Follow passion... or a paycheck?

I honestly would go with the paid work. I'm actually planning to go into the technical writing field because I just plain love writing in all forms and I think the more writing I can do, the better I will get, even if it's in a completely different form than my fiction work.

I would go with my passion. If you want to publish a novel, keep pursuing that goal. I know this is cliche, but life is too short to step aside and watch as your dreams flutter away. Keep fighting to get published and have faith. If you work hard enough and make a conscious effort to keep improving your craft, then you can get published. The worst thing you can do is look back in a few years and say, "What if?" You want to be saying, "I'm glad I did this," not "I wish I had."