Why I'll be back soon

As many of you know, since I've blogged about it a few times, I'm uhh ... kinda ridiculously busy at the moment. I don't have free time. This blog post is eating into time when I should be editing a short story for one of my internships.

I don't have time for blogging. I don't have time for writing. I don't have time for reading (unless it's a manuscript for my other internship).

The whole reason I decided to get into publishing in the first place was because of my love of the above things. I've decided something needs to change.

The thing is, I really enjoy both of my internships, and I get a lot of really good and valuable experience from them. The one part of my life that isn't making me happy at the moment is my job. Sure, it's in a publishing company, but... that's not enough.

Here's what I knew when I decided I was going to change industries: I'd have to start at the bottom, and I'd have to do some jobs I wasn't particularly fond of in order to get to where I wanted to be. What I hoped was that, while doing the jobs I wasn't fond of, I would get some sort of development, exposure to the types of jobs I wanted to do. Growth.

I'm not currently getting any of that in my job. The experience I get from my internships I value far more than what I get from my job (I don't want to be an administrator, I want to be an editor in a trade publishing company). But I can't keep doing it all.

So I quit my job.

From the 25th of May I will no longer be a publishing assistant. I will still be an intern at Entangled reading slush and writing manuscript assessments. I will still be an intern at Aurealis editing short stories and preparing the magazine for ePub. I love both of them. I will still be a student.

I will be a writer, blogger and reader again.

I'll be back!

E is for Energy & Exhaustion

On the way to work today I was complaining about being so tired all the time.

"But it's not like I go to bed late!" I said. "I just don't understand. I have no energy."

My friend, car-pooling buddy and fellow A-to-Zer Elise set me straight. "Sari, you're the busiest person I know. OF COURSE you're tired. Duh." Maybe she didn't say 'duh'. She's a bit too classy for that. But it was something along those lines.

And my response? "Oh yea." Duh.

In 2010 I was a banker and I wrote and blogged in my spare time. I was miserable. I came home every day feeling completely deflated and I was starting to hate life. BUT it was good for me because it made me really think about what I want out of life, and I realised that was not going to be found in banking.

I wanted to work with books.

Within four months of that discovery I'd moved with my (freakin awesome and supportive) boyfriend from Auckland, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, and enrolled in a post grad course in publishing and editing.

And now? I am ...

   working full-time as a publishing assistant for Pearson,

      studying part-time doing a post-grad diploma in publishing and editing with four assignments to do at the

        moment,

          doing an internship for Entangled Publishing reading slush and writing MS assessments (usually

            a couple of MSS to read a week, sometimes more, sometimes less),

              doing another internship copyediting short stories for Aurealis (an Australian sci-fi and fantasy

                magazine),

                  aaaand somewhere in between all that finding time to read, write, blog and have a life.

Obviously some of those last few have suffered - lack of blog posts in the last while being exhibit A.

I want to make it clear I'm not having a whinge. I put my hand up for all these things - possibly got a bit overenthusiastic - and I enjoy them. But it could explain why I'm feeling so exhausted all the time.

The good news is, it's Easter! And I've taken all next week off work! Yay! I can't take time off from uni assignments and internships, but at least I'll have more time to get them done, and I like reading slush anyway. It's interesting! And like Heather, the editor I intern for, says, it's like having a bookshop in your inbox. :)



I still haven't figured out what bunnies have to do with Easter,
but this one is cute so I don't care.

Looking forward to feeling energised and more time rich during my holiday.



I you so busy you're feeling drained? How do you manage your time? Do you fit everything in that's important to you, or have you had to make sacrifices?

Coming out of hibernation

Hello - ello - ello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anybody home?

Ahh Pink Floyd, you sum up the situation so well. Have any of you stuck around after I abandoned you? I'm sorry. Really and truly. I know it's no excuse, but let me summarise my life over the last couple of months:

Work, school, drive, eat, sleep, work, homework, eat, sleep, work, school, assignments, sleep...

And it's not over yet, but it will be soon. Currently I have a 40% assignment (on publishing production schedules) due in a week and a half, and an exam and a test to study for. And then, on the 12th of October, I'm free! Well sort of, I still have a full-time job, but at least my nights and weekends will be mine again.

