THE Tea With Lesley

 

So I came to know Lesley from when I started a literati group. The purpose of the group was to be a place where writers could meet, collaborate and grow. I'm not sure how successful we were at it, but at worst we did get four anthologies out of it. 

When I saw that Lesley had pivoted from writer to virtual assistant, I just had to know more. It's not a very common profession in this Kenya and I figured that more people would like to know how she went about it and how she managed to penetrate this industry especially since in the remote world, they do love a virtual assistant from Malaysia or the Phillipines. 

Well, this is her story. 

We ended up going in depth on a couple of things including the how, when you want to get started - not just the steps you have to take (which are reproducable) but the mental preparation you have to go through.

All in all, I learned something new and I hope you do too. Enjoy.

Living Abroad - A Podcast

 I did a podcast episode with my friend Bengat because I've seen a lot of posts and people talking about if they could just pass that sign that says 'kwa heri Kenya' all their problems would disappear. 

The weird thing about problems is that they follow you. You don't leave your childhood trauma behind, you inability to manage money, your lack of money...those problems don't end because you left the country. 

I recently watched a movie where Vanessa Kirby was a hot hot mess. She made bad decisions and everything seemed to just get worse and worse with every decision. Finally, she left town in the end and I suppose that was supposed to indicate a 'new start' but her inability to make good decisions didn't just sprout because she got in her car and moved her body elsewhere. 

So I wanted to speak to Bengat because she's an immigrant. She left here and went there. The thing is, she was already doing well when she left and she continued to do well over there. She had a support system here and she has one there. She makes an effort to maintain that sense of community by being there for others.

I mean, she sought me out at a low moment just because we were in the same class twenty years ago. She reminded me very much of my mother. She used to be the same. I aspire to the same level of community but I fall short.

Anyway so maybe the podcast started out as a way to give an illustration that the grass is greener where you water it and not necessarily on the other side but it ended up being a lesson in nurturing relationships. 

I hope you all give it a listen.

Fat Girl Fitness with a side of Excerpt

Have you seen Fit for TV on Netflix? I didn't know y'all were such bullies or rather I've never seen fatphobia so blatant before in my life. So I'm posting this so y'all can have someone to bully who doesn't give a fuck what you think. Enjoy!

My Commissions on Ko-fi are Open

I've consolidated my work in one place. Come find me. 

I've also managed to finally pinpoint what I write about. Also available on Ko-fi. Generally everything that I write about or on, can be found if you start on my ko-fi page. It's the final girl in Annemarie consolidation olympics. There's a lot I do and it can be confusing but we're all hustling in one way or another. Keeping to just one thing just isn't practical.

So if you're having an off day and need to just lose yourself in interesting writing, be it stories or blog posts, podcast episodes, art, codas...you can find them all there. 

Let's have coffee together. Or tea.

Commissions are Open

My base of operations is now ko-fi. If you've ever wanted to ask me a question or ask for help, now you have somewhere to do that. Come see me.

NSFW Thoughts

 

https://www.tumblr.com/coincidenceiscancelled/787007953228152832/munching-and-misogyny

Consolidating and Synergising

 Every month these days, I think, 'wow, this is the worst month of the year' but when I sit back and really think about it, I been struggling for a while now. 

A combination of things are responsible. The election of the worst government ever to government is one. My body failing me is another. A drop in the quality of available clients on upwork is a huge third. 

What this combination has conspired to do to me is that my work output has steadily reduced with nothing to replace it. As I sit here, I'm definitely in a hole that I'm trying to dig myself out of.

The upside to that is that I've been meaning to build up my own 'commercial' works - that means writing stories that sell commercially to publishers such as Harlequin and other novel sites. Now I have been forced to take that more seriously and actually work on the pieces of work that I have.

That's going okay but it's hampered by the continuous screaming in the back of my head that insists I should focus more on finding money now before I can choose to complete the work in the hope of future income. I'm trying everything, trust but so far, there's been a lot of scams, a lot of interviews that didn't go anywhere and a lot of borrowing.

Its harrowing for the soul. Capitalism is harrowing for the soul.

So I decided to try consolidating and synergizing all my content in one place - and so I put everything on ko-fi - the books I'm writing, the books I've written, the podcasts, etc. Everything that I've done, and a humble request for cuppa coffee.

I don't know if it'll work. I hope it does if only because it really returns the power of earning back into my own hands. I know you see the link on this blog, that's been there a while so let's call this a relaunch.

I'm not going to sit back and wait for y'all to come to me though. 

I intend to be in your face about it. 

I intend to remind you daily. 

I intend to find new and all ways to get the word out. 

Because if this works, it could be a game changer for me.

I could maybe start living like Ismatu Gwendolyn - making art while supporters help me to live. Now wouldn't that be great? I wish we could all live like that. The ancient Greeks might have been onto something with that finding a sponsor shit. 

Idea!

Anyway, so come to my ko-fi. For the small small price of $3, you win access to member only stories, and other goodies. I intend to be very active on there. You will feel like you're getting your money's worth.

One small step for me and who knows, we could make it a trend. 

Some of the gems that are going to be on there include this little text conversation between Ben and Anders. Just cute little things to make you smile, or whole codas or excerpts. I'm going to enjoy myself and I want you to too.