w00t!

I finally got the answer yesterday morning, and it was a ‘yes’ – in a month’s time, I will be starting out as a part-time library assistant at the Royal Naval Museum Library in Portsmouth Dockyard.

This means that I will also be starting out on the long road of becoming a freelance writer. In a nicely synchronous turn of events, I emailed out my first invoice for a bit of paid writing today – granted, it’s a token amount for a book review at Hub, but you have to start somewhere. I’m making my current state of ebulliance public, so that when I’m gridingly poor and stressed in a few months time I can look back, remind myself that positivity isn’t an entirely alien concept to me, and pick up the phone and start hustling for work again.

I already have a potential gig in the bag, plus an idea for a business start-up (that could obviate the need to search for a market by starting my own). Furthermore, when I popped out for a few celebratory beers last night, a bit of networking with people I’ve known for ages provided two more potential leads. I think the secret here is to make sure I’m relentless in my hustling – after all, I asked Tobias Buckell how he managed it, and that seems to be the way it’s done.

So, let this be a formal announcement to all and sundry – I am a freelance writer. Journalism, reviews, copywriting, blogging – if it can be written, I’ll write it for you. Reasonable rates and friendly punctual service. Just drop me an email!

Thanks for being patient with my sloppy blogging over the past week or so, too – now I know where I’m going, I can settle back into scheduling my life and getting things done again. One thing is for certain: no matter how much paid work I get offered, VCTB is here to stay. I hope you’ll hang around and enjoy the ride.

In the meantime, here’s another priceless gem from the XKCD people: