My Writing Life: A New Chapter
Wow, I feel like it’s been an eternity since I’ve written a post!
For those few remaining souls that were waiting with bated breath for something new to read, I have a bit of a doozy for you. Without any further delay, let’s begin, for there’s no need to beat around the bush regarding what’s been keeping me so busy to the point where I’ve lost the ball on writing consistent blog posts and actively post on my social accounts.
I will be reentering the tech world.
After two years of writing full-time, I went through the process of researching and applying for jobs in the Salesforce space, the tech arena from which I stepped out of back in 2017. Not to harp on my professional skills and history too much, but the time it took to land a job offer wasn’t long - just 32 days from applying to receiving the offer via email. I officially begin my new job as Senior Salesforce Administrator on March 4th.
Why am I returning to work? The answer is quite simple: I made a promise to my wife, Kim, that if I wasn’t published within the two years that I dedicated my life to only writing I’d return to work. That promise was made before I learned just how slow the traditional publishing industry is, from landing an agent to landing a publisher to actually getting your book on store shelves. Womp womp… Nevertheless, a promise is a promise. In late-December I started my research into the Salesforce job market to see how it changed since I stepped away. January was when I started applying for positions and working with a recruiter. A handful of interviews - both over the phone and in-person later, I’d found the company and position that best suited my reentry into tech as much as the company and it’s staff found me.
To be honest, I’m very excited to return into an office environment and to be getting my hands dirty in the world of Salesforce once again.
The Future of (My) Writing
With my returning to a full-time job that isn’t writing, what does this mean for my writing career?
The majority of those that write and are unpublished hold full-time jobs which makes writing novels and short stories something they do on the side - at night, on weekends, whenever free time enters their life. Much like how my journey into writing began, I will return into those ranks. Therefore, I’m not going to stop writing because I hold a full-time job. However, it does mean that the amount of time that I can commit to writing will be drastically reduced when compared to the amount of time I’ve committed to it in the recent past. This will, without question, impact the amount of time it will take to complete my latest novel. However, I’m never going to stop writing - I can guarantee you that.
The Future of This Blog
Given that I won’t have as much time to write, those precious hours when I’m not working or caring for Terra will be more valuable than ever. That said, I don’t want to sacrifice this blog to the gods of time management. Now that my time investment in landing a new job paid off I can now begin the process of rejiggering my writing schedule to accommodate time for publishing new articles. There’s much to discuss and share with all of you. Some examples of future articles:
Sci-Fi Tropes. I barely scratched the surface for this new series of mine. Given that I want to explore tropes from both a contemporary and historical aspect, these articles will take time to craft. That said, I’ve already begun a new article covering a trope that appears in SO many books and movies today: artificial intelligence.
The Writing Zone. After some of my “writing and the law” posts gained traction on Twitter lately, I believe I may spend the next few Writing Zone articles to further explore various legal aspects of the publishing world that new writers should be made aware of. This may also include my take on the writer-agent and writer-publisher relationship.
Day in the Life. I always seem to get spikes in readership whenever my daughter’s mug appears in a blog post. Should I just sprinkle photos of her everywhere instead of writing personal posts, or would you like to take occasional peaks into my life as a dad? Hmmmm…
General writing articles. This can range from my thoughts on different writing styles to concepts that I feel others would appreciate hearing my spinning of it in a post here. That said, if you have any particular writing topics that you’d like to see me discuss, feel free to share in comments below!
I cannot say just how frequent the posts will be, though I do want to be consistent with the timing when I do commit to a timeframe. Once I begin working I am sure I’ll get a sense of what will be most realistic.
I am very thankful for the unique period of time in my life where I was able to commit my entire being to a lifetime goal. Despite not (yet) being published, I accomplished a significant chunk of that goal: to write a book. What could’ve easily taken two, three, or four years was accomplished in one - and that includes all the time spent conducting research on all manners of subjects for my novel.
To my loving - and very patient - wife, I thank you and love you beyond measure for allowing me to pursue this goal so completely.
A New Chapter Begins
Let’s see where this goes…
