Today I am so pleased to welcome Josephine Myles to Joyfully Jay. Jo has come to talk to us about her latest release, Custom Fit. She has also brought along a tour wide giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Worst job EVER! A guest post by Josephine Myles

When I titled this post “Worst Job EVER!” I don’t want you to think that I’m talking about my job. Being a writer is probably about the best job out there. You get choose when and how you work (with pen and paper, floating in a dinghy, should you wish), and are paid to make up fictional worlds and share them with readers, some of whom write to you to let you know how much they love your books. Okay, there are some tougher moments, like when you’re stuck procrastinating and for some reason decide to rearrange the kitchen cupboards rather than getting back to finishing off that tricky scene, but’s let’s face it, even the bad days are way better than the mediocre days in most jobs.

However, I do have experience of a wide range of crappy jobs, all from my late teens and early twenties, and it was this I drew on while writing Custom Fit. You see, Felix and Andrew from Tailor Made have now moved out of their bedsit/shared house arrangements and have rented a flat together, meaning they needed to get their very first jobs to pay for it. What kind of jobs are available in Bath for youngsters with no work experience? I wanted to find some of the worst ones for my two heroes, so I stuck Andrew in a busy city centre café, and Felix, with his art degree, can only find work as a human billboard.

Now let’s get one thing straight, I have never worked as a human billboard. However, you get a lot of them in Bath during the summer, and I always wondered what it would be like. They look so bored most of the time—even the ones dressed up like Roman soldiers. And of course, I just had to make Felix one of those. I mean, he gets to wear a fake leather skirt. What more could you ask for in a uniform?!

I think the most boring job I ever tried was in a factory, screwing caps onto bottles of lemon-scented bathroom cleaner. It was noisy, dull, and monotonous, but worst of all, they didn’t provide me with any gloves and some of the bottles had cleaning gloop running down the sides of them.

When the temping agency asked me to go back for a second day, I (not so politely) declined. The envelope stuffing jobs they’d sent me on before were thrilling in comparison. What could be better than spending all day putting the same bunch of advertising fliers into envelopes? Oh yes, perhaps it was that couple of days I spent at a Royal Mail sorting office in the run up to Christmas, sorting out letters with different rates of postage. Yawn.

But there are also crappy jobs that don’t give you a moment to get bored. Or okay, you can be bored but there’s no time to dwell on it as you’re run off your feet and having to remember a hundred things at once. Andrew’s café job fits into this category. I’ve done a few thankless waiting jobs—indeed, my very first job at the ripe old age of fifteen was in a small café. But I’ve done plenty of other jobs that fit in this category too. There were all those hours on the till at a busy chemist; the bar-tending jobs, which could be fun during the week but were hectic on weekends; and the couple of weeks I spent manning the dishwasher in a huge commercial kitchen. Or wait, what about that couple of weeks I spent cleaning kitchens in the student accommodation at the end of the summer term?

But crappy jobs can be fun too. If you can find the right people to work with and are doing something you can believe in, then it’s not all bad. Luckily Felix manages to find himself a job like this, although it’s only at the weekends. The best crappy temping job I ever tried was litter picking. I thought it would be awful—I mean, this is a job they sometimes give out as punishment to offenders—but in fact I had a great day. I was working with a friendly bloke I got on well with, we were outside, driving a big truck, and left everywhere in a better state than we found it. That was the one job I’d have gladly been sent back to, but they only needed the cover for one day.

Mind you, I think my boyfriend at the time was relieved. Apparently working with litter all day leaves you a bit stinky!

Readers, what’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Or are there ones that you took on reluctantly, but actually enjoyed?


Blurb

Custom-Fit-200x300Being “wrong” has never felt so right!

Felix McAvoy is having an identity crisis. No longer the bad boy of art college, he’s now employed as a human billboard, roaming the centre of Bath dressed as a Roman soldier while attempting to fight off his nicotine cravings. It’s a comedown for the former conceptual artist, although there are compensations to the costume. The skirt, for one…

While Felix hasn’t made a secret of his desire to wear women’s clothing, he’s never dared try it until now. He’s always been worried once he goes down that road, he won’t want to come back, and the prospect of cross-dressing 24/7 terrifies him. Of course, he can’t tell that to Andrew, who’s now busy making Felix a slutty red dress.

Andrew Wheeler loves coming home to Felix and their cosy city centre flat. He just wishes Felix would let him know what’s bothering him. And maybe then, Andrew could confide what he really wants. Felix might not see him as anything other than a top, but Andrew’s yearning to switch things up.

Living together is one thing. Actually plucking up the courage to talk about their secret desires is going to be a whole other—and excruciatingly embarrassing—kettle of fish.


Bio

Josephine-MylesEnglish through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She writes for publishers but has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion, although she prefers to leave the “boring bits” of the ebook creation process to someone else. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the deman ds of a preteenwith special needs and an incessantly curious toddler.


Giveaway

Jo has brought two backlist titles to give away to one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter. 

Rafflecopter giveaway

  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • By entering you are agreeing to the Terms and Conditions set out by Rafflecopter for entries.
  • Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
  • Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
  • By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
  • Void where prohibited by law.
FILED UNDER: Giveaway, Guest Post
TAGGED: