My worklife is proceeding with a more or less balanced equilibrium.



When one income source seems near dried up, another pops up to takes its place.

For instance, I just got a new copy editing job, for someone local who wrote a hundred page manuscript on business ethics.

I am feeling very nervous about it. This one feels like a "real" job, despite the fact that I'm now editing the 2nd of another local author's books. But whereas I suspect she will never earn much money from her endeavors in the paranormal romance department, his seems much more intelligent. His writing is very, very good, so when I did the sample edit for him, I had to work much harder to justify my fee!

I should receive his deposit, and the manuscript, by today or tomorrow, and then I'll be on a deadline to complete it (3 weeks). He even asked me to draw up a contract, which I did.

I guess the reason behind my nervousness is that, while I'm a strong writer, I never actually majored in English, so I can't say I know every rule of grammar and punctuation. I learned all this on the fly, and by widely reading as a young person.

When we talked after he'd received my sample edits of a few of his pages, I could hear how the tone of his voice had changed. It sounded much more deferential, and he was asking some specific questions, like, should I do this, or, what is your opinion on.....?

That made me extremely uncomfortable as I don't purport to be an expert, especially when it comes to the world of publishing, so I tried to communicate that to him.

I am meeting The Author this afternoon so she can pay me another $100 installment. (It should actually be $150.) She has trouble scraping up the money and just pays me when she can. I know she will always come through with it and just pace my editing accordingly. Our arrangement has always been very informal, but it works.

I am anxious about getting paid for 2 really big jobs. I had to send an email to the NY PR agency asking when I could expect to get paid for the brochure I did. I invoiced them $1400 Oct. 1. She said she would look into it.

The 2nd big job is the real estate certification case study which I haven't invoiced yet becus it's still not done. I have to be patient and wait for John to do his part.

So there's a lot of money tied up that I have earned but not received yet. When I do get paid, I am anxious to put a small amount in my SEP IRA and other savings.

We've had some beautiful fall weather days here. Yesterday it reached 70 degrees.



The leaves are approaching peak color. I would like to get out to a local state park for another fall walk with the camera.