Brave New World

Don't know if anyone is going to read this, don't rightly care. Don't see why anyone would seeing as I haven't touched it for well over a year.

Well things change apparently, and the name for this site couldn't be more apt, as I really have gone across the counter. Yep, I no longer work in a comic shop.

Why?

Well many reasons really, a combination of personal and work related, but over-all I guess I was just ready to get the fuck out of small-town mentality Banbury and all the reasons I had to stay in said town (work, friends, house, gf) all went tits up and were no longer worth the time or effort tbh.

Probably would have stayed for the job, but after three years of being promised partnership into a comic shop I spent 11 years RUNNING (not working in, but running) for minimal wages it really no longer seemed worth it.

Still, I can't complain, been a good year despite its tumultuous start. Done some traveling, got some writing done, still fighting to be published, need a job soon, running short of money etc... etc...

What job do I go for? Tried working in a gym for a while, but fuck me was that a boring job, at least in the comic shop there was always something to be done, someone to talk to or at the very least something to read. At the gym, you had to invent ways to look busy, no point getting all your work done (and more) so you can read a book for half an hour after lunch (no lunch breaks, sit at the counter!), nope, walk around holding a cloth, don't man the counter to serve clients as that would be stupid. Honestly, if you feel you need to film your staff from four different camera angles to check up on them, just get rid of them and hire someone else because for £5.50 an hour to clean toilets, urinals and showers, it really isn't worth it at 28 years of age.

Would it be worth getting another job in a comic shop? Maybe temporarily, the shop in Canterbury (Whatever comics) is a decent shop with really nice owners, and it would definately be the place I'd plunk down my cash if I had to pay for my comics.
Couldn't leave a comic shop for another comic shop though. Too incestuous.

So what to do for a job hmm?

So why am I writing on this again? Don't know really. Kind of need a place to vent as I feel like I'm existing in a vacuum at the moment, I had no illusions that leaving small town mentality behind wouldn't ostracise me from my friends, and I know that leaving a town like that behind means you can never go back as you'll always be resented as "the guy who tried to leave", so you'll either be the guy who failed or the guy who thought he was better than small town.

Maybe I've been stuck indoors writing too much, which really wouldn't be a bad thing if it led to me getting something published. It seems a few of my friends are doing quite well in the industry now and even my ex-girlfriend has just had a book published, which is excellent and all but just highlights my personal failure to do so.

But coming back to the job thing, I worry that if I HAVE to get a job I will be looking for a career as I am too old to be doing the retail thing for minimum wage, and if I get a career I wonder how long my writing will continue, until time becomes a factor and I leave it behind. That would suck.