So I just want you all to know I'm coming back - I miss you! And I miss writing. And my characters. And having a life.

In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through you. How are you all? How's your writing? Are you all winning?

I think I may be permanently cross-eyed

I really feel for the people who work long hours in publishing houses and as freelance editors, copy editing and proofreading people's work. I mean, I actually enjoy doing this - sometimes.

I'm working on my second assignment right now, copy editing an excerpt from a book on soccer, and the particular section I'm working on is a history of the soccer world cup. Seriously mind-numbing business.

And I guess this is the thing, I want to be in publishing. I want to be an editor. Admittedly I'd prefer to be a content editor, but I'd still be happy doing copy editing.

As long as it was on a topic I found interesting. The whole reason I'm trying to get into publishing in the first place.

My ultimate dream is to work on YA fiction (obviously), but the publishing industry is so competitive and so difficult to get into, that I would be ecstatic to be doing almost anything, so long as I had my foot in the door...

...I just hope it's not copy editing books on soccer.

How's your week treating you? Are you getting words? Succeeding?

PS. This is where I was earlier this week. Aussie is a cool country!

I'm Aliiiive!

Hello world, I'm still here. Sorry I've been a bit scarce of late. Blame it on being sick. And still sick. And assignments...

Anyway, just wanted to tell you I haven't forgotten about you all! Miss you, even!

EDITED TO ADD: Oh hey! Since I've been sick I totally missed this. The lovely Brooke over at Paper Mountains interviewed her crusader group (including me). Go check her out!

And here's something to keep you entertained. This guy is AMAZING!

Did you know he carved the violin himself with a kitchen knife?

I'll be back soon. Promise.

How are you all?

Allow me to have a minor public freak-out... and an award

Some of you may know I recently decided to drastically change the course of my career. I resigned my job at a bank in New Zealand and applied for publishing and editing courses in Melbourne, Australia. I was lucky enough to get into the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing at RMIT University in Melbourne, which I am very happy about.

Today is the first day of my course. Right now I feel like it's the first day of school and I'm feeling VERY nervous. I'm starting to second guess myself and wondering if I'm going to be good enough. The course is, after all, aimed at people already in the publishing industry and I have no relevant experience (other than a summer working in a book shop - which I loved).

Couple that with the fact that I went to eleven different schools, and I feel like somewhere along the way I missed a very important lesson on grammar (what the hell is a dangling modifier, anyway?) and you get a minor freak-out.

EEEP!

Ok... deep breath. I will be calm. I can teach myself grammar. I've learnt by myself before. Must control tummy swirling.

Aaand... moving along.

A few awesome bloggers have sent the stylish blogger award my way. Be sure to check out the blogs of Vicki Tremper, Shelley Batt, Alison Miller, and Cleveland Dietz.

I have recently done a vlog for this award, telling seven things about myself. I'll add a few more:

1. I'm not familiar with the specifics of grammar, although I think I instinctively get it right some of the time (but not all).
2. I have bad circulation. My feet and hands always seem to be cold.
3. Even though I feel the cold badly, one of my favourite things to do is skiing on Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand. It's also one of my favourite places in the world.
4. I talk to my cat. She's silly.

And I'm passing the award on to these other totally awesome bloggers:

Bess Weatherby

Chantele Sedgwick

Christine Bryant

Meredith

Be sure to check them out!

So have you had any minor freak-outs lately? Is there anything you're both excited and nervous about? I'd love to hear!

PS. If you haven't checked out the Birthday Love Blogfest yet, have a look. You could win a book and get some helpful advice in the process.

One secret, one lie, one quirk, one habit, one trait, and one love

Cute now, but what happens when you merge them?

The first Crusade Challenge...

· one secret: I love to read, but I don't love to read what many consider the classics. The way some of the characters bloviate tends to make me put many an old book down before getting into the story.

· one quirk: When someone says, does or writes something over and over again which irritates me I actually get a physical sensation of discomfort in the pit of my stomach. Examples are, a too frequently used word (I read a book once where all the characters referred to other males as 'boyo', but it only started halfway through the book) or a blade scraping on a blackboard.

