Retiring This Blog

 I am no longer writing in between -- I've retired, and now I can write whenever, wherever, and how much I want.

Retirement, here I come!

Writing in between ... new work

I retired last year, then 6 weeks later, I started a new job. I went from I.T. professional to the coordinator of Master Gardeners for my county.

What does that entail? Helping MGs with their events, making sure they stay on budget, signing contracts for various things -- management, essentially.

It's a part-time job (30 hours a week), which leaves me ample time for writing. I'll have 2 books out this year, I've written 1 BIG one (100,000 words) and one small one (70K words) and I'm on track to finish another one that will probably come in at 70K.

I still write every day, I still enjoy it, and I'm still submitting manuscripts to my editor. In short: not much has changed and yet a lot has changed.

Writing in between ... work?

Nope. From here on, I won't be saying that anymore. I'm retiring in a few days. After 45 years in the high tech industry, I decided to let the young'uns take over.

To be honest, I haven't even really tried to think about what it might be like. I'm focused on getting through the remainder of my workload, prepping for a small getaway, and when I come back, my schedule changes.

I also applied for a part-time job which might kick in sometime in November. It would be challenging, but a different kind of challenge than what I have now.

Now I'll need to figure out a new writing schedule, a new promotion schedule and a new way of managing my time.

Bring it. I'm ready! Or, I will be by the time it gets here. I hope.

Yep. I'm back in the swing

The last time I wrote, I was 5 weeks in from surgery and trying to get back into Writing Mode.

I sat back down to dig into writing in April and I managed to finish my manuscript in mid-May. That was a very respectable bit of writing. I did 109,500 words in a total of 15 weeks (18 weeks, but I took three weeks off for surgery, really).

I just sat in the chair and wrote and wrote. I haven't done a content re-read yet so it may all be crap, but I think it turned out okay. I'll find out in a few weeks when I do a re-read and will know for sure at the end of the year when I do another re-read. Fingers crossed.

Physically, I still hobble now and then when I'm tired. I mean, they did cut a bunch of muscles and they're regrowing and healing and strengthening. But I'm almost back to speed on the treadmill, I can do aerobics without much problem, and my yoga is improving.

So I guess it's onward!

Now *that's* writing in between

I had Big Surgery about 5 weeks ago -- total hip replacement. I've hobbled around for a decade or more with pain in my hip, and finally decided to have it done.

I've never had surgery before where I had to stay overnight in the hospital. Interesting experience; not terrible or anything, just interesting. The pain was manageable most of the time, and I was up and moving within hours. It took about a week for me to start to feel somewhat normal again, and now I'm almost back to 100%.

I viewed this recovery time as an opportunity to reassess my 'schedule' -- that daily list of things I do. I obviously couldn't go to the gym, run on the treadmill, etc. so I made do with what I could do and gave myself permission to heal. Along the way, I got out of the habit of writing, but that was okay -- I was taking drugs and doing therapy, so I expected that to lapse.

Now I'm trying to get back into a workable schedule and it's surprisingly hard. I *want* to write, but I need to find that golden time of the day when I can block out the world and go into that world I'm creating. I'm getting there, but it's a matter of retraining those muscles, too, just like I'm retraining my physical muscles.

I'll report back in a few months about how long it took. I'm only 5 weeks in; I'm betting another week or two, and I'll be in the swing again.

I hope.