Finding Freedom

I enjoyed a three-hour FaceTime chat with one of my besties yesterday, during which the two of us talked about the irony of self-employment. The irony being: the reason people lust after the self-employment route is because of the freedom it offers (which traditional positions just don't allow for), and yet—

Working for yourself can be insanely challenging. There's an addictive element to it—where, instead of trading time for money, you're now trading effort for money, and that can lead to a wild degree of over-working.

That's precisely the place I found myself in June, and that's precisely the place I'm working to dig myself out of. I'm so grateful for my job and for each and every client—but I'm not helping anybody if I don't fill my own cup first. I've got quite a few big edits on my desk throughout all of July, but come August? I've promised myself some much needed time off.

That being said, I'm still going to focus on balancing my day-to-day life a little better, even if I am slam-packed in July.

Speaking of, this was the month I was planning on publishing A Dark Sky Opens. But with the state of the world being what it is, I've decided to postpone its publication—perhaps even a whole year. This is partly because A Dark Sky Opens takes place in the summer, so a summer release just *feels right* but it's also because I've got no way of knowing how this whole COVID-19 thing is going to go. I hope for the sake of my sanity all of this shit has died down by then—but if it doesn't look like there's an end in sight, I'll likely bump my publication up earlier and just get it over with.

It would suck to be denied my release party—but hey, there's always next time.

Everything happens for a reason. I hope.