when I grow up...

Yeah, let's face it...that ain't never gonna happen.

But when I was younger chronologically, I always dreamed I would grow up to be one of two things:

1. a soap opera actress
   
2. a teacher

Weird, huh? Two completely different career paths...and both still not taken.

Sorta.

Writing for me is a lot like acting. I throw myself into the scenes as I write them. I pretend I'm a character in the book, I imagine what would happen if the scene was being directed, and I try to make the moment as visual as possible with as few words as possible. I am a dialogue girl, after all.

And then there's the teaching thing. I did work for 10 years in early childhood education...and I'm actually considering taking the alternative teaching route to become a middle school English teacher now. It's something I've always regretted not pursuing and a girl is never too old to add another career notch to her belt.

What about you guys? What do you want to be when you grow up? Or if you're chronologically an adult, did you follow your original career path?

My sister and her hunt for a career

I don't think I've talked about my sister Lisa on the Fictionistas blog yet. Which is a shame, because she's truly provided me lots of fodder for my stories. See, Lisa is like me, but cracked out to the nth degree (no, she's not REALLY on crack--she's just crazy talk, like the rest of the women in my family, LOL).

Anyway, my sister has held a variety of jobs to date, including:

--carny

--telemarketer for accidental death and dismemberment insurance

--leech cage cleaner in a pharmacy

--night security for a trucking company

--bookstore employee

--waitress

--middle school sub for an art class (*shudder*)

Right now, Lisa works as a criminal justice/paralegal teacher at a local college, because her BA (in liberal arts), involved schooling in these areas. But she's ready to move on to bigger and better things--and what would be better than a career in criminal justice, her main area of interest?

However, my sister has a few specifications for any job she undertakes:

1. no involuntary body secretions or oozing (blood/sweat/etc.)

2. she should not have to run for her life at any point in the job

3. she should be nowhere near prisoners or shivs

These three factors alone rule out, like, 95% of all criminal justice jobs, LOL. So what about the other 5% that's left? Well, the rest of her specifications should knock those out quite nicely:

4. nothing that requires science on a middle-grade level or higher

5. nothing that requires a sense of direction

6. no math

However, Lisa thinks she has stumbled across the ideal criminal justice job for her: deputy coroner. Basically, she'd work with the coroner and medical examiner's office to determine how a person died.

And what's even scarier? My sister would be issued a GUN and would have the right to arrest people. She's stoked, because there's no training camp/physical fitness test required, which means no sweating (see rule #1). My mom is FREAKING OUT.

My sister. With a gun. AND the right to arrest people? God help us all. LOL.


So, what about you? Do you have any job specifications? Share with the group!!

Career Planning for Dummies

Since I've sold my trilogy (man, I never get tired of saying that, haha), I'm doing a lot of thinking about career planning. I plan to have a good talk with my agent next week, and I'm eagerly looking forward to it. Some of the questions I've been asking myself are, what kinds of books do I see myself writing, and how many can I write in a year to keep up with my expectations? Where do I want to be in a year? Five years? Ten years?

Well, owning my own island and having a butler bring me chocolate martinis while I'm lounging beachside in my own resort would be the ultimate life. But since that's not likely, it's time to be realistic. LOL

When I was a teen, I had about a billion different careers I wanted to try. It wasn't until I was well into college that I decided pursuing an English degree would be the right move for me. However, I knew some people who even back in school knew exactly what career was right for them--and sure enough, they stuck to it and finished.

I always wished I could be like that. But I had too many interests to pick one job quickly and say for sure, "Yup, that's the one for me." Luckily, that's one of the fun things about being an author--I can try out different lives, different jobs, different points of view to mix things up a bit so I don't get bored.

So, what about you--did you always know what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you have a career plan, and if so, have you stuck to it faithfully, or has it changed over time?