State of the Trout: Mailing list, moving kid, job search, and other things on the horizon.

I want to thank literally everybody who has donated to the Ko-fi or joined the Patreon or gave me advice and suggestions as I transition back into “Author With A Day Job” after twenty-two years out of the workforce.

I still haven’t got an interview anywhere that I’ve applied. Either I get form rejected a day after submitting my application, or no one returns my follow-up calls and emails. I feel like the people saying “no one wants to work anymore” should start saying, “no one wants to hire anymore.” You’d think that I would be at least as qualified as a kid who hasn’t graduated high school yet when it comes to running a smoothie machine, but that is not the outlook prospective employers seem to have. I couldn’t even get an interview at a dispensary. A dispensary. That might be the only job I’m over-qualified for.

But I do have some inside intel on a local grocery store. One of their employees will be leaving soon. Much sooner than he told his mother, initially. My son is moving to Los Angeles on September 21st and I am absolutely going to try to snipe his job. But I’m still trying to come to grips with the idea of one of my children leaving. I’ve been a parent for almost twenty-two years. Two whole decades of worrying about these kids, shaping my entire life around making sure they’re provided and cared for, and suddenly it just… isn’t my responsibility anymore? Suddenly, one of them is 2,000 miles away? And totally capable of living on his own?

I’m processing a lot of emotions here. Mainly, that I’m somehow being a bad parent by not taking care of my adult child. Which is bonkers, I know. I was supposed to my raise my kids for them to be independent and capable adults. Mission accomplished. But I guess I never realized that the job actually does end.

There is other, Shonda Rhimes-level drama happening in my life at this time, as well, that has me thinking about parents and children and what families owe to each other. No, seriously: I’m living through something that was actually a plot line on Grey’s Anatomy. But of course, not one where I get banged sideways by a hot surgeon or someone builds a romantic blueprint out of candles on a misty, green-screened Seattle night. Because that’s my luck. But I am on day three of the instant stress headache I got from finding out, so don’t say the universe never gave me nothing.

While I usually say stuff like, “Don’t use writing as your therapy,” and “nobody wants to read your therapy,” I’m breaking my own rule. Because I don’t want to go to therapy. They make you confront your emotions there, and I feel like it works much better to just push it down, push it down, put it in a box and throw it in the sea. Those are the lyrics, by the way, to my pushy-down song. And it’s getting a lot of airplay. So, I started writing a new Sophie book, after swearing the series was over. I have a lot of unresolved trauma that happened between the last book of that series and now, and I need a comfort write. In between my work on Fablemere and my update of Blood Ties Book One: The Turning, I’ve been noodling around in Sophie and El-Mudad and Neil’s world. I don’t have a release date planned yet, or a title. I have more books coming out this year; a paperback of A Kingdom of Pleasure and Torment, the e-book and paperback of The Vampire’s Willing Captive (Fablemere #2), and Her Brother’s Billionaire Best Friend. I’ve also been logging words on The Business Centaur’s Virgin Temp and some various dark romance and fantasy projects.

How have I become so suddenly productive? I stopped taking a medication that I’ve been on for a decade. Turns out, long-term use can cause cognitive impairment and brain fog. And boy, did it ever! Now, instead of struggling to work for an hour a day before getting tired and frustrated, I can actually work and keep track of what I’m doing. It’s incredible. I wish I would have discontinued it long ago.

When I do have news about books and such, I have set up a new Abigail Barnette mailing list. I lost access to my old mailing list a while ago, so if you were on it and want to be on the new one, here’s the link to visit. I’ve learned that promotions and events sometimes require you to advertise them on your email list. I promise, it won’t be a non-stop email fest. I’m not going to be like Impala and try to get you to buy a new pair of rollerskates every day.

That’s about all that’s happening in Trout Nation at the moment.