The past few days have been interesting.

Yesterday, a placement firm (i.e. headhunter) called to see if I was still interested in a marketing manager job. Oh yes. Definitely. It’s even in my preferred salary range. Oh yes. Definitely. Could I meet with the recruiter that afternoon? Oh yes. DEFINITELY. And I wore my new suit, too. Looks like a good opportunity. We’ll see next week after the hiring manager sees my resume.

Today two new opportunities popped up. The first is a freelance gig with a real estate magazine. one or two advertorial articles a month. Decent pay rate per article. I can do that. No problem.

The other opportunity involves doing art for the end papers in a high-end small press anthology that will be released at the World Horror Con in April. Very big deal. Very small pay. But hey, I’m having fun with this! I get a copy of the book, I get to sign the special hardback edition, and I get to keep the copyright to the art so I can sell prints. And it gives me a showcase piece to display at the con’s art show.

And I finally nailed down some freelance opportunities at the place where I’m answering phones. We’ve agreed on my pay rate. We’ve identified some projects. And we’ve agreed in principle on some additional duties and hours that may come my way over the next few months.

And to top it off, President Bush signed a bill that restores my unemployment benefits, meaning I am one of “about 800,000 people who had not received all 13 weeks of their added federal benefits under a program that expired Dec. 28 will get the remainder.”