2008 was full, busy, and stressful. The first part of the year found Nate and I learning how to be parents, working full time, and making a few big decisions. In the spring of '08 shortly after an Easter trip to Austin, we decided to take the plunge and move to Austin. It was a decision we struggled over, but once it was made we kept going. We spent most of the spring getting the house ready to sell and then we started looking for jobs. I moved to Austin in June and Nate moved here in late July. We spent six weeks taking turns traveling to see each other on weekends, I got a taste of the single parent life during the work week, and we infringed on our friends' hospitality by staying in their guest room for a couple of months. We also worried our house wouldn't sell, since the mortgage industry started crumbling almost immediately afer we put our house on the market. But things worked out. Two weeks after we signed a lease on an apartment we got an offer (of course).
Nate and I are finally starting to relax. After so many months of struggle and stress, things have really calmed down. We're in a holding pattern until our lease ends. Since we don't have a house, thus no landscaping or home projects, most weekends we spend hanging out. We go to Zilker pretty often. We eat out an awful lot (probably too much). I think we're so used to stress, both of us are waiting for something bad to happen. All this ease seems deceptive somehow. But, I'm starting to suspect this easy time is what we "earned" after all that work. We're starting to have time for ourselves and our interests again.
So, one of my resolutions this year involves time. I get requests for freelance work randomly, yet regularly. I usually say yes because I have a hard time saying no. I also get a sense of security from it, because in these wacky economic times, it seems like it's a good idea to have more than one iron the fire. But ... it interferes with a lot of things. I'll start working out, then get a gig so I won't work out for several days because I have to do freelance after work and after Zoe goes to bed, which means I am up late. I'm tired, don't have energy, and all my free time goes to that gig. I meet the deadline and I start working out again, then the process repeats itself. What it means is I sort of start over and over, instead of being consistent and building up progress. So I've decided to stop doing freelance work. I just said no to editing a book-length manuscript. It was tough (the whole saying "no" thing) and it sounded like an interesting book, but I really want to focus on my health, my family, and my own work.
I've had the idea for my next writing project for a while, but like working out, I'd start dipping my toes in and then have a freelance assignment to do. So the no freelance will help on that end as well. I spend a lot of time thinking before I write so having free time is critical for me to work on something creative. I need a lot of time to daydream. Taps into a different part of my brain, I suppose.
That kind of brings up my old, completed project. I've been submitting my novel to agents when I have time. (Another thing not freelancing will help me do!) In my head I have a number of submissions I think it's reasonable to make. I don't know if that number is realistic or arbitrary, but it seems like a reasonable number to me. I am 40% of the way to that number. I have gotten requests for partial or full manuscripts to almost half of the queries I've sent out, which isn't bad since I haven't gotten responses to approximately one-fifth of those same queries. (Is all this math making your head hurt yet?) I had started getting some really nice rejection notes, which gave me hope that it was a matter of time and finding the right agent. Then the bad economic times hit publishing and Black Wednesday took its toll on the industry. I started worrying that it was unlikely I'd find an agent or an editor willing to take a shot on a new writer during such troubled times. But you know, Nate and I found jobs and sold our house in the middle of all this mess. Maybe my luck will hold just a little bit longer.
Here's my resolutions list.
Make my family the priority--spending time together, cooking nice meals instead of defaulting to our boring standards all the time, having fun with Nate and Zoe, loving on them a lot, and reinstating date night.
Continue looking for an agent.
Live like a writer: make my own writing, not freelancing, my goal during my free time. Write in my journal, work on my next project, go to readings, connect with other writers.
Take better care of myself. Be consistent with yoga and running, eat healthy more often, get enough sleep.
Get to know Austin again. Go to events, festivals, explore things I haven't tried here before.
Continue paying off debt. We've made a lot of progress on this front and just need to keep our momentum going.
Have more fun. After all the work we've done the past half year, I think we're due a few good times.
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