I love her paintings - which are mostly of people and dogs/other animals but with a gentle and sometimes wicked sense of humour. How Mum would have loved these paintings! I particularly loved this one, which reminds me of The Fella's terrier....
She's also written and illustrated a wonderful book called A Brush With the Coast, about her walking the South West Coastal Path with her lazy and narcoleptic dog, Jess. As both were very unfit when they started the walk, it was a challenge in more ways than one. And it turned out that she self published the book, and said she would thoroughly recommend the process, so we had a long discussion about self publishing, and she said to get in touch if I wanted more advice, so that got me thinking...
As I'm researching for my next novel, I recently asked for suggestions for unusual hobbies for a man, and the response has been fascinating. I'm also thinking about what he does for a living, but I know, deep down, that he's a boat builder, because that requires a certain type of person.
My dad was always in despair as I kept changing jobs when I was younger. I have a low boredom threshold and in those days it was easy to change jobs, so I did, about every six months. I worked as a computer clerk at Saatchi and Saatchis, at a new product development company which developed the likes of the Black and Decker Workmate. My job was as receptionist and secretary to the head of the creative department - which was interesting as I couldn't type. Believe me, I learned - fast, weeping into my typewriter till 10pm most nights. I also moonlighted (moonlit?) as a masseuse at the RAC Club in Pall Mall, on ladies days as the masseuses there were men, and they didnt allow their Ladies to be massaged by men......
I've worked for the Youth Justice Team in Devon which involved looking after children going through the court process - a gruelling job that I always said was the best contraceptive of all. After that I ran the accommodation office for an arts college which turned into a university. And there were lots of other jobs in between. After my last Proper Job, Pip and I did up the flat where I still live now - and I have a rather wonky left big toe from where I inadvertently dropped the lump hammer on it while trying to excavate the living room fireplace. I checked people onto cruise ships and also did a lot of cleaning with a friend - we were going to call ourselves Scrubbers R Us until we realised it might give the wrong idea...
After that I did an online journalism course and started working as a journalist, then an author. And I haven't been bored since.
But what about you? What strange jobs have you had?
2 comments:
I have a friend just like you who chopped and changed from cake decorater to sound recording engineer to picture framer to child social worker to pedigree dog trainer... the list goes on. I temped a lot then got into publishing, but when I was an art student I did a few odd jobs including life model and hand-made paper-maker, one of the smelliest things you can imagine as I went home every day drenched in rotted cotton water - as an art student I was frequently covered in paint and gunk, so being wet and smelling like a compost heap didn't phase me at all, but some bus drivers wouldn't let me on the bus home and I had to walk!
I know several people who make a modest living from self-publishing books, but they seem to do a LOT of self-promotion, often on a very small scale, just to get a dozen sales here and there. Their rationale is if they were going to write it anyway for their own pleasure they might as well make some money out of it but it's not making them rich. Good luck if you go down that route - from reading your blog I don't think you're looking to become rich off the back of it!
Hi Fifitr - good to hear of someone else who's had lots of other jobs, too!
Most of my writer friends don't make much from their books, and for my walks books I've had to do all the distribution and self promotion anyway, so I'm used to it.
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