Getting Vocal (with a Plus)

 Hello, hello!

A very long time for this, but I have been keeping myself busy with another page that promises to provide me with a bit of money: Vocal.

I am now contributing stories, poems and nonfiction to its pages on a platform called Vocal+, and I will be honest enough to say it: I need your hits! Click, hit, tap, surf, read and join it if you can. I am trying to combine this with all of the other work that I am attempting to complete and it is very hard for me to say that I have been doing all of this for very little pay, and yet I still need more help.

This week, one class to teach at a college; one job interview for another teaching gig; one more article to publish per day. They have contests with all of these pages and I have not had any success yet, but I am not going to quit it and give up on all of this writing. I have pretty much turned myself into a typing machine who does not let his ideas die in another notebook if I can help it.

Please check it out...

Heat Wave!

What's the big deal?

I am here in Montreal, dealing with another weekend of heat and humidity and trying to figure out why there is so much negativity.  The possibility of sunstroke, skin cancer and death are very serious and very real, but there is so much about the present weather condition in most of Canada that I love.

First, I can go out without a heavy coat, wool cap and boots.  I have a very keen and long memory of the winter period (due to return in just a few months), and I do not like the idea that soon it will be too cold to go out and enjoy myself.  Shorts and a shirt with sandals?  You are all set.

Second, the women.  Always beautiful here, and with the heat they are not shy about showing some skin.  That may be the real cause for a loss of life (too distracting).

Third, my work.  The college is laid back with the weather and the idea that they can come to school and leave before the sun sets and the day is done.  With my own writing, I have finished two stories in rough and have entered several contests and plan on entering even more.

Finally, my appetite.  I have always had issues with the way I look - thanks to a very vocal community and family, this is not an issue that is going away - and I now can walk about without a shirt.  No heavy eating and less self-conscious behaviour around myself is a great combination.

So, enjoy the sun and the heat.  We deserve it!

Truth in Fake Advertising

Okay, I am no longer looking for what I will call steady work.  The college has me going part-time with the teaching through the summer and it feels like they want me to stay (no break to think about things).  I should be happy.  But it is not enough, so, I took a chance on an interview with another group.  And this is when things went strange...

 I thought that I was going to find a job with a video/media company that needed freelance writing. Instead, I had a sit-down with a man who worked for a group promoting anti-drug education.  Interesting how this is hitting me just at the moment when they have finally declared that the - ahem - the "War on Drugs" has failed.  Now, I don't mind helping him and his team out.  Don't even mind being paid for it.  But something about all of this bothers me.

Let me explain: This is not the first time that the prospect of writing as a career has been dangled in front of my dreams.  I have had enough experiences with too many fly-by-night publishers, magazine idiot-editors, and general misfits and scribblers with more fantasies than common sense.  I am not going to hold out much hope for this one.  Especially with how the interview went.  We met at a café.  He was ten minutes late, badly dressed (why am I always better dressed than all these sartorially-challenged people) and then he wanted to move.  Café was too noisy, so we went to an outdoor bistro, which was again too noisy, then we went inside, and had to contend with a very upset baby and her overly-considerate parents.  And I now have a stack of papers to read and an article (sample) to write (still not sure what the topic is, besides trying to stroke the ego of the group - name withheld until I think things are clear).

Just let this one work out for me this once.  I need to have something to wake up to when I think that there is only teaching on my horizon.

Above the Edge

I am now on the third draft of that play.  Also, it has become easier to get this kind of work done...because I did get that laptop/notebook.  Bought it from someone on Craigslist and it was barely used (her planned trip did not go through).  So I am tapping away.
I am also thinking through my fingers.  I have delayed working here because of that other work I do.  Teaching at a college can be fun but it eats you alive sometimes.  Also, I wonder what some of these students actually want from their courses.  An easy "A" might be the answer.  Not on my call.  Only good thing is that I am making some extra money now and could afford the laptop.  Also have some other plans; mainly investing.  I have heard of E*Trade and am curious about how it works online.  More homework for me.
So a lot going on.  Also the birthday on Saturday (more on this to come)...