The State of Me

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on what’s going on in my life. That’s mainly because, apart from the writing stuff, there hasn’t been much going on other than working and looking for work.

The latter didn’t come as readily as I’d hoped it would when I left that job back in October, so for the last month or so we’ve been scrambling, and I’ve pretty much been throwing everything — every skill and bit of work experience and knowledge that I’ve got — at the freelance wall to see what would stick. The problem with that is that now I’m being pulled in so many different directions that I basically have no direction. The good news is, I’ve got some steady work lined up, and there might be a bit more around the corner.

Also, yesterday I had a meeting with a technical staffing agency recruiter who has two full-time jobs that he thinks I might be a good fit for. I told him that I currently have rather high standards for pay and benefits, and that if I go full time again I need to be paid well enough that I can set the freelancing aside and only have to work the one job. He didn’t seem to think that would be an obstacle, so we’ll see. He’s working on lining up the interviews for me.

As much as I love the flexibility of working at home, part of me really hopes one of these works out, because one thing I do not like about freelancing is the hustle. You have to constantly put yourself out there and sell yourself and your abilities and it’s an employment search that never ends, and it’s really quite exhausting. If I can be done with that for a while, that would be lovely, and then I could focus my spare time on my writing and maybe actually have time for a hobby or two.

But if they don’t, like I said, I’ve got two, possibly three, sources of steady income for the time being, so we’ll be okay.

Either way, I think it’s time to regroup and re-examine things, to let go of the things that haven’t stuck to the wall and narrow my focus and pick a niche and stick with it. Also, my book is almost ready to launch, and with that whole process winding down I’m beginning to have some breathing room again. Although I need to not waste any time getting the next book out there.

And with the weather turning colder, all I really want to do is eat and sleep and knit. Or crochet. Whichever. If I ever have the luxury of “finding my bliss,” it’s going to involve figuring out a way to combine writing fiction with knitting as something I can do for a living.

Anyway, that’s what up with me. What up with you?