Laura Hollister:  

Aah, Life is Great. I'm in my sixth incarnation of sorts, and my life becomes more amazing with each change! Incarnation One: Took accounting in college--Connecticut College in New London, to be exact. To augment my almost entirely liberal arts curriculum I took a year-long accounting course and soon found myself tutoring my classmates in credits, debits and the like. It seemed a shoo-in. So I entered accounting profession and immediately became bored to death. Tried working for a second company in the same field. Still bored. My first incarnation lasted all of six months! Incarnation Two: Since childhood I'd wanted to be a writer. Thought working in Public Relations field might open some doors for me. Worked for a well-known PR firm in DC and simultaneouslyl worked toward a masters in PR. Loved the energy and the excitement of my career; and the richness of DC life was incredible. But I discovered that PR is about manipulating perceptions. One can pay "an expert" in almost any field, to say anything. Not for me. Met a lot of interesting folks, though--one of whom is still a great friend. My second incarnation occupied a year and a half. Incarnation Three: Took a more direct approach to pursue my goal to write professionally. Took a job as copy editor for a children's textbook company in Northern VA. Soon worked my way up to series editor. Learned lots; most of it still useful. Loved my work. But it wasn't "writing." Worse part was the incredible workload. I burned ou...Expand for more