My Day Job(s)

   by Wendy Burke

     I had started a blog about my past 1NightStand stories, but you know, we've both heard the stories of the story before -- so maybe this may be new...or...maybe not so much, but...
     I have two 'day' jobs -- you know, those jobs writers have to keep beans and rice on the table while they write?     Job One begins at 4AM (3AM if you consider what time my alarm goes off!) -- I'm a TV producer. (At left, two of the on-air talent I work with daily -- yep, professionals to the core!)
     Job Two begins at 12:05 PM, when I leave the TV station, cross the street and head to the fourth floor of a lovely old building along the Maumee River to spend three or so hours on the radio. 
    I'm behind the 'board' one day last week, thinking about how I really MUST get For Me, my latest 1NightStand, done in a very timely manner and the song Wanted by Hunter Hayes pops up in rotation. Even though I'm supposed to be giving away tickets to an upcoming Bob Seger concert, I have to start scribbling on Post It Sticky Notes to get the thought out of my head lest I forget it.

     Wanted is the perfect song for Abby -- a busy professional, whose heart and bed have been lonely for many years. She believes she's past her prime romantically, even though she's on the top of her game professionally. Add the fact she's over forty and --in the eyes of the fashion world (where a size 6 is now considered ULTRA-plus size) 'morbidly' obese, she needs a little 'attention,' so she enlists Madame Eve's services for a 1NightStand.

And her date--you may not think he's handsome, but I stumbled upon Dash Mihok in a little movie called Lifted (I watched it only because Trace Adkins was in it!) during one of my many stays in Wisconsin this past summer caring for my brother...and something about the way he looked just stuck with me, so I knew eventually he'd be a model for one of my characters. As 'Casey,' he adores Abby, but will she realize that?
     And, not to make you think I only write while at Job Two -- I sometimes send myself emails from Job One because I have an idea...hey, after all, I work with some real 'characters.'  
     (Yeah, I think Another Pretty Face might be a good working title for a TV-newsroom-based 1NightStand -- of course the story would be..."... a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental...")
    I guess the moral of this story is: writers always write - even when their day job(s) gets in the way!
    As I pen this, it's late---after 8PM. I better get my butt in bed so I can get up for work in the morning...but then I do have that steno pad on the nightstand, just in case an idea pops into my head at 2AM! 

 When not playing with the people in her head, Wendy has a silly life working in TV and radio. She shares her clean, yet perpetually dusty hovel with her her way-too-cute chef husband and two furry feline kids. She's proud to be a displaced Cheesehead, now living in Cpl. Maxwell Klinger's hometown. 

Find her on Facebook, Twitter (@WendyBurke1994) or send her a nasty email (wendyburke1994@bex.net) to which she will promptly respond!