End of an Era

I've been holding my breath for a couple of months now, but it's finally happened; this week is the last in which I will be primarily working as a pharmacist (druggist). Barring an unfortunate few weeks in December which were booked several centuries ago, from now on I can truthfully put 'writer' into the occupation box on survey forms since that, primarily, is what I'll be doing.

I've spoken before about how odd the public perception of writers is, but I had expected to feel rather different this week. Elated, perhaps; the sort of light and airy feeling that you can only ordinarily achieve by forgetting to put your knickers on. Instead of that, I feel... odd. Dislocated. It's almost like a bereavement, except without the grief. I think I'm just feeling exposed, mostly, as I kiss a partial goodbye to the whiny bitch that is pharmacy in the 21st century.

As I drove slowly through the back lanes of an unfamiliar pocket of Dorset last week in the gathering darkness, in search of a previously arranged interview for a planned project, I felt a chill wind blow through the core of me. This, after all, is what I signed up for; goodbye to the comforting tedium of wage slavery with its regular pay packet, and hello to the brassy uncertainty of setting my own goals and priorities, touting for business, and hoping to the gods that somebody is prepared to buy my work. My last day of mainly-pharmacy promised to be feel very odd indeed.

But hey, this is me - so naturally the fates intervened. An unduckable pharmacy conference has popped up its head this weekend, locking me into three days of travel, boredom and (if I get my way) alcohol, and this morning a hefty set of proofs arrived in the post. The lovely publishers need them checked in minute detail and sent back - by Monday at the latest. Given that I will get home late on Sunday night that won't be a problem, will it?

But perhaps shell-shocked and exhausted is a more realistic way to make the transition between two careers than hollow and dislocated, after all. Regardless, as of next week work starts on Fimp - of which you will be hearing much more shortly. Excited? I am - but you can't see what I'm doing.

Wish me luck!