August 27, 2010

So I started something crazy the other night during my sleepless night: I started chronicling my transition from graduate school to the real world and thusly the start of my career hunt. Now I would typically be worried about having two projects going at once, however, I feel that this will be okay because it's not like I know how it all ends yet.

Anyway, my new project is my real story with some comedy thrown in as I've decided to make fun of myself. I already have over one thousand words and I think it will be a fun side project for me. I intend to post some of it on my web-site. Really, I will, I promise!

This weekend I got a family wedding so I will catch up with all you fine people next week!

And the search continues...

As depressing as it may sound, I have kept track of every job I have applied to since November 2009. Why? I find it helpful because sometimes on monster.com the jobs resurface under different titles and I would feel like a fool for applying to the same job twice. Sadly, many of the places I apply never acknowledge me as is the case when job hunting like it's your job.

I feel that resumes should include what you could literally bring to the office. For example, Kimberly A. Zylinski, Master of Science in Education for School Counseling, can bake awesome brownies or cookies for office parties. Let's face it, nothing draws a crowd like free food and if it's delicious then you might as well shut down the whole office for twenty minutes to serve everyone in line for it. Conversely, nothing scatters people away like disgusting food. There is always that one person who brings in candy that has been sitting in its wrapper too long and tries pressing it upon anyone who walks by their desk.

Anyway, my job search tooking an interesting turn today, which to me seems pretty ominous considering I was chatting about faith and trust the other day, with my name being turned into a large international corporation to be a writer for their in-house newsletters and magazines. Granted I'm one of one hundred candidates to get my name thrown in, but the idea of writing full-time had some appeal today. While I don't have my foot in the door yet, this exciting new opportunity gives me hope. I still would love to be a school counselor, but I am slowly making my peace with the fact that it may not happen for me. I am educated and no one can take that away from me and more than anything, I just want to have a meaningful career.

August 23, 2010

FAITH- for being only a five letters, it is an awfully big word. I was at church yesterday and it seemed that the priest began talking to me and me alone. He mentioned that we can sometimes turn our back to God if we don't get our way. One of his specific examples was that we don't get the job that we want and we have to have faith that God has a plan for us. I'm not going to get all religous on you because everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but these comments led me to evaluate my lack of career and where I was heading.

It was a short thought process as the answer is that I have no idea where my career is heading and no matter where I'm at in life, I will probably never know. So in the meantime, I will just have to TRUST (another five letter word that has a great deal of punch behind it) that it will all work out. However, this didn't stop me from dreaming that I could be the next big author whose book gets turned into a movie and I'm invited all over the world to speak about experience. Since this daydream occurred in church, I was sure to incorporate the words "faith" and "trust" into my imaginary interview with Matt Lauer. Personally, I feel the most frustrating part of it all is feeling like I'm on a path to somewhere really good, but no one else realizes the road is so great. Do any of you feel like you are the same road as me? Perhaps we could carpool.

Anyway, so I'm on my little road full of faith and trust wondering where I am going when it occurs to me that I shouldn't really care where I'm going as long as I'm enjoying the ride. So here within lies a new goal to strive for...I'm going to attempt to be more trusting and faithful that my little journey will lead to something great whether it's the most awesome book deal that anyone has ever heard of or just a simple school counseling job where I can eventually become a principal. I have decided to chronicle this experience here to share it with you. Maybe we can all enjoy the scenery on my journey to Careerville.

August 22, 2010

Good afternoon!

The book reading/signing was a success yesterday. I met some really cool authors and will hopefully will be joining forces with them. There was an interesting discussion that arose between the audience, Jessica Bellas author of Maotai, Mooncakes, and Monks: Misadventures in Hong Kong and China, and myself that surrounded the stigma of telling people that you are a writer. The question was posed about how many people I told when I was writing RoV and why did I tell so few. I compare it to the stigma of someone saying they are going to New York or L.A. to be an actor or actress because their chances of major motion picture success is probably very slim. At any rate, I have dreams now of starting a self-published authors coalition where we can take over the world or at the very least, the region. Either way, it would give me some great material to blog about.

Also, yesterday I learned of a contest that takes place in November where one must write a 50K word story in thirty days. I believe the grand prize is to be published and the draft that you can submit can be the most awful thing in the world. The point is to combat the number of stories started, but left unfinished. I can definitely obtain 50,000 words, but doing it in thirty days is a bit much. I wrote RoV in three months and sometimes I spent 40 hours a week on it! I guess we'll see what November brings.

On a final note, today I was doing the mundane task of dusting my bedroom furniture when I thought of a good side plot for my story, which I intend on integrating as soon as I'm done reading through it. I'm about half way through and have been making minor adjustments on it. It's very exciting to see it slowly coming together!

