And then there's the whole "no one around me understands what I'm doing" issue**, where my RL friends think the guy who's published by an Author Mill is the 'real writer' because he's got a book out. They don't understand that there's any difference between traditional publication and....well, other methods....so they don't think short stories really count. They basically think I'm not actually doing anything (or that a monkey at a typewriter could do this).
It's frustrating sometimes that 'writing' is perceived differently than other arts. I often make the quilting/writing comparison.
Many people quilt, and no one ever asks them, "Are you still doing that little quilting thing?" No one ever asks them where they can buy their completed quilts (at JoAnn Fabrics?), they never ask the person who's sold a dozen baby-quilts why they don't have a king-size quilt out yet, and to my knowledge, no one ever asks them where they get the ideas for their quilts.
I have a friend (also former math teacher from PCW, whom I'll call B) who started a quilting store. A real-live 'job' at quilting. Unfortunately, that was only financially feasable for a few years, and now B has had to close the store.
It's never a nice thought, having to cash in one's dream.
Fortunately I have the time to be slow about writing (because I am slow) and give a few more years to it than B could afford to pursue her quilting dream. I've had some horrendously slow response times....not all of which turned out positively (like today's 511-day R) which exacerbate that slowness.
So I'm very grateful that, unlike B, I do have the time to hang on a while longer. Thanks for your patience,
displacedtexan. ______________
*If I went back to teaching high school, I'd be low woman on the totem pole, so getting the worst classes (Algebra 1). Not a nice prospect. Plus it honestly doesn't pay all that well (OK being #49 in teacher pay).
**This is not true for all authors. Oklahoma City doesn't have a strong Spec-fic writer community that would meet my needs, I'm 2 hours from Tulsa, and 4 hours from Dallas...yes, I'm a slow driver.
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