Hazardous Road.

To say this year has been easy for me would be a lie.

At the end of my last post, which was months ago, I touched upon being made redundant from my job after seventeen years. I'd lined up a new job to walk into after my final day, literally across the road from my soon-to-be-old job, and had a two-week break to look forward to before starting. It all sounded like I was going to land on my feet.

The problem was that, over the two-week break, it gave me too much time to think about the whole thing. In the end, I felt that I'd been royally screwed over. Especially since there had been other people more deserving of being laid off than me. I became angry and miserable and did nothing besides sulk on the couch. Starting the new job was not a lot of fun, either. In retrospect, it wasn't a good idea to work across the road from my old job, still have to see the place daily, and even handle similar goods. My misery got worse as a result.

At the start of February, I told all this to a friend, Mike, who had also been made redundant from the same company I had, three years earlier during the pandemic. He offered to help get me a position where he worked. It was in a different part of my city, and it was totally different work in a different environment. I accepted and made the switch. I've felt better since, even though I'm still a temporary worker. I'm keeping my head down and hoping they'll take me on permanently, but it's been a long, bumpy road.

But during all this, my writing of Detective in Mind 2 suffered. I didn't write for just over two months, and when I eventually started up again, the words came out in drips and drabs. Even at the time of writing this blog, I'm still struggling, but I'm picking up the pace. I owe my return to some form to Mike and his helping me, but like I said previously, my writing suffered. Even though I get some good word counts down some days, it takes a while for me to get going, and I hate that.

2024 will be a write-off for me in many ways, but if I can get Detective in Mind 2 released, I'll consider it a small win.

Onwards and upwards, I guess.