(via ShelfAwareness this morning)
This reminded me of a segment from one of my client's novels about how athletic trainers "get summers off":
“That job of yours doesn’t leave much time for anything.”
I shrugged. “I have summers off.”
“Uh-huh. Summer starts when?”
“Early June.”
“And you go back to work when?”
“First of August, to get ready for fall sports. Practices start around the tenth.”
“So, two months completely off.”
“Except for summer camps.”
Clint held up a hand and ticked off points on his fingers. “That’d be what? A week each of men’s and women’s basketball camp, a week of football camp. What am I missing?”
“Volleyball usually runs a three day camp.” I frowned at him. “And you care about this why?”
“Just establishing that at least one person made a worse career choice than me.”
“You have a career?
I gotta figure out how to find one of those publishing jobs that gets summers off. The only one I can think of is mitten salesman.
26 comments:
That's why I'm a teacher. Summers off.
Even when my kids are old enough to be on their own during the summer (three more years to go), I will likely still take the summers off.
My husband? Not so lucky.
Ha! Yes, I guffawed at that this morning too -- answering email an editor sent me at 5:30 AM. It's like me saying that between ghosting books, I take time off to write a novel.
First, publishers don't take the summer off, sales and (upper) editorial take their vacations during the summer. The rest of us (production) continue to bust our asses.
B, that article was incomplete, snide, and unsubtly racist. David Frum should be kicked in the junk.
I bet mitten salesmen spend the summer looking at the newest thing in mittens and stocking up for fall.
Wow.W-O-W. So you're all Jewish, you work about six weeks a year, and since everyone prefers e-mail to snail mail it's really slowed things down. Did I read that right?
So all those emails I've been getting from my editor and from the publicity department about my upcoming release must be figments of my imagination, huh? As must the book itself, come to think of it, since it's due out before Labor Day.
And I'm sure there won't REALLY be any editors and agents at the conference I'm going to in two weeks, and that all of our pitch appointments and publisher parties are just mass hallucinations. Because all of those people have the summer off.
ha ha! This is my first summer off in my life! Well, at least since I was fifteen.
When you own a horse, you work all summer to pay for his winter feed.
Then you get into the racing industry and find out that work = 7 days a week, January through November.
Now, move on to ranching = 7 days a week year round.
So this is my first summer off, except, I'm writing every day.
But writing is still voluntary and a gift (read no pay check yet)
So yup, loving my first summer off!
How does the publishing world survive with the advent of e-mail and telephones? New technology must be crippling to such a pillar of an institution.
You know, cause only working a few weeks a year wouldn't damage the industry.
*walks away shaking head*
It could be worse--you could be a writer. Everyone thinks we have every day off. After all, we don't have "real" jobs.
@Laurel BAHAHAHAHAHA! You are an astute reader, my friend. It takes one to pick up on all those subtleties.
And yet another one of my cherished beliefs screwed all to smithereens. And I didn't even get a kiss.
I have a feeling that you could take the summer off if it weren't for fear of missing out on that next great novel. I'll bet each query in your email is like a little treasure chest from a video game, and you're just sure one of them holds the ultra-rare +10 Gilded Sword of Blaze.
Joe, 10:09
You are in publishing?
If you state, "first" there should be a second.
If there is a "B" where is the A.
You need to either lighten up or take an english class...oh...I get it you were trying to be funny.
Ha ha, I think.
Is Mr. Frum's 'literary friend' imaginary?
Er ... was it not sufficiently clear that Frum's correspondent was joshing around? I'm not saying the post is a laff riot, but it's obviously a joke.
@wry writer it's English, oh guess you were trying to be funny? Not so much.
Alright, well, yes, as someone who is Jewish, the hairball Frum puked up on the internet; the anti Semitism disguised as humor is offensive.
I know, I know. How can I have such a stunted sense of humor?
See, it's hard between running the world banks, the movie industry and now the publishing houses, to have time to develop the funny bone.
So much power, so little time.
I know who wrote that. ♥
I work in an academic library.
People assume I have summers off, too.
I wonder when that starts.
#1 nana
what's woot
Sure they do. My editor and I have been tweaking edits since the first of the month. :)
I always take the summer off.
Love your blog,
Santa Claus
Summer off? I'm trying to figure out how to take next Thursday off without getting too far behind.
Man, wish someone would inform my publishing house that we get summer off! Walking to work in this 90+ degree heat really bites x.x
The character in that scene was a college athletic trainer, unlike me, who worked with high schools and therefore did not have to deal with summer camps. So unlike my character, I did in fact have seven weeks off, free and clear, every blessed year. *ducks and runs from the lynch mob*
When I was in college, my mother pushed me to become a teacher. She said, "You get the whole summer off."
Quite an incentive! So, I did become a teacher. I taught 6th grade for 35 years. And as she predicted, I never worked one summer during my entire teaching career.
I have been retired since 2002. Now, I no longer look forward to getting the summer off because every day is summer. Every.single.day.
Plenty of time for contests and late night comments.
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