Okay, so a long day today. The corporate world--yuck.

Did you know that less than 5% of all authors make their living writing? The next time you go into a Barnes and Noble or Borders, look around and see what 5% of all those books would really be. That means, if my math is right (you can tell I'm a writer with saying stuff like that! My husband is wincing), five out of every 100 books on a shelf is written by an author capable of supporting him or herself in writing. Very frightening how few that actually is. And the rest of us have so-called "day jobs." I say so-called because how often does that job actually end when the day does?

I wonder what the perfect day job would be. Many of us out there probably write for our day job as well. I do. But then you have days like today where the grind of 8 or 10 hours working for someone else makes you want to sit in front of the television and go slack-jawed for a couple of hours until it's time for bed. Other writers claim that a job that has nothing to do with writing is the ultimate day job. I can see that, especially with a job that keeps your body busy but not necessarily your mind.

I worked a couple of summers as a receptionist and found that was pretty good work for letting the mind roam freely. The phone would be busy in the morning, at lunch and in the evening and only sporadic throughout the rest of the day. But it would be hard to make the same money as a receptionist! And plus, after having started out in a corporate career path, I feel compelled to keep moving along that same way. I don't know why. There's definitely nothing wrong with changing careers to something perhaps less time-consuming or stressful. But I think maybe it's a hard transition to go from, "I'm a fairly successful corporate writer in a fortune 100 company" to "I'm a dog-walker and an author (who hasn't sold yet!)" Course, maybe at that point, you say, "I'm an author" and they don't need to know how you make your money or what your success has or has not been.

This is, of course, not to say that there's anything wrong with being a dog-walker or anything. I just find it interesting how I (probably other people too) am so hung up on what it says on my business card, even though I feel much more passionate about what I do in my off-hours. But passion, folks, doesn't pay the bills (at least not yet), so there you go.

So my advice to anyone who hasn't started working yet (Susan B., we'll see if you're reading this!) is to try to figure out what you want from the start and go for it. Don't take a high-paying job (of any kind) if you don't love what you're doing because you'll love the money, the fast food, the house, and the books that it buys and you'll have a tough time saying good bye to all of that.

Okay, so I guess today my blog lived up to it's name "diatribe." But to end on a couple of fun notes: Laurell K. Hamilton's, one of my favorite writers in the whole world, new book, Seduced By Moonlight, came out today!!! Check out her site at www.laurellkhamilton.org

And my friend Ed taught me a fun game to play when watching CSI: Miami, another of my addictions.
-Drink (non-alcholic beverages for those of you under the legal age, of course) every time David Caruso's character puts his hands on his hips.
-Drink every time the character Callie dresses inappropriately.
-Drink every time the coroner, Alex, talks to a dead body.
-And drink every time one of the CSI's finishes another's sentence.
Try it--it's hysterical. And you'll have to go the bathroom, very, very badly!

If anyone knows the origin of this game, send me an email. I'd like to give proper credit to whoever came up with ingenious diversion!

That's it for now. Talk to you tomorrow.