State of the Author 2022+ · 4:36pm Feb 4th, 2023
or
The unfashionably, unreasonably late 2022 year-in review.
January 2023. Blink and you'll miss it. Or at least, that was how it felt for me with how busy it was. But more on that later.
2022 overall felt like a rollercoaster that I just wanted to get off of most of the time. Or maybe I'm just getting older. It had me in the first half, not gonna lie. Everything in 2022 up until May felt more or less how I was expecting my life to be going. But you know how life is; as soon as you get comfortable, it pulls the rug out from under you.
May of 2022 marked the start of a many rocky months for me and mine when I got laid of from my laser engineering job. It was something I had known was coming for some time. You see, a few years back, when Trump enacted the trade tariffs on China, China made up 40% of the company's customer base. So of course, the company shipped the lasers to their branch in Germany, and then from there, it would ship them to China. It cost a little more to do it that way, but it was still less than paying the tariffs. Because big companies will always find a way to get around the government trying to legislate the economy.
Then, Covid happened. Which affected everything from top to bottom. I don't need to remind everyone of that. Then the Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal and that single ship crippled international trade in ways that took a long time to recover from. But the final nail in the coffin was the war in Ukraine. And the fact that one of the company's three major branches was in Russia meant that a full third of its personnel, inventory, and assets effectively vanished as communications and transactions were frozen. After three months of tense watching and waiting, the layoffs began.
Fortunately, I already saw the writing on the wall, and had my resume polished up. I picked up a new job less than a month later as a quality engineer for electrical cable extrusion. And I don't mean the extension cords in your house. I'm talking about the cables in power plants as thick as your leg handling tens of thousands of amps.
Well that job went under too, for a variety of reasons that are too numerous and tedious to list here, and I was laid off in early January 2023. So at time of this blog, I'm currently between jobs. (Btw, if any of you know of a good work from home gig that isn't some shit-ass customer service cold-call center bullshit, let me know!) But in the meantime, I have savings and health insurance, so don't you all worry your pretty little heads over me. I've been in far worse situations before. I'll be fine.
~
Speaking of worse situations, Mrs. Shakes and I both got Covid back in November. So that ruined Thanksgiving for all of us since we usually host the dinner. She was moderately sick for about a week, and I summarily kicked its ass over the next weekend. Still though, I was pissed that it messed up my fourth favorite holiday.
Also, my uncle died last year, which sucks. But he had been unwell for quite a long time and it was probably the smart move on his part.
But enough doom and gloom. Let's move onto the...
GOOD NEWS
I finally finished Cat's Cradle last summer. I'm pretty happy about that. The ending will get a little reworking in terms of polish and pacing. But it's essentially done as it. I'm looking forward to transcribing it into an actual published original fiction (ie, not fanfiction) in the same way that Twilight vampire fanfiction became Fifty Shades of Grey. But you know... less shitty when I do it.
I hosted Jinglemas again with great success, and I look forward to continuing to do so every year onward!
Not good news, itself, but when my uncle died last spring, it left my aunt with a house full of kids, and just her to raise them. Mrs. Shakes and I did what we could to help, but what she needed was somebody to be in the house with her 24/7. After seven years of being a homeowner, I had become quite done with it. Don't get me wrong, it is way WAY better than renting by a very long shot. But the maintenance of owning a home was just something that I was not a fan of, and I was in the process of looking for a condo. After talking with my aunt, we all decided that if she were to get a bigger house, (she's very not poor), we could move into an in-law apartment to be there and help out. After considering all the factors, we all agreed that it would be a win-win for everyone involved.
Things looked like they were ready to go back in August, but I make no exaggeration when I say that just about everything about the buying, sell, and moving of their home that could have possibly gone wrong, did. There were delays, and two separate buyers dropping out, and the housing market itself going wild in the second half of 2022, forcing her to lower her selling price with each month delayed. But once everything finally went through just after the new year, a lot happened at once. The move itself was an expensive mess for my aunt's family. And our self-move into the in-law apartment was a protracted and exhausting reminder that I was not in my 20s anymore.
~
But the GOOD NEWS is that the move is all set and done now. The timing of my lay-off was fortunate in that I could do work during the week to pack, move, and unpack, and also, now to get my old house ready to be sold. I spoke with my realtor and he advised me on a handful of small renovations I could do to vastly increase its curb appeal. But he is confident that an empty house that is move-in ready that isn't waiting on some other pending home purchase will sell fast.
So if anyone wants to buy a house in south central Massachusetts for $280,000, send me a PM. I can't say I'll give you a discount, but I'll certainly give you preference in the bidding.
So yeah, January 2023 was incredibly busy. February is looking to be very busy as well.
But I'm still making time to write. And I'm planning on a new story every week for the next month as a sequel series to The Last Unicorns.
Starting with:
[Adult story embed hidden]
~
And last but certainly not least, I'm still planning on hosting and funding more Wincest contests this year. So stand by for those announcements starting about a month from now.
Man, what a year! But great to hear things are getting a little better.
Cats Cradle was a bloody fine read ♡
You are a magnificent Author.
Thanks for all your hard work ♡
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Thank you.
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Yeah, prolly.
I'm glad to know things are starting to get better after everything possible going wrong at the worst time. I'm not stranger to that.
I hope things continue on an upward trajectory, hopefully with a new satisfying job soon. (I'd help with info on one if I knew of any.)
Keeping kicking ass
All i can say my friend is that, i SO! very much hope that the good times is comming for you now my friend.
The Last Earth Ponies, is obviously next.
The last... changelings? Could work.
The last hippogriffs? Yeah, there's an option available.
The last alicorns? Well not without some magic shenanigans or OCs.
The last dragons? I can't think of a good pairing that fits your modus operandi.
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Garble and Smolder?
I hope your OC work of Cat's Cradle does well.