Giving Myself Away

For the past two years, I've been giving away my time to the county where I live, working as the Elections Administrator. When I was hired, I was told it was a part time job, three days a week, more around elections. Foolishly I thought it would allow me plenty of time to write while earning bill-paying money at the same time. Oh, how naive I was! For two years I haven't written a word. Not even here on this blog.

At first, I was learning the job, or trying to. And that learning process just went on and on and on. After about 15 months, the fog finally began to clear and I felt like I knew the job fairly well. And it has been a complicated job, a test of my endurance, not to mention stress-filled. It turned out to be one of those jobs where every day was different, where you had ten balls in the air while you tried to jungle one or two of them. It was presented as a part time job to me by people who had no idea what all was involved, and for 27 months I have tried like hell to make it a part time job. But on May 19th, I gave the county judge my resignation, told him he needed to hire someone full-time, someone younger, someone who is looking for a career, because there is a lot of schooling, and certifications that a person can get if they are making it a career. But as for me, I'm done, and I can see my freedom.

When I gave my notice, I told the judge that I would stay until they found my replacement, or until the end of this budget year, which ends on September 30th. After over a month, the job listing was finally posted online, in the newspapers, etc. and a few -- damned few -- applicants have started interviewing. I have been tasked with holding the first screening interviews. So far, no bright stars have appeared. And for someone who wants a career, this is a good job, one of the better jobs around here. It has insurance benefits and a retirement program, and a good working environment. Part of me knows that I was lucky to find the job, but the other part of me resented the time it took from my life, at this time in my life, and I have already had a career or two, or three, and was not looking for another. I have one career, one calling, that has been neglected for far too long, and I'm raring the get back to it.

Writing….. have I been out of the fray too long? Maybe so. The writing industry has certainly undergone a major transformation, due primarily to internet publishing, but I personally think that's a good thing. It needed transforming. I have a lot to learn yet about all that. My four old novels continue to earn money because of the internet, and I'm grateful for that. The first thing I want to do is finally finish "The Endless Novel." I have reread it and am pleased, more or less, with how much is there. It needs some bending and blocking and propping up. I've always thought of novel writing as construction -- literally -- building a story scene by scene, bit of dialog by bit, carving away any fluff, sculpting what is leftover. Sometimes it takes getting away from it for a while to be able to see it as a whole, and I've sure been away for a long while. So it ought to be completely clear to me, right? By now?

The next thing I want to do is try my hand at article writing. I've done a little, but I want to do a whole lot more of it. And that means having to learn about that, too. I've got so many unfinished projects in my file cabinet and on my computers. If I work as hard at writing and finishing some of these projects, as I have worked at the Elections Administrator job, I should make a lot of progress. That's my goal.

Meanwhile, a few life changes have transpired in the last two years. The house in the mountains finally sold. I took a big loss on it but cut my losses at the same time. And then we bought a weekend cottage on the coast, only an hour and a half away so that we can go there a lot more often. Wayne and I are still together, still in love, after 9 years now. And we have a new addition to our family -- Sam, the orange tabby I found outside the Elections Office 22 months ago. He was a baby then. Mostly he's a laugh-riot, but at other times I want to strangle him, like when he turned over the flat-screen television at the cottage last weekend and broke it irreparably. Oh, but we love him anyway. And Lulu is still with us, older and slower. We cherish every day we have her now. She's been a loyal companion, most dear and easily the most intelligent pet I've ever known.

And so I'm back, and hope that anybody who once read this blog with any regularity will take it back up along with me. I still have lots of things to tell you. I will miss the money I was making while I was away, but not much else. Life's good.

Onward…..