Art For Art's Sake (Money, For God's Sake)

This morning I received a remittance advice for a wee bit of writing (a joke I sold, so it's small in wordcount and audience alike), which makes it the first bit of money I've received for my writing in ... oh, an alarmingly long time.

The dream, of course, is to make a living from writing and nothing else, but I'm aware that this is a long way off. One step at a time, of course, and I'm fortunate in that the day jobs I've had since I started writing (which would be, come to think of it, every job I've ever had since the age of 18) have generally left me with enough mental energy remaining to do some writing in my free time, and sometimes to even make a sale.

Anyway, selling the joke (and doing so in the first couple of days of the year) feels like a good start to 2009, though, and I hope it'll just be the first of many... though of course it's less a question of hope, and more one of
work, a fact which I'm very much bearing in mind.