Two things, both of which are true;
1) Tomorrow I am talking to this years crop of apprentices from the Adventures in Fiction scheme, http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk/ if you’re interested, the title of the talk is Building and Sustaining a Long Term Career as a Writer, I know, I am at the pre talk stage where you write your notes about a billion times and then say something else completely. But having a long term career, actually earning a living. have I managed? Well the kids are grown and the roof is just about over our heads, but it’s a precarious career. Famine and feast, and although this year’s looking good I’ve had my share of famine.
I was looking at writerly career streams and quite a few seemed to have dried up. I talked in my ABBA blog the other day about school visits http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-gasp-of-mid-lister-catherine.html and I know a lot of starry writers like Anne Cassidy and Adele Geras have seen fewer bookings this term so it’s not just me.
Other income streams? Well there’s teaching, although lecturing posts are like hen’s teeth and humanities courses at one of the Universities I have worked at will be pared to the bone this year.
Residencies? Some of my best jobs have been residencies, whether in Holloway Prison, a London Art school or a month in a school in Hertfordshire…I’m in one now actually, although it’s called a fellowship, one of the Royal Literary Fund ones, and I am exceedingly grateful for it, at the University of East London.
Arts Council Grants? I must admit to having my fair share of these, but in the future? Unlikely.
Working in literature development or bookselling? I’ve done both of these in the past but reckon I am completely out of the loop now.
Journalism? well I done tiny bits but not enough to live on, ever.
So what do I tell the lovely apprentices? Don’t do it? Of course not, I know I have the best job in the world most of the time and at the moment (apart from the school visits) things are going BRILLIANTLY. I have just signed a new book deal with Walker books, (the books are about these two pictured below, Ezra McAdam and Loveday Finch) and I have just finished the first draft of a script for my tv thingy. Oh and another thing, in exactly one month BRAVE NEW GIRL comes out. i was chuffed to bits to hear that one reviewer, the hugely esteemed Luisa Plaja loved it!
Oh the Liars thing in the headline, I almost forgot,
2) If you are near the University of East London this weekend, they are javing an all day reading group festival with loads of authors including Michael McMillan my fellow RLF fellow, and Owen Jones, author of CHAV, I will be talking about liars, and wehy I love to write about them, come along it’s free….http://www.dalstonpeople.co.uk/East-London-Libraries-Festival-Kicks/story-13360400-detail/story.html