During this time I worked for a magazine who hired me as an Editorial Coordinator. For the most part what I wrote was dictated not on value or substance, but on what was profitable to sell to advertisers. I was fully aware of the magazine industry's necessity to sell advertisement to advertisers; especially when that is their only form of revenue. Editorial content is different. Yes, you can potentially write articles relative to the products being advertised in the magazine. But, if the advertisement determines the content of your product; the magazine will be limited. Your product is inferior. People don't read magazines to be sold bottles of cologne or cans of cola. The articles have to hold some value.
I had various other personal and professional problems with the job, which lead me to walking away from it. Foolishly I left the job in way too short of a period of time to get a reference out of it. I was limited in options. Through emailing and networking I was able to find something a month later. I had an internship lined up for a popular news company in Toronto. I was told that the internship would last for six months in length. I would be required to complete 25-30 hours a week. The job would start at 12 midnight and end at 7 or 8 in the morning. I had bills to pay. I just went from making almost no money to potentially making no money at at all. I turned the opportunity down, and potentially walked away from the creative arts altogether.
Bitterness is a bitch. It's infectious. I wasn't the only person who got dealt a bad hand of cards. Most people graduating around the same time as me were experiencing the same problems I was. Writing the novel helped. I began to accept two realities;
1) Journalism was not likely going to pan out for me.
2) I could still be involved in creative arts, regardless if I collected a salary from it.
Currently I work in a school supporting students with special needs. Mainly I work with students who require help with academics, social skills, and behaviour. I get up every morning knowing that I'm helping to support the development of another human being. It's tiring, it's fun, and it's never the same.
This blog and creative writing currently meet one of my most basic needs as a human being. The need to express oneself.
The Book
The book is a series of stories that mainly follow one character, Brian Morrison. Brian was born and raised in Nebraska. He is nearing adulthood and seeks to travel to Alaska. He is seeking opportunity, exposure, and adventure. The book is set in the 1950s, which was filled with optimism, prosperity, and social turmoil. As people in America were adapting to life after WWII; some felt disenfranchised by the various opportunities available to them at that time. The book explores the various themes of war, mass consumption, immigration, increase in personal wealth, and racism to name a few.The book is currently available on Amazon, The book will be available on Smashwords in a couple of days. Once it's on Smashwords it will be available at almost all places eBooks are bought and sold.
Click here to be redirected to the book.
