Considering the **huge*+ success of yesterday’s post (no, it’s OK; it’s OK), I thought I’d expand a little on the subject.

I am a geologist and palaeontologist by trade, but I’ve been doing odd jobs for over four years, ever since my father’s health started deteriorating in 2013 and I dropped everything to help him. Basically I did all the sort of stuff you can do while attending a sick person and changing adult diapers and emptying catheters: translations, writing, the odd private lesson. My brother was here with me, helping along.
Then our father died and we were left with huge bills to pay, a mortgaged house, no work, and no income. It was scary.
It still is.

So, while I started sending CVs just about everywhere, and it soon was obvious there would be no reply, I sat down and did what I could: I started writing and translating. I started doing it faster. With my brother we started RE:CON, a shoestring venture to provide research and contents for writers, game designers and other creative types.

We paid our bills, and put bread on the table, and paid off most of the manageable debt.
But the mortgage was still there, and is still there, and is about to swallow us up whole.
No house, no money. Continue reading →