· one annoying habit: I have a fuliguline laugh. People jump in fright when I find something funny because it sounds like a cross between a donkey and a duck.

· one of your best character traits: I was born in the year of the rabbit, which must be a good thing because rabbits are fluffy and cute with button noses.

· one of your favourite things: I only get to choose one? Well in that case I choose my boyfriend, Ollie. Because of him I get to go back to university to do my graduate diploma in editing & publishing, and spend long hours writing. Otherwise I'd probably still be working in a bank.

Can you guess which is the lie?

Spontaneity is the spice of life.. and why I might not be posting next week

Nothing like some spontaneous
dancing in the street

I love spontaneity. Don't you? When you can suddenly go, "I really feel like doing this super awesome thing, and you know what? I'm going to do this really awesome thing!" And then you feel all happy with yourself (or maybe somewhat embarrased if you're that guy <=) and the world is a little bit better.

I think I've been pretty spontaneous lately. Like when I admitted I hated my Evil Day Job (EDJ), decided I wanted a complete change in career, quit the EDJ, moved countries and enrolled in a post-grad publishing and editing course all in the space of a few (maybe four?) months. Sometimes spontaneity can be on a large scale. Sometimes you need to be spontaneous to effect some positive change in your life.

My latest spontaneous act was to buy flights to Perth last week. When do I leave? Tomorrow. I'm off to see my mum and brother, and half my family. Very excited!

So please excuse a blogging lull for the next week. I will have minimal access to the interwebs, but will post if I can. I'm particularly looking forward to putting up a review of Beth Revis' Across the Universe which arrived in the post today, and I'm planning on reading it on the plane tomorrow.

So tell me, what spontaneous thing have you done lately? How did it make your life better?

And..

If you haven't done anything spontaneous lately, I challenge you to give it a go this week! Even if it's something small. Maybe you could try your hand at spontaneous street dancing?

Decisions and Resolutions

It's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that. I'll be better I promise. The good news is that the craziness of moving is all but over, the only thing left is for our furniture to arrive. It's currently being combed over in quarantine, just to make sure we're not trying to smuggle any evil New Zealand thingies. So I'm writing this from the the couch which is one of four pieces of furniture in our house at the moment, thanks to Mr Rental. I'm so looking forward to my stuff arriving!

In other news, as you know I moved to Melbourne to get into publishing. I applied for the publishing courses at three universities here: Monash, Melbourne and RMIT. Monash offered me a place last month which was very exciting. I was so happy to get into SOMETHING. Then I received an email from Melbourne last week saying they weren't able to offer me a place in the postgrad diploma as my degree wasn't relevant enough (commerce) but they offered me an alternate position in the postgrad certificate. I was also contacted by RMIT at the end of last week with some follow up questions, and was ultimately offered a place in their graduate diploma in publishing and editing.

It's really hard to find comparative information about these courses because I think industry organisations try to stay neutral on the topic, but from the research I did it seems that RMIT's course has the best standing within the industry. They also accept less than 30 new students every year, are only one of two courses in the country to receive accreditation from the Australian Publishers Association, and give precedence to people who already work in the industry.

So I have decided I will be going to RMIT. I'm so excited about this (and surprised - when I get that email I expected something along the lines of "we regret to inform you...") and I can't wait to be starting the course in February. Until then I need to find something to do.

Which brings me to the next part of this post. Inspired by my critique partner Maggie, who was in turn inspired by the Rejectionist's December test run on resolutions, I've decided to get in on the action (only six days late).

I RESOLVE to:

• Write every day for at least 10 minutes (shamelessly stolen off Maggie but with a far less ambitious goal. Small steps right?)
• Find a job! This one's a December and January goal. Since I'm going back to NZ for two weeks over Xmas I'll be realistic about this one.
• Make people Xmas presents this year. But not crappy presents. So I have to figure out how to make good handmade presents that people would be happy to get. Any ideas? (This one relates back to the last one.. I have no job).
• Do some exercise? Hahaha... yea right.

Some of the Rejectionist's pre-resolutions were far too scary for me to even contemplate (NO COFFEE!? I have cut down from four a day to one, but still.. NONE?)

Anyone have any pre-resolutions they'd like to share?