August 20, 2010

So tomorrow is the big day-I am going to be at Joseph-Beth Booksellers for a book reading and signing. I'm very excited for this! I have a fancy new dress from Alfred Angelo (see the Purely collection) that I'm wearing and I got one of my biggest fans coming with me tomorrow-my mom. I am a bit sad that I will not have time to partake in cheesecake across the street afterwards as I have another engagement, but maybe next time around.

Overall, I have enjoyed my summer break away from book readings. I intend to start making some calls for the fall for some book readings. I'm going to call my usual spots, A and The Fire Escape, and may check out Caribou Coffee. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to share. I hope to see you at the book reading event tomorrow!

August 18, 2010

I was writing an argument between Andy and Anne the other night. I've discussed the challenge of writing through a man's perspective, particularly one that can be kind of playboy since I associate so little that type and when I was writing something that Andy was saying I was like "that's something a petty girl would say." I was home alone so I believe I said this aloud. It was at this point that I stopped writing mid chapter and went back to read what I had written. I'm hoping this will help clear my head and get back into Andy's because he certainly is not a petty girl.

I apologize for small, infrequent entries of late; however, I have been working goofy hours and going to concerts. Tonight I have a date with Paul McCartney. I promise that I will get back into the groove of writing.

August 16, 2010

For those of you that don't know, I have two children: Sadie and Tess. Yes, they are of the furry persuasion, but they are my children and my parent's "grandkitties." I have no doubt that they are treated better than some human children. It amazes me how they have completely different personalities. Sadie is the more feisty one who always steals treats and will sit in the litter box. She's weird like that. Tess is needy as far as attention and gets irritated if you place anything in or around the fireplace as she likes to sit there constantly. They are turning three this week and like any mother, I miss the days when they were tiny. They were quite literally 6 week old powder puffs when I got them.

My parent's have two cats too and in college I thought about writing a story through a cat's perspective and not tell the reader it was a cat until the end. But what other creature on Earth can sleep for 18 or more hours a day and enjoy chewing on Q-tips or mini blind strings? That would be one f***ed up human if I wrote it any other way.

Anyway, even if you aren't a cat person, you have to admit they are amazing creatures. I have to envy their night vision and speed. Each morning, Sadie runs downstairs and into the kitchen to wait for me because she knows I'm going to pass out treats. If I were writing through her perspective, she probably secretly hopes that Tess doesn't eat her share.

Tess and Sadie, my almost three year old daughters deserve some time on the internet after all their furry support for my writing career. After all, they are my feet and leg warmers during the winter when I'm writing.

August 15, 2010

On Friday I experienced a rare phenomenon: stress leaving my body! I went away for the weekend to the Laurel Highlands and the moment I stepped out of my car in twenty degree cooler air and found myself surrounded by trees and calm, I immediately felt the stress leak out of my body. It made me wonder what I could do with a free weekend, tons of quiet, and no stressful distractions of my humdrum Pittsburgh life in terms of writing. I suspect a lot.

Like all good things though, it must come to an end. Now I am back home to find that my cats didn't clean the house (I'm going to let them slide this week since it's their birthday) and all the silly things that I have to do have jumped back into my mind.

August 11, 2010

When speaking to a representative from the publisher that worked with me last year, she asked if I wanted to pursue writing as a career. I said that if the path led me that way, that I certainly would consider it because I was about to finish a degree where obtaining a job would be highly competive and challenging. She guessed that I had a master's in psychology (close enough, mine is in education) and said that my writing had a counseling vibe to it.

I found this comical because I had others tell me my writing was like a step by step manual. This happens first, this happens second, and so forth. More than that, I found it funny because I saw them as two separate entities: be a school counselor or be a published writer. The paths were separate to me.

I thought about this today, when someone told me that on a completely unrelated topic from writing and counseling that I wouldn't succeed with what I wanted to do in this particular situation. (I am well aware that this sounds shady and illegal, I assure you it's not. It's just better to have the whole thing remain anonymous. They simply told me that I wouldn't succeed.) It ticked me off to be told 'no' to something when they clearly weren't giving me a fair chance. They tried tying my potential success to something totally unrelatable to the situation. It would be like trying to correlate how the smell of new carpet is great to how Jupiter's orbit, that's how ridiculous this situation was. It made me want to be a counselor and/or a successful novelist twice as much. I would love to go back to this person and say, "See, I can have my cake and eat it too! I'm a success."

Anyway, I really wanted to have my cake and eat it too today. It serves as motivation to carry on with my writing career even if I never publish another novel. More than that, I feel that I'm already successful and feel sorry for the individual who told me that I wouldn't do well where I was today.

