wonderful place for all knitters, whether you are a real beginner or a dyed in the wool (I'm on a roll obviously!) supertricoteuse.

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER...

What a bloody awful weekend - it all ended with me (well my DH really) barring my eldest son from the house. Do you know what? I bloody hate kids!

That being said, my eldest child is coming to stay from the end of this week (just in time for Mothers' Day). My daughter and I rediscovered one another last summer after 30 years of estrangement. If I tell you that she will be 34 this year, you can work out for yourself that she didn't walk away from me at the tender age of three! There's a huge back story there for both of us - my daughter lost her mum and I lost my daughter; it creates a sort of soul hole. I've written a book about it, which is now in the querying process with agents. For me, the querying process is more painful than the writing process!

Anyway, I digress. The reason for my daughter's visit is that she is moving down to the West Country to be nearer to us. Her and her partner had already planned to move down her but our reunion has just brought the relocation forward. And, as my daughter is about to make me a granny, we do want to be closer to one another. I'm not too sure of the wisdom of that move - I'll have to learn to keep mouth shut and ears open and remember that, although I am a midwife, I am not her midwife. Eek!

As ever, I console myself with knitting, which does bugger all for the bank balance! But that's another story...