wilma unlimited. a children's book author, kathleen krull, came into class today to talk to us. she was intelligent, funny, interesting and shared stories of her path to full time writer status. our class asked her questions about what it took to get there, how much it paid now that she's there, and where she gets her inspiration and her topics. the main thing i got out of the discussion was how difficult it would be to become a full time writer. writers don't get paid jack. no artist does. unless you are an abberation and end up very lucky. like jk rowling. did you know she's richer than the queen of england? the #$@*& queen of england!?!



so the moral of the story is that a day job is needed. so it's time to find a day job. or you know, just...a job. i fear for our country when artists are forced to scrounge around begging for scraps. what happened to the days when artists lived lavishly and were rewarded for their creative brilliance? we need to set up an institutionalized patronage system. if you make six figures or over, you should be required to give a certain percentage to a starving artist. or if you make millions you should be made to support some artistic foundation. then again, i'm kind of against altruism so that would make me a hypocrite. oh well, that's nothing new.



on another note. a girl in class today handed out valentine's to everyone. skittles bite sized candies in little red non-resaleable packages. mine said "call me" on the front and the back had my very own name written on it. spelled right and everything. it felt like middle school, when everybody got personalized valentine's day cards. how she remembered everybody's name is beyond me but it was awfully thoughtful of her. and it's not even technically valentine's day. i suppose it's sometimes a good thing to attend class regularly.