(no subject)
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all!
I have my tree decorated and my shopping finished and am ready (as I ever get) for the long drive to pick up my nephew and ferry him to his mom's house for Christmas. My nephew has never gotten me a present in his life and my sister thinks a bottle of lotion is a good gift, so mostly I just play Santa to them and work on whatever story I'm writing while they watch movies or TV shows. At least the food's good -- but you sure can't choose your family.
This week I'm working on a story for "When Worlds Collide," an anthology for Zombies Need Brains. I also sent something in for "The Modern Deity's Guide to Surviving Humanity" but I'm not doing "Derelict" because I can't think of a velyr angle for that one and my purpose is to 1) Get my name out there and 2) get the velyr out there as well.
After the New Year, I'm working on stories due in February and March, then I'll do the April anthology for our local Sisters in Crime chapter ("Rock & Roll & Ruin"). I've also been writing Amish romance plots for Valhalla Publishing. They wanted me to ghost-write but for the prices they pay, I just can't afford to waste the time. I do get $40 for a plotline and that's about as much as I'm willing to put in. There's also the $100 articles I do for another client on UpWork, which pay a little better (but not much).
I'm actually toying with the idea of getting an IT job after the first of the year. There's a course that promises you'll pass the exam -- and it's discounted to $69 for the entire course for Xmas. IT jobs pay pretty well, right? And it's not like I don't use technology all the time -- how hard could it be to learn the basics behind what I use? Can't be harder than learning pharmacy! Maybe I can find a job doing something more interesting with the same (or maybe even better) salary...
I've got to do something, and the tarot/palm reading I got in New Orleans says I have a big move coming, either a physical move to a new house (I hope not) or a career move. Either way, she said it's something that's going to "take a load off" my shoulders and give me something I can take a deep breath while I do it. I'm thinking career (or hoping so) and that either I can get a remote pharmacy job somehow or just totally change careers for the last 10-15 years before I retire. I need a good salary to pay off this mortgage ahead of time and sock some more money into my Roth IRA for retirement.
My tarot also said I'd meet a guy next year sometime, from somewhere west of the Mississippi. He's an outdoors type (she saw an NRA sticker) who's going to be very important to me somehow. We agreed that I'm not getting married again, however. I also need to pay attention to legal matters and ask twice as much as I think I can get because whatever I ask, they're going to cut in half. She was thinking lawsuit (I hope not coz that would mean a car accident or something).
At any rate, first I have to get through the end of the year. I haven't decided whether I want to drive the nephew over to my sister's for New Year's Day as well as Christmas. I might decide I need the day to myself!