Seeking Testimony

Almost everyone wants something more from their work. And how do we imagine getting that something? By jumping company ship, taking matters into our own hands and starting our very own freelance business–encouraged, without fail, by an armload of chirpy, idealistic how-to guides.

After all, it just sounds so nice to wear pajamas to work. Never mind all those great tax write-offs. But let’s get real: freelancing is a tough grind. And though the stores are stocked with books containing practical tips on how to go it alone, no one ever writes about what it’s really like—the isolation, the hunger for new challenges, or the desire for camaraderie and validation.

The truth about what it’s like to fly solo lies in a multiplicity of voices—including yours.

Through essays and interviews, this new anthology aims to reflect that diversity of thought and experience. The more honest and personalized your essay, the relevant it will be to this project. Specifically, we’re looking for:

• Stories that chronicle your exodus from full-time job toward brighter horizons.
• Reflections on the inevitable identity crisis that can occur with too much professional freedom.
• Funny anecdotes about the day-to-day struggle of freelancing (taxes, client faux pas, odd jobs, etc.).
• Thoughts on how you are finding or have found a way to do good, fulfilling work in the world.
• Anything else that seems relevant to the spirit of this topic.

Deadline: November 1, 2008

Word Count: 1000-1200 words

Honorarium: $100 upon acceptance (yes, you’re worth more)

Details: Send as Word document using Times New Roman Font, 12 pt. double-spaced to careeranthology@gmail.com.

Next Steps

Andrew Molera State Park, Big Sur, CA

Anyone with an itchy mouse and an RSS Feed can plainly see that my commitment to the blog has waned in recent months. What does that mean–that I’ve gone and taken a day job, as I alluded to in my last post? Oh, c’mon. Surely you know me better than that.

I’ve actually gotten so excited about the topic of the cavalier career that I’ve begun plans to carry it over into another format: a printed anthology. Dare I even hope that I can pull this off? I’m goin’ for it. My brainstorming has taken time, and over those months I’ve been reviewing this existing blog with a critical eye. I’ve begun revising and reinventing (as is my penchant) the blog, so that I can introduce both formats at once.

So pardon me while I plot and scheme; I’ll be back soon.

Meanwhile, I strongly suggest that you 1)  get that RSS feed to this site, so you’ll get the update when I resume regular posting, and 2) head on over to the blog of my intriguing new acquaintance, Chris Ammon, a.k.a. Flying Hobo Girl. Her writings focus much more on travel than career, but the element of uncertainty is definitely relevant.

Just be sure to click back over and check up on Escape Artist every now and again …. and godspeed!

Allure of the Man

Today, innocently surfing Craigslist for new gigs, I stumbled across something unexpected: a full-time job that I actually wanted. Not one that I might consider, not one that might not suck, but one that looked really, really good—appropriately challenging and full of all the right perks.

What’s that? Shocked that a self-proclaimed free agent like me would be tempted by a full-time job?

Self-Employees of the Month: Andrea Enright & Michael Boudreaux

“

A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then … the glory … a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man’s importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories.”

–John Steinbeck

In 2005, Andrea Enright was living a golden, idyllic freelancer’s lifestyle, her communications portfolio fattening ever with contracts from well-known clients that ranged from Boston Market to Planned Parenthood. She had already successfully escaped the proverbial grind … but something was still missing. Her husband, Michael Boudreaux, a tech maestro for DIRECTV, thought so too. After a bit of soul-searching, they blew out of Denver and joined the Peace Corps.

When their two years of service in Bulgaria came to a close, Andrea and Michael kept going. On a mission they call “Wanderlust or Bust” they continued across the globe, including Syria, Lebanon, and Kurdistan (yeah, that’s Northern Iraq), couchsurfing, blogging, videoing and volunteering as they went.

Must … keep … going!

Fence post in my new neighborhood, Petaluma, Calif.

I know, I know … It’s plain rude to abandon a blog for a such long spell. The high-gloss journalistic mafia over at Media Bistro would say so, anyway.

When travel, relocation, the search for new gigs, and other transitions get hairy, I admittedly avoid the blog until I can muster an ounce of insight. Problem is, that’s exactly the opposite of what you’re supposed to do, because the form thrives most when its authors are tangled in crisis.

Escape of the Day: GO

The title of the last post reminded me of the financial highlight of my week: an excursion to GO Grocery Outlet .

I’ve had an affinity for this store since 1997, when we used to go there on special outings with the students from the boarding school where I taught. (Why were they special? I dunno, maybe because we always let the kids buy sugary cereal, when we otherwise fed them gruel.)

GO Grocery Outlet might be the type of place that hipsters and aging yuppies would typically drive right past, since it’s almost always housed in a skeezy strip mall abandoned in 1985 along with the Family Dollar.

Going, going …

Bathhouse ceiling, Hot Springs, AR

Vagabond, writer, and general bad-ass Andrea Enright pounded out a two-sentence blog entry from Egypt yesterday that read:

I cut my own hair today and I’m actually pleased. I’m not sure whether this is a sign of self-sufficiency or frighteningly decreasing standards.

More later on the zeal and drive of this dotcommer-turned-road warrior (whose haircut is, I’m sure, more than competently executed). Her point is one I’ve wanted to riff on ever since my late-March stopover in Hot Springs, Arkansas:

How do you set yourself free without letting yourself go?

Go. As in, over the edge.

Escape of the Day: Kenneth Koch

One of the great things about April (in addition to rain showers) is that it is National Poetry Month, and you can sign on to receive a fine and beautiful poem every single day. Beats heck out of a marketing newsletter, and leads you to writers you’d either never heard of or long since forgot about.

Kenneth Koch edited the first book of poetry I ever owned; previously, I’d been swiping from my dad’s shelf. Today I found a lovely and complicated poem that Koch wrote about his own father, “To My Father’s Business”. It illuminates how parental expectations, for better or worse, can play into our career choices.

I thought I might go crazy in the job

Staying in you

You whom I could love

But not be part of

Read the whole poem here.

As implied, my father actually has had a lot to do with how I began writing–precisely by not pushing me, he left me room to evolve. Thanks, Dad!

Escape of the Day: The Wish Jar

Get on over to Keri Smith’s crazy tangle of web links, collectively known as The Wish Jar, and start exploring. She is a modern day John Cage, a renegade public artist with few boundaries, little apparent ego, and a really good publishing contract. She is the type of artist who does stuff that surely you or I could have done–but we didn’t.

And why not?

As I catch my breath from the move and start picking up all the loose ends I left dangling when I blew across the country, I find her simple statement above says it perfectly. Why kick myself because (for example) I still don’t have a finished manuscript ready for publisher submission? Why berate myself because my fancy new business card bears a web URL which does not yet exist?! Nevermind the current condition of my nails, which, thanks to a filing accident, look like a slumber-party manicure given by a sleep deprived 4th grader.

The list goes on. But a gal can’t make herself miserable. Or can she?

Changing Forecast

Look how the sun has emerged, despite

expectations and the wringing of hands.

A new warmth arises on the April wind.

I am here again at an old crossroads:action

at odds with intention. Accomplishment sacrificed

to the short-term pleasure of just being here.

–Barbara Swift Brauer, from “Changing Forecast”

West Marin Review, Spring 2008

Do pardon my ridiculously long hiatus. What kind of devoted blogger just up and vanishes like that?