Waiting on a check, again

Hi, I'm Linda and I write nonfiction. I was going to do a proper introduction, but I decided instead of introducing me, I'd introduce you a bit to the life of a freelancer. I started freelancing in 1999, but I gave it up in 2003 for a regular paycheck. You see, I have a family, and they like to eat, and they keep growing and that ends up with them eating more. And, frankly, it is fine to live paycheck to paycheck when payday is every Friday. It's quite another matter when payday is whenever the check shows up in the mail.

Can you tell that I am currently waiting on three checks to arrive?

It's the end of the month at the end of a summer where I have spent a lot of time waiting for checks to arrive. Yesterday, my husband urged me to apply for a 40-hour job that offers good benefits, but it actually pays less than I made the last time I worked full-time. I make more money doing what I am doing now, but he really misses regular paychecks with benefits. I didn't take the suggestion very well.

And in case you are wondering, I'm writing and deleting a lot here too.

My husband is supportive, but this has been a long summer, and for a huge part of it (four weeks) I was away at a writing workshop. Within the next week I will be signing about four contracts that will bring in regular income through the end of the year. If I apply for the job he mentioned and were actually hired, I wouldn't be able to complete the four contracts and another one that I've already signed with a different company. I'm not sure what he thinks, but I think he suspects I could just fit the 40-hour job in with everything else I'm doing. I don't know. We haven't actually talked about it since, as I said, I reacted badly to the suggestion.

And I'm not opposed to working full-time, but I'd like it to be a job I want because I like the job, not just something for the benefits. Or better yet, I'd like a book deal. That'd work, right?

Dejah: I made it, finally!

It took me DAYS, but I finally made it! Somehow my invitation went astray, but thank goodness I save everything somewhere--not that I can always find it. Anyway, here is the introduction I wrote yesterday:

I'm the loud one. I'm not your average mom/writer. I don't write about parenting if I can help it. I'm no better a parent than anyone else and the only thing I am qualified to do is whine--and I don't whine. I write on high tech topics: Macs, Linux and Open Source, motorcycles. I write (non-selling) novels and (best-selling) technical books. I've always been more comfortable with guys than girls... but these girls are some of the best you could ever hope to know.

I'm a military spouse and a (hobby) farm wife, restoring a 180 year old farm house and raising three girls, six cats, 31 chickens (some meat, some eggs, some for show), and two turkeys (Tom Thanksgiving and Christina Christmas). Soon, we'll have goats. I'm post-feminist, sex-positive, left-of-center, tough as nails with a heart of marshmallow fluff. Our dear leader Heather and I argue politics every now and again, but I will attempt not to be political (except with women's issues when there is really no other choice).

I am writer, hear me pontificate!