A few months back I applied for a perm job at a publisher that helps writers get published with courses, instruction and a variety of books and catalogs.

I got an email this a.m. from the editor in chief, who told me that while they filled the perm job (rats) she wondered if I'd be interested in a temporary, 5 to 6 week assignment writing and updating listings for a directory they do of magazines that accept freelance writer submissions.

I said "of course" and she called me a few minutes later, telling me that was the fastest anyone had ever responded to one of her emails.

She told me a bit about the job, just writing and doing a little research to update listings for an annual directory they sell. She said that after working on-site for about a week, I could probably work at home after that.

We arranged to meet this Tuesday. She sounded like it wasn't so much an interview as it was a meeting to show me in greater details what I'd be doing. Although she didn't tell me what they'd pay yet. I hope it's more than $10 an hour. I really have no idea how to price temporary jobs like this. But hey, it's work.

(Note: I predict it's about $12/hr. I'll let you know on Tuesday how close I am to what it actually is.)

I'm sort of wondering what I would do if I took this temp job and then next week I hear back from the big financial services company that I got that perm job. Obviously, the perm job would be top priority, but i wouldn't want to give the shaft to the publisher either and leave them hanging midway through that job as it's the kind of place where I could see myself getting more work down the road if i needed/wanted it. (Don't like to burn bridges.) I guess I'll deal with it if it happens. I don't know if i could tell the perm job place that I couldn't start there for a full 5 weeks, and i think the temp job place would expect me to work f/t until that job was done. While I would be willing to do that job on the weekends, it wouldn't be enough to keep up with a 5-day-a-week pace.

It's not rocket science, but if I did a good job with this, I would hope they would call on me for other projects.

You never know when something's going to fall into your lap. Just when you despair of ever getting anything remotely "regular" again. I was surprised she chose to call me, and then I retrieved my original cover letter to them and remembered that I (smartly) highlighted the fact that I once worked for a boutique publisher (now out of business) that specialized in financial publications. Although it never felt like a publishing company to me because we spent so much time doing newsletters and conferences as well.

So I am psyched. Best case scenario would be if they could deduct taxes out of my paycheck and treat me like a part-time employee instead of as a contractor. It would save me from having to pay self-employment taxes on the income, but more importantly, it would help boost my overall earnings for the year should the Dept. of Labor have to recalculate my benefits. There are so many "tiers" of benefits I've lost track of where I stand and they may well have to recalculate at some point.

It's also fairly local. It's just a 25-minute drive on back roads all the way. And I love work at home stuff...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

In other news, my body is aching all over. I learned from reading Patch online that the town will be going around to pick up all the tree limb debris caused by the snowstorm last week. They don't usually do this, but it will be a huge help so I don't have to worry about dragging it to a far corner of the yard or having to haul it to the dump in my teeny Civic myself. However, I will still need to drag stuff down to the curb and becus it's woodsy in front of my house, I have actually very little space to lay the tree limbs down.

But I dragged a bunch down to the road this morning for about an hour. I managed to clear all the stuff that was sitting in my driveway and other stuff, too, but it's just a tiny FRACTION of the mess in my yard, eveyrwhere you look.

They will be picking up the stuff a week from today, so it behooves me to get as many tree limbs down to the street as possible before then, becus after that, I'll be on my own.

I already know I'll still be stuck with dealing with at least 2 full size trees that came down. I'll have to pay to have them cut up and since i don't want to spend the money now, they'll sit where they are. But there's tons of other stuff, including a very large apple tree branch I'd love to get rid of before the snow flies. Plus tons of white pine branches.

I was able to spend some time today editing The Author's novel. I let it go for quite a while, but we're walking together tomorrow, and i think she'll be giving me a check, so I'd like to have this next section done fairly soon. I have another 30 pages or so to go.

Tonight I'm going to another free dinner/lecture on reverse mortgages. My friend's picking me up in another hour or so for that.