Funemployment

If you can believe it, today is my first day fully unemployed since early 2018. About a month ago, the company I worked for had its fourth major round of layoffs… and I survived! But I had been talking to Dylan about wanting to quit, to take some time off while we could afford to. (since we don’t pay rent and have very low living costs in Raleigh) So, when I realized that this round of layoffs, like the ones before it, would mean more responsibility for no less pay, and definitely not a promotion… I quit! And I would have put my two weeks in right then, but the company had just spent a lot of careful energy trimming 25% of the workforce away, down to the bare essentials—and that had included me. Next thing I knew, I was in a meeting with the company CTO, who was asking me what it would take to stay around. I could have negotiated a promotion, a raise, a bonus—I had, as you might imagine, a lot of leverage. Instead, I said I would stay on for as long as they wanted me to while they found a replacement, but that I would only work 3 days a week. I expected them to caveat this with a decrease in weekly pay… which they didn’t do! So thats how I ended up working for six weeks, effectively increasing my daily salary by 50%, while also getting two extra days a week of free time to focus on writing. In that time, I have tried to put things in order, but have also been dealing with some health issues. What I have are an almost final draft of Priesthood, and a draft of a new story, using some of my auto-culture ideas, in the working phase. I am still shopping Brushstrokes around, the magazine my coach wants me to send it to is still closed to submissions, so I’ve just been sending it to other places while waiting—no success yet. Now starts the real work, I will try to find some ways to make petty cash while focusing on writing and game dev. I find myself thinking a lot about money, and how I can make a comfortable living for Dylan and I, and kids in the middle future, but I have that only as a sidenote for now. What I really need is to focus on becoming as good of a story teller as I can, because that is what feels right in this moment.