Moving Along, Then

It's been two weeks now since my life got flipped-turned upside down. Stuff's getting better. Mentally, at least. It took the better part of a week for reality to truly sink in, and now it's just normal to not be working my old job. I'm no longer laying in bed for 12+ hours a day, which I believe is a good sign.

What's helped in my "getting on with it" is that of yesterday, I've given up and am no longer seeking justice. I had a few free legal consults last week, and though it's likely I'd be awarded a bit more severance were this to be decided by a judge, the fees involved made it too risky to fight them. I still requested a better offer, but was refused. And so last night, the day before the deadline, I reluctantly signed their forms and accepted the original offer.

A defeat, yes, but at least I tried. That's about all one can do.

With that all behind me, I can focus a bit more on the writing-related activities for a while. I've done a few things here and there during my "unemployed for the first time in 15 years" existential crisis; I passed some time judging a forum contest (16 stories, 650-word limit), sent out a few agent queries and indie pub/magazine submissions, and I ran the ad campaigns for the holiday sale as planned.

I ran one of these for Canada and a separate one with different prices for the USA. The results? Underwhelming. I did manage some ebook sales with the lower price, which was nice, but the cost of the ads were much higher than the royalties earned. However - getting more readers can produce more reviews, which can mean more word of mouth, and thus more sales. Provided these new readers actually enjoy the book, mind you.

I'd love some more print copy sales, but I get why people might not be keen on paying $16 CAD for a book written by a nobody. I'm in need of more exposure, and having more books available for sale would help. I do have two more that I could self-publish within weeks, but I still feel the best path forward is to write a Sex Robot sequel. Sales for one will spur sales for the other. At least, that's the hope.

So that's what's up for now. Medium-effort writing-related activities, plus reading more, watching hockey, and enjoying some new shows. I recommend watching Ken Burns' new series on the American Revolution - I'm just a couple episodes in, but it kicks ass, as expected. I've enjoyed all the series he's created over the years.

Old Queen Mittens is still doing fairly well despite her advanced age. I've been trying to sit at my home office desk more instead of laying in bed with my laptop, and naturally she is happy to join me, provided I turn on the electric blanket. I think she's also still adjusting a bit to my broken routine.

That's about it for now. I'm feeling somewhat better, and I'm trying to move on.