I've got a weekend in Vermont in August for a friend's wedding.

What weekend? And where in Vermont? Because my brother is getting married in Vermont in August, and I would laugh if you were going to his wedding.

Burlington, August 20th. Where are you from, Steph?

{{{lilty}}}

Would someone be willing to take a look at my resume? I've just created a version that I want to use in applying to technical writing jobs and other things similar to what I did in my last job. (Yes, I'm thinking of making a career change, but if I can get a decent job in my old field while I look at possibilities, I wouldn't mind.)

Lilty, my 68 year old mother has to move out of her place at the beginning of August--granted, it's because she sold it, but regardless, she has no place to live after that. She'll be staying with her sister, or with us until she finds a place. So far, she's had no luck finding a place she wants to go.

Moving, even moves you want (and I know you don't entirely want this) are right up there with death and new jobs, as huge life stresses. But Europe! Less rent! Trips! Parties. Beach.

Anne, I'll take a look at it.

Thanks! I'll send it in a few minutes.

{{{Lilty}}} It looks like everything is working out, though, so that's good.

Attention Monsieur de Hecubus! Le picture.

t drops dead from juliana amazing beauty

Wowza.

hubba hubba

{{{Lilty}}}

Bitch advice needed: I've been in major career redirection mode over the past 24-48 hours. Those of you who read Great Write Way know that I've had a bit of an epiphany that I'm not so much a romance writer as a writer of epic historical fiction that happens to have a love story as an A-plot or important B-plot. I think it's the right choice, because my muse is turning cartwheels and telling me about all the wonderful things I can write now that I don't have to worry as much about genre rules, page count, and the like. But the odds are it'll take me longer to make my first sale, and therefore longer to achieve my dream of being a full-time author, which impacts the day job choices I'm trying to make.

Until yesterday my ideal was to get a work-from-home position, and I was looking at fairly menial, clerical work--something that would still allow me to care for Annabel and have lots of spare time and energy to write. Now I'm thinking a little more long-haul. Not the rest of my life, necessarily, but the next 5-10 years. I'm more open to full-time than I was before, though I'd still happily take a 60-80% FTE gig if I could find one. And I want something a little more career-focused, albeit still the kind of job where I could leave at 5:00 p.m. most days, since the job will be very much #3 behind family and writing. I'm thinking academia, since 90% of my work experience is there, and looking at all the admin specialist, program manager, and asst to dean positions at UW. Or anything event planning or writing/editing-related, if I can find ones that aren't in development. I'm never going back to development--I've learned my lesson.

Make sense? It feels right, except for the part where it feels wrong to have changed my writing and career goals out of the blue on the strength of an "aha!" moment.