Canned!

Hey everyone! In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been around in a while. No Hump Day Surprises – nothing! Why? Well, life has been interesting.

The reasons for my hiatus are wide and varied. To start with, there was all kinds of day job interference. Then there was planning for vacation, vacation, and… something else. What was it? Let's see … oh yeah! I was canned from my day job last week. Yep, fired. Shown the door. Tossed out on my – ahem.

Being canned has been a mixed blessing. Like most writers with a day job, I've always dreamed of having an extended period of time to work on my book. I can't tell you how many times I’ve sat at work, wishing I was at home working on my book instead of whatever it was I was doing. When I was canned, one of the first thoughts that went through my head was, ‘Fine! At least I'll be able to go write!’

So that's exactly what I've been doing.

I've always had the notion that if I ever had a solid block of writing time I would really crank things out but this is the first such opportunity I've been given.  The results have been astonishing. In the past two weeks I have completed somewhere between two to three months worth of work on my WIP. It's truly amazing.

Kicking ass on my WIP isn't the only nice thing about being unemployed. The weather here in Minnesota is absolutely fantastic right now. I’ve been eating my lunch out on the deck, opening the windows to hear the birds sing and – gasp – I’ve actually had the time to read something other than comic books! It has been blissful. The only thing that could make it better would be if I could walk over to the money tree and pull off a 10 spot to pay for the martini I’m was thinking about making later this afternoon.

You see where this is going, right?

The other experience that unemployment has given me is an appreciation for my day job. Don't get me wrong, I would be more than happy to sit home all day and write, do the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, you name it, but that particular job pays for shit. Even if, say, nine months to a year down the road I actually get published, it’s extremely likely that job would still pay for shit. And in the meantime? My not working would mean no comics, books, or music, not to mention what it would do to the budget for everything else.

So, like it or not, I'll be going back to work as soon as I can find a job. It will be hard to go back to snatching an hour here and there to work on my WIP, but that’s just the way it will have to be. And, in a way, I’m ok with that, because life wouldn't be any fun without comics, or books, or music, or nights out on the town with my lovely wife.