Contest Still Going, Stories and a Hint

OK so the contest is still going. No one has guessed correctly yet but it’s giving me some ideas for blog posts.

Also, if you’re in the area I’m doing a Book Reading and Signing at the Chester County Book and Music Company in West Chester, PA this Saturday at 7:00 pm.

I used to do tech support. I would answer help desk calls. I got hired after exaggerating on my resume and learning on the job. I would temp at various places and at one point became an HP printer technician when I knew nothing about printers. Subcontracted, of course. I was getting $20 an hour and learned that HP charged the clients $120 an hour. Quite a markup. One day I was dispatched to an office. There was this huge printer there that I had no idea what to do with. So I took it apart and then still had no idea what to do. So when no one was looking in the office I... left. That’s right, I just left.

I told the dispatcher it was too hard of a job. They didn’t even get mad. They just sent a senior tech over the next day to put it back together and hopefully fix it.

So eventually I was temping over at the ABC lot. I was fixing the computer of the head writer’s office of Port Charles. I asked her if she was looking for writers. She said yes. I gave her a Grace under Fire Spec Script, and long story short, she hired me. I was then writer for Port Charles. While I was on my probationary period I still did tech support and would write in the office. Finally an exec in ABC New York wondered why they were paying me twice and I was then a full time writer and had to give up tech support.

When the head writer hired me, she told me “I want to hear the voice of your writing come through in every script. I want to know you wrote it without even looking at the title page” This was good advice and I had a blast writing for the show. AND I just wrote dialogue. I’d get the script breakdown and just write the dialogue. It was awesome.

Then, the head writer either left or got fired. You never really know which it is. She wasn’t getting along with the executive producer. That of course meant that everyone she hired had to go to “clean house”. The executive producer called me and said they were not renewing my contract. She said “You’re writing has a very distinct voice. We don’t want to hear it. We want all the writing to sound the same.” So I had been fired for the same reason I had gotten hired. Good old showbiz. Then the executive producer was soon gone and the show got cancelled.

In this story there is a HINT as to the job I have never had. Contest still open. Already guessed? Guess again!