Dare I hope?

Another  typical week has gone by – some jobs have been applied for and I’ve trudged along at my retail gig. One possibility did come up: A local independant publishing house posted on CraigsList for an Administrative Assistant (read:minion) to help them out 3 days per week. I applied, and the Editor emailed me yesterday to let me know they might be interested. I replied yesterday evening to let them know I’m interested as well. I didn’t hear back today, but hopefully I’ll hear more by the end of next week. I know I’ve been focusing on library jobs, but I looked into this publishing house, and I think it’d be a great place to get started in a book-related career. It’s also relatively easy to access by public transit. The bus that goes through my neighborhood can get me within decent walking distance of the publisher’s offices. It’d be roughly an hour each way, but I can handle that kind of commute with the help of books and my trusty MP3 player. Here’s hoping!

In other news, three weeks to Lunacon! I’ve been looking forward to it all year.

Another week in the life

The search continues, as ever. I’m plugging away at my retail job to help pay the bills and dreaming of a full-time library job with benefits. I found a listing today for a part-time librarian with the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. I applied to it because it looks interesting, and I won’t deny being a foodie. I haven’t been watching much TV lately, but I used to really enjoy watching the Food Network. Alton Brown is my culinary hero – he’s made it big playing with his food!

Lunacon, my favorite local science fiction convention, is four weeks away. For all you fellow book nerds out there, the Author Guest of Honor is going to be launching his new book at the Convention, and I fully plan to be at the launch party. I’ve been asked by the Con Chair and Vice Con Chair to post the following information:

For Immediate Release:

 

Lunacon 2011

Dates: March 18 – 20, 2011

Website: www.lunacon.org

 

Location:

Hilton Rye Town

699 Westchester Avenue

Rye Brook, NY 10573

Room Rate: $132.00 per night

 

Come to Lunacon in March, and you’ll join hundreds of Science Fiction / Fantasy readers, writers, and fans for discussions and debate about books and films, science and art, politics and religion, all in the context of the strange and the fantastic. You’ll also find author readings, writing workshops, an SF/F art show & auction, a costume masquerade (newcomers welcome!), a dealer’s room with genre merchandise, and of course, a variety of fannish social events during the evening hours.

 

Author Guest of Honor:

Hugo Award Nominee Lawrence M. Schoen

 

Artist Guest of Honor:

Rachael Mayo

 

Special Guest:

Eric “in the Elevator” Zuckerman

 

Membership Rates

Through Feb 20, 2011: $50.00

At the door: $60.00

 

Day Rates

Friday: $30

Saturday: $45

Sunday: $30

More of same …

Sorry for the late post this week – I let myself get distracted yesterday. I have been continuing my search and application process, and I’ve been expanding it to include some administrative-type jobs along with librarian positions. For example: over the past week I applied to the positions of File Clerk for the Veterans’ Administration in the county where I’m currently living, Library Clerk for the Library of Congress down in Washington, and Librarian with Cornish College for the Arts out in Seattle. I’ll keep going, and hopefully someone will decide to hire me soon. The job I have right now isn’t that bad, but it’s not that great either. I need something full-time that will help me pay my bills (rent, loans, etc.) and give me benefits like health and dental insurance.

I’ve been attempting to maintain my relative sanity in my usual ways: reading and listening to music. I haven’t really watched TV since November, but I can’t say I miss it. My two current books are Ashes of Victory by David Weber and Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund. Ashes is the ninth book in Mr. Weber’s Honor Harrington series, and I’ve been finding it to be fully excellent. I’ve got the rest of the series through Mission of Honor waiting for me on my shelves, along with the first four Worlds of Honor anthologies (More Than Honor, Worlds of Honor, Changer of Worlds, The Service of the Sword), and Crown of Slaves and Shadow of Saganami from Wages of Sin and Saganami sub-series of the Honorverse. Sena Jeter Naslund is well-known for her book Ahab’s Wife, which gave an excellent alternate view to the vengefully obsessed captain from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Her book Abundance deals with Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, both of whom were beheaded during the French Revolution. Ms. Naslund says in her Author’s Note that she attempted to be as true as possible to Marie Antoinette by drawing on actual letters and accounts of her from the period. She also says that the famous quote “If they have no bread, then let them eat cake” was actually said by the wife of Louis XIV and wrongly attributed to Marie Antoinette. Either way, Abundance has given me a new view of the French Revolution.

Lunacon is five weeks away, and I’m getting excited. This year’s Guests of Honor are author Lawrence M. Schoen, artist Rachael Mayo, and special interviewer Eric “In The Elevator” Zuckerman. It’s going to be a good time – at least, I hope so.

Enough with the Snowpocalypse already!

Yet another week gone, and it’s still freezing with nasty weather. I’m still searching for full-time work and rather hoping I can find something where the weather doesn’t get quite so bad. Of course, given how much of the country was hit by this last storm, that might be a bit difficult. I’m just trying to hold on until March – (hopefully) less snow and Lunacon. Who knows, maybe the economy will improve some with the weather, and me and some of my fellow looking-for-degree-relevant-work librarians will get lucky.

I know I need to be concentrating on getting into a stable position where I can take care of myself and pay my bills, but part of me just wants to take off. I half wish I could sell off a bunch of my stuff, put most of the rest in storage, and hike/train-ride around Europe on a theatre-and-library tour. I know that part of the world is full of fascinating architecture and culture that are older than the US. Aside from some of the German-language musicals I’ve been listening to recently, I’ve also heard stories from friends who have spent time in Germany and Austria for both school and fun purposes. I’d love to be able to see some of these shows on stage, and the same goes for some French musicals I’ve listened to. I visited France with a group from my high school ten years ago, and we sadly didn’t get to do everything we (or at least I) would have liked. It would also be truly awsome for me to spend more time in England, and to visit Scotland and Ireland. 

Oh, well. Such are the dreams of a rather frustrated theatre geek and book nerd with papers (i.e. college transcripts) to prove both.