8-9-10

My fruitless job search has brought me on the doorstep of chronicling my lack of success. I am thinking about writing about my anti-climatic graduation (I graduated and then joined a temp agency), my time in a cubicle filled, windowless desert of the finance world, and my search for a career. Now to do this as a fiction piece or as a true story? I would definitely write it as a sarcastic piece. A constant negative thing needs to be dripping with sarcasm or some sort of comedic relief to get them to the other end. Otherwise, you have a movie like Spanglish where all the funny parts of the movie were in the trailer and you thought you were going to see a comedy, when in reality it was a drama with three seriously funny parts. Oh Adam Sandler how you fooled me!

The thing about job hunting is that it always feels like the sky is caving in and then when you get somewhere good, you feel like an idiot for ever doubting your lot in life. At least that's the way I feel. I think I have a similar story to many people out there. I pity anyone who is graduating now. Seriously, stay in school or go back to school. Whatever it takes to keep the loans in deferment because the outside world is a brutal one. Stay in the expensive bubble of academia!

Anyone, I'm going to step down off my soapbox and go swimming because it's hot out. Maybe I'll float around and think of story ideas.

August 8, 2010

I would like to point out that it looks like I'm a fan of my own blog. While I am proud of my work, I became a fan of another blog and added my picture to it and it changed my husband's picture who is a fan of my blog. I will get to the bottom of this dilemma.

Once again, I had something marvelous written earlier and then the internet went down and erased what I had written. Then, I had a rough afternoon of floating around my pool. All my ideas are completely lost today.

It's almost August 6

It's almost August 6 and I'm trying to keep myself awake in hopes I will have a moment of brilliance for writing the current part of my novel. My best ideas come while I'm trying to fall asleep or when I'm in the shower. It's amazing how the steam clears my head. I am a firm believer that you are not truly clean until you spend at least fifteen minutes in a steamy hot shower. I'm aware the water company must love me. I know I'm not the only who has this occur, so it kind of makes me wonder why are more big political decisions made in a sauna? Sure, no one wants to be that up close and personal with an enemy or a (insert your least fave political party here) ___________. But if that is going to clear everyone's heads and help them generate a decision that works best for the good of the people, isn't it worth a shot?
See, it's beyond my bedtime and I had a great idea! You should see me when I'm completely delirious.

I was cursing technology earlier today because I uploaded highly important documents to a highly important web-site, you know secret agent work on a typical Thursday, and it would not cooperate. Then, I came home and started writing and moving sentences and adding stuff in a previous paragraph. I had to stop and marvel at it for a moment because there is no way I would be nearly as productive with writing this all out by hand or even with a type writer. I have to give props to the people who labored to write it all out by hand or crouched over their type writer with their white out if they were correcting a mistake. It kind of scares me about the advancements we will see in twenty years. I worry that I won't be able to keep up or that I'll expose my children to too much addictive technology that they can ultimately outsmart me with. Also, it kind of pisses me off that my DVD collection that has taken a lot of time and money to obtain will be obsolete and I will have to start from scratch. Can't we pick just one form of technology and agree on it. Do we really need things to be faster or shinier? Can't anyone appreciate that I have all the Friends seasons on DVD and I am happy as a lark with my special edition Dirty Dancing movie just as it is?

August 4, 2010

Good morning!

I have some exciting news that I can't remember if I mentioned it before. I have been invited to an event by Joseph-Beth Booksellers in the Southside for a book reading and signing with other local authors! I am very honored to be included in this event and I think it is going to serve as a really great jumping off point for the fall. I have some new marketing ideas that I'm going to put into place. I really did just need a break for the summer because it was all getting to be a bit much doing book reading after book reading.

I have a rare Wednesday day off because I worked a bridal show over the weekend. I have some big plans to clean my house and then I hope to spend some more time writing. I think this book will be a similar length to RoV when all the editing is all said and done. My plan is to push forward to write the end and then go back and read it through to see what needs to be fixed.

I still am looking for books to read to close out my summer if you have any suggestions!

August 2, 2010

I had a crazy business weekend with working and a fabulous date with John Mayer. Okay, so I didn't have a date with John, but I did attend his concert and it was amazing!

My efforts to find a job in field have been rather fruitless. Despite my failure in this arena, it is enticing me to do some sort of memoir of the college student who can't find anything in their field. I know I'm not the only one who has this story, however, much of the time it feels like I do. Since I can't use my master's degree right now, it serves to drive me toward find an agent. As I understand it, finding an agent is much like finding a job in your field.

During a picnic this past weekend, I was able to speak to someone who has publishing experience in the academic world. My hopes were not dashed about possibly finding an agent because I feel it is a matter of searching for one in an organized fashion as well as polishing up what I have been writing. (Lately, that's been a good deal!) I'm trying to go places career-wise, I'm just not sure where I'm going!