The good news

An update on the changes happening around here.

As you know I'll be heading over to Melbourne shortly. Flights are booked for the 16th of November. Ollie starts his new job on the 22nd of November. I will be a lady of leisure for a few short weeks while we get ourselves set up in Aus and I look for a job.

And also..

I got into Monash's Graduate Diploma in Publishing & Editing! YAY!

So it's back to being a student for me next year, but hopefully (in my ideal situation) I will also be working part time for a publishing company. I have had a response from one of the small publishers saying they would like to meet with me when I get to Aus so that is also exciting news :).

So yes.. that's everything up to date.

Now I just need to do some writing.

It's official...

As of Friday 8/10 I have resigned my job in banking in order to pursue a career in book publishing. Four weeks left and then not long after that Ollie and I will be moving from Auckland, NZ to Melbourne, Australia.

Yay!!!

I am so excited about this huge change in my life.

Wish me luck.

A glitch in the system

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, a whole bunch of new variables came into play. To sum it up into one sentance:

Ollie has (as good as) been offered a job in Melbourne.

A good job. A job he would love to do.

To recap, I have finally figured out that I want to spend the rest of my life working with books, and to do that I want to get into Publishing. To get into publishing I need to do the post-grad diploma in publishing & editing which is offered in only one place in NZ: Wellington. Oh and to cap it off, it's incredibly hard to get into and I would only know if I was successful in December.

Now there is the possibility of moving to Melbourne, which, don't get me wrong, would be pretty awesome. I did some research last night and there are three similar courses in publishing offered in Melbourne, all of which are also incredibly hard to get into.

From what I have read of all the courses, the Wellington one still sounds the best. It seems far more hands on, with more contact with the real world of publishing. It would be my first choice. It's also about a third of the cost of the Melbourne courses.

I think, for now, we have decided I will apply for all the courses, given how difficult they are to get into, and thereby increasing my chances of getting into one. Then the decision of where to go would be made in December when I know if I have gotten into any and if so which one. This could change, depending on how long Ollie can delay accepting the job for. Regardless, I will still apply for all four, we can still make firm decisions later.

What do you think?

Words!

Today I have achieved words, and it has felt great! My short story is coming along (which is good because I only have five days left). I will hopefully have it finished by tomorrow.

Favourite line for the day:

So they know that it is now me they deal with. Well what do they have to say to the woman whose father they have slaughtered and whose armies they now fight?


In other news, I have been thinking about ways in which I can incorporate what I love into what I do. I mean for a living. Being an author would be like a dream come true, but I am a realist (hahahahaha), and have read (extensively, it's one of my favourite ways to procrastinate) many agent and publishing industry advice blogs and articles, and have come across some pretty frightening stats.

From what I can tell, a busy agent receives around 10,000-15,000 queries a year. They take on around five new clients a year. Of those who are lucky enough to be published, maybe 5-15% earn enough from writing to live off their income. Nuff said. This is not to say that I won't try, but only that I will have realistic expectations.

So with this in mind, I ask myself, what can I do that will incorporate my love for books into my future career path? And I think, I could get into publishing.

So much easier said than done. No relevant industry experience (I work in a bank) and no relevant education (I have a degree in finance and economics). But now that the idea is in my head I can't let it go, and I know it's what I want to do. So I've done some research and found this. A diploma in publishing which sounds like an amazing and worthwhile course, and one of the only ways to get into the pubslishing industry in NZ, short of being family friends with the CEO of Penguin. But of course it is not as straight-forward as simply enrolling for the course.

It seems to be quite difficult to get into (2 applicants for each available position, strict entry criterea, etc etc) which is fine. But I don't want to get my hopes up only to find out in December that I am not one of the lucky applicants. Then also I would have to move to Wellington, along with Ollie and our cat. Find a place to live. Find tenants for our house. Get a part time job on top of a Monday to Frida, 9 to 5 course in order to continue to pay the home loan.

Ok do I sound like I'm whinging? Sorry.

I guess what it comes down to is: Do I want to do the course?
Yes

Then we will work it out (Ollie assures me this is true).

Who knew blogging could be so helpful in making big decisions :).

Till next time.
Sari