In which I talk in great detail about why I have nothing to talk about this month…
Yeah, so this is the time of the month that I always recap my writing and publishing to try to entice you to read some of it and maybe even give me some feedback, and when I talk about the cool stuff that I read so that maybe you’ll recognize my wonderful taste in smut (and maybe find some new authors to read).
That ain’t happening this month. Feel free to close this now if you so desire, as I’m going to be talking about stuff other than erotica.
July started off with a health scare for my beloved bride of 40+ years. I’m not going into detail but it involved a day in ER and a number of doctor visits afterwards. She’s doing okay! But it’s been difficult to focus on writing, for obvious reasons.
I’ve also been counting down the weeks, and now days, until I retire from my day job. That has been distracting as well, partly as I try to get all of our Social Security and Medicare stuff set up (more on that in a bit) and partly trying to bring my lieutenants and my boss up to speed on what I actually do all day, as they are not (at least not immediately) bringing in a replacement.
Ask me how I feel about not being replaced. Yeah, probably about what you’d imagine. I’ve got around 150 people under me in my organization, I’m front and center with our sales guys and potential customers as they always want to talk to the people that actually deliver our services (me), and I’m their one-stop contact for all of the things that my team does. It’s going to be a mess, they KNOW it’s going to be a mess, but they’re happy to take the cost savings and try to live without me at least through the end of the year. Good luck to them.
The other big distraction has been getting all of our Social Security and medical coverage in place. I’m a fairly smart cookie, adept at technology, and it is insanely hard to get all of this done. I would have preferred to do it in person at the nearby SS office, but it has proven almost impossible to actually talk to someone in the office, much less get an appointment.
Despite all of the roadblocks, though, we’re almost there. Still tying up some loose ends on Medigap plans but we’ve still got work-provided coverage through almost the end of August, with the fed plans kicking in for September.
So now I’m down to 13 more working days! I realized that I had some unused floating holidays that I wasn’t going to get paid for, so I’m taking a couple of damn days off between now and my last working day. And honestly, I’m starting to reject meetings and push them to the next tier down the hierarchy while I’m still there to advise them. I’m spending the days in my home office and I’m still involved in a few new business pursuits, but other than that I’m going back and replaying Dungeon Siege and putting together Spotify playlists.
Not really writing much though — not yet. My days are still too interrupt-driven and my evenings too filled with forms and emails and planning. The ideas are there! I’ve got no shortage of stories I want to write. And I’m hoping that soon my head will be clear enough to get back to it.
My slightly-supernatural trailer park story “Welcome to Hidden Hills” is still a work in progress and I expect to start posting more chapters before the month is out. It will eventually be novel-length, I have no doubt. And I’ve been working on a new story in my head, one that includes exhibitionism/voyeurism, age gap, hotwife/cuckold dynamics and more! I think it’s going to be a good one — it’s sure going to be fun to write.
And don’t forget that I have a story in the new anthology “Wicked Little Miracles” edited by JK Mill! It’s a terrific collection with a number of amazing, award-winning authors and a little something for every taste (as long as you have a taste for erotica)! Do check it out.
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So enjoy your last weeks of summer! Next time I write one of these, I’ll be a retiree from the tech world and focused on writing, and living life. It’s gonna be great!
