What's New with You?

Since moving to the DMV area, I’ve found myself in the company of friends every other week. In Philly, it would take like a month’s worth of prep to coordinate and actually meet with folks out in the city. But here, public transport made getting together easier. 

My friends and I would go watch a baseball game, eat brunch, meet for happy hour, or go on a hike at a nearby state park. While I enjoy having this moment with friends, the question “What’s new with you?” has been something that weighed on my mind whenever we get together.

What is new with me?

Well, I’ve reached a year into my new career (UX and working on websites for a literacy nonprofit), which is far from what I previously did (educational publishing) and required me to be creative in a different way. I’ve also brought up the idea of changing my job title since the work I do now is far more than the work I started with. 

In a weird sense, I found myself happy to finally be important enough in my job but at the same time, wishing that I still could just sit in a corner and write my manuscript because I managed to clear my 25-item task list in a week. Instead, when I finish my list, another 25 items appear on it.

What else is new with me?

Speaking of manuscripts, I finished my fourth one and am working on my fifth one. 

Not that I’ve been getting them edited–although my intention is to get the fourth one edited since I’m more confident in my writing ability there and I know I can improve more on it without it having to be heavily bogged by developmental edits,--but I’m still in the groove of putting words to paper, if not as regularly as I should.

Also, with the encouragement of my dear husband, this next manuscript will turn into a 3-part book series. It’s a genre-bending romance with post-apocalypse and sci-fi fantasy elements to it. I’m personally excited about the story and what it could potentially span into. 

My other rom-com outline will have to wait, maybe after I finish the first book, but I’ve got another list of books to write now. The only downside is that I’m becoming more important in my job, so I’ve been struggling to find some downtime to write.

What else?

I’m still doing my side gig, but I am trying to close off commissions. Look, if I get a promotion that comes with a raise, then that’s probably it. I just wouldn’t have enough bandwidth to take on projects, and I don’t want to take on projects without putting my 100% behind them. But I love working on book covers. I love working with independent clients–we all share that love for sharing our stories. I love being part of the process of making books.

Maybe one day, if I earn enough and save enough on my tech job, I can just quietly live in a van with my husband, drive around the country as he does his job (that requires lots of travel), and I can do freelance creative work with the views of the Colorado Rockies or a California beachside right outside my doorstep. It will not pay as much as my current tech job, but I just love this kind of work so much. Plus, I love living on the road. I can’t wait for the chance to get back to it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m very thankful for the job I currently have and a boss who lets me learn a lot about tech and grow into it. I’m thankful for the resources it gives me, and frankly, I find making webpages and keeping them up as fun. I just miss being creative and working on books.

Anything else to add there?

I’ve been worried about AI, and what it means for me as a creative. But I am beginning to put more value on the art that I create. Anything I make, I know is 100% premium human-made. Monetizing it is another thing.

Do I need to monetize my hobbies? Is this just a hobby? It was once my livelihood. Nevertheless, whether I do it as my full-time or just on my downtime, it’s still something I want to do.

Ok. Anything else?

I think I’m gonna enter my cozy gamer era. Yes. I am an old gamer at this point.

Multiplayer FPS have been fun, but I kind of just want to get into an RPG, immerse myself in the story, and be done with it after maybe 80+ hours or so of game time. I’ve dedicated well over 15 years to Destiny, and now that the main arc has been closed (AFTER 15 YEARS!), I think it’s time to move on.

As I’ve always said, K/D don’t matter in the real world anyway…unless you’re an eSports athlete.

These are the things I want to say as a response to that question.

But alas, all I end up saying is “Literally, nothing. What’s new with you?”