Tao of Pauly

If You Owe Me Money, It's Time to Pay Up

It's been a tough day for me and it's not even 1:30pm.

In the last two hours, I've been dropped by two freelance poker clients who gave me a pink slip without any warning. And I had to take a pay cut for one of the poker magazines I write for. My rate was decreased by 25%.

And last week, I was flagged by Party Poker while they investigate my affiliate account for fraud.

Yep, my account was frozen and they are holding my funds during the investigation. Flagged for fraud, dumped by two clients, and now the pay cut. At least I lost 16 pounds in the past week. That was my only highlight.

After the recent anti-online gambling legislation that was passed last week, the online poker sites began cutting back on advertising in the publications that I write for. And like grains of sand, my career is slipping through my fingers.

I'm just a writer trying to earn a living and my legitimate means of support have been affected. I don't expect my government to help me out. They've never treated artists with respect and that will never change. They actually fucked me here. It was hard enough having to swallow the bitter pill knowing that part of my supplemented income (ad sales and poker site affiliate revenue) would disappear due to the legislation. But I thought that I had my freelance writing career to fall back on. Now the future doesn't look too good.

This puts more pressure on me. It's not enough that I'm on edge trying to finish the book, but now I feel even more pressure to make sure it sells. Otheriwse the 1.5 months I took off to write the book was a wasted attempt. The book has to be good and sellable.

As is, I planned on taking the rest of the year off to write and travel. Now it looks like I'll have to go back to work. That is... if I can find other work. Time to post some resumes.

I told myself to write about my frustration and intense anger for twenty minutes, then I would get back to work. Bitching and maoning is not going to change things. I have about a week left to finish Jack Tripper Stole My Dog and I'm burning daylight.

The pressure is on... the only way I'm going to get out of this... is to write my way out.