Well, after the excitement of early January, late Jan/February came at me like a rush and I didn’t get around to a newsletter. Oops. There was also a big life change percolating that only just became final in late March. Intrigued? Read on for the big reveal.

Covering January and February this time:

Part of the reason I’ve been quiet here and on social over the last couple of months is I’ve been heads down working on the edits for THE RACING LINE to get it ready to go on submission. When I’m doing a big revision pass, I like to print the manuscript out and get it bound so I can take it around with me and jot notes in it. Am I wasting trees? Yeah. Does it feel really great to hold your manuscript — this thing you spent months typing away at — in your hands in a tangible way? Also yeah. After determining the big things I was going to change to make a couple aspects stronger, I went through and re-read the whole thing again, making notes of what would need to be adjusted and how, catching stray typos and bad sentences, and anything else that jumped out at me. There were only a handful of chapters that need significant rewriting (the beginning and the last few, mostly), and as of last weekend, edits are done!

So what’s next?

For the book, I sent it back to Becca and if she thinks it’s ready, she’ll start sending it out to editors. And then we wait.

For me? A whole new scary chapter of life.

In mid-February, my job gave us the opportunity to sign up for a voluntary exit plan. We’re not the only company that’s done this and I’m glad they made the offer to us before starting on layoffs (for the most part). The offer amounted to still getting my 2025 bonus and getting a payout equal to six and a half months’ salary. This offer came at a really good time — we’d just finished a basement renovation so (knock on wood) have no big housing projects coming up, I’d just hit ten years at this job a few months ago and I like nice round numbers, I had a great manager and could leave on good terms, and I could go on my husband’s medical insurance.

With my book going on sub soon, general recommendation is to be working on a separate book during this time, so that if the first book doesn’t sell, you’re ahead on the next book. Having time to focus on writing full time during that stage and the timing of the offer were just too good to refuse. So I took it.

At the time of writing this, I have 3 weeks left of work. The week after I leave, I’ll head to Alexandria, VA for the WFWA Spring Retreat and then scoot up to NYC for a theatre trip with my husband. And in perfect timing, Susie Wolff is doing a one-night talk at the Grammercy Theatre and we snagged tickets for it. I may even get to meet my agent in person!

I’m not looking at this exit as quitting a job to write full time forever. Oddly enough, the week I signed up for it, I saw two successful writers asked if they have day jobs and both said they do and that they would probably go crazy if they didn’t have something other than writing to focus on. I think I’m probably in that camp, too. I’m looking at this as a six-month fellowship to focus on writing. Only, I’m the one paying myself to write. Toward the end of that time, I’ll start looking at what the next stage will be for a day job. It may be hard to come back into the job market at that time, I don’t know what that will be like. But I also could have gotten laid off, not on my terms, at any point. With this choice, I’m in control of one of the few things any of us have control of at the moment. And I’m feeling great about that.

See you maybe in April, but definitely in May as I get back to a regular schedule with this newsletter.