Lower Than A Snake's Belly

At the end of this month I am retiring from corporate America to write and managing my writing career full time. I also have a number of projects that have been on the back burner for years: organizing 100+ years of family photos, getting rid of some of my parents’ “stuff,” cleaning out the storage space. You probably have many similar tasks that are postponed from year to year. And with good reason.

I also want to update and then redo my website. Big (fun) project. Have to keep the technical juices flowing, after all.

Besides the vanishing salary (no small consideration), there will be another issue that will be just about as bad, and that is the vanishing status. At work, I am a ‘go to’ person who figures out whether it can be done and then gets it done. Information Technology (IT) is not a pretty place, but we do projects, and most of the time we complete them (occasionally on time) and send them out into the world and then we do another one and so one. Yet again. For twenty-five years, through many IBM systems, Cullinet systems, weird packages that were a law unto themselves, supporting web and catalog software, Y2K and so on. Been there, done that, sat on a gazillion committees, went to enough meetings to spread your butt across a sofa, Installations, upgrades, conversations, integrations. I was there. This is ending in 10.5 workdays.

Mixed emotions? You bet. Scared? A little. Glad to say goodbye? That too.

A not-even-midlist writer trying to find an agent/and or publisher for computer crime novels is about as low on the literary totem pole as you can get. Down there scrabbling around with the worms and the rodents. My status in this world in going to take a huge hit and I’m hoping my ego is strong enough to weather this. I will probably never make the money on writing I made in IT. No more being the “to go girl.” Sigh. Back to suburban housewife and aspiring writer.

But dammit, I want to sit and write and so I shall. No status? Suck it up. Prestige only a memory? Suck it up! Paycheck? Suck it up.

I'll be sitting at my computer, with my head in another world.

Aloha,


Grapeshot