Tag: day job

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day job

I work for an ad tech company for my day job. I write technical content for the help center and manage language on our UI among other things.

As part of a product refresh we are doing, they are offering us the opportunity to run ads of our own, on anything at all, so I’ve started up an ad campaign for The Blood Witch Saga!

So you may start to see ads pop up around the internet if you are in the US and have expressed (through your web traffic) that you are into books and such.

Exciting times.

I’ve also started a new writing project that is a bit different for me. Still urban-ish fantasy, kinda dystopian, with dragons and gremlins and other fantastic creatures. I’m really having fun with it.

Anyway, once again I’m up way too early in the morning, poking about the internet. I’m about to go hit up Threads with my normal daily posts: today that includes a poetry post, along with my #Serious Question of the Day and my Something to know about me post. You should come hang out there! As social media goes, it’s currently my favorite place to interact.

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*cough cough sneeze sneeze*

I missed posting this weekend because I have been down with a nasty cold/virus. I’m still sick, but I think I’m starting to come out the other side. This has been a long, slowly developing illness. I started with a sore throat a week ago Sunday. The sinus congestion started late on Monday. Sneezing arrived on Tuesday.

Thursday I thought I was feeling better. Friday, I went out to a work event (paintball) and was okay until about 2 in the afternoon, when I suddenly felt completely drained. By the time I got home, I had started coughing, all the junk settling into my lungs.

I’ve been coughing ever since. The fatigue sidelined most of my weekend. This morning I’m feeling slightly better, I think. The fatigue isn’t as thick as it was yesterday. My voice sounds like I started taking testosterone. My throat is raw from coughing.

Okay, enough complaining. Let’s talk about Friday. It was the first time I had met any of my coworkers in person. I drove an hour and a half out to Napa to meet up with them at a place called Paintball Jungle. They have a couple of acres of land set up with forts, blinds, and other obstacles.

My first observation was, damn that paintball gun is HEAVY. I’m still feeling it in my arm! Now, I’m not the most agile individual, and being that I was somewhat sick I also wasn’t hugely energetic, but I went out there to try. And I did pretty good, right up until my energy drained out of my toes. I sat out most of the last game we played and instead sat and talked with others who weren’t participating.

It was a fun day.

And now, I need to find some energy to get the day job started.

Photo by Patrick T’Kindt on Unsplash

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numbers add up

On one hand, this week just disappeared. On the other hand, well it was a week.

When I first started my adult career, I worked in data. I was good at it, but it didn’t really fulfill me. Then I recognized a need for someone to take over writing a number of policies and procedures and I did both for a long time. Eventually, I found my way into a job that was 90% writing and it felt like coming home.

I’ve been a technical writer for over 20 years now, and yet, somehow, data still finds its way into my work day. This week that was NPS scores. Because I own the tool that allows us to pop up NPS scores directly in our platform, it falls to me to do the read out. My VP asked me yesterday to share our current NPS scores and some awesome comments in our “Weekly Wins” call. That lead to being asked to do a deep dive to provide info to our Marketing team and our CTO.

We’ve been running the survey since May of this year, and we currently sit at a solid 50, which is pretty damn good.

But now it’s the weekend and I’m hoping to get some writing done, clean the house, take the dog to the park, grocery shopping with Mom, etc. Right this minute, however, I have some Death Wish Coffee in my cup and a blank page staring at me.

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

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the joys of being a growed up person

For a lot of years, I worked for a company that shut down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Then there was enough PTO available in my next jobs that I could take it off. This year, I opted to not take the time off, even though I could.

It’s always an odd week. Half the company is off on vacation, which means there are no meetings. The normal cadence of the week is off. But, that also means more time to get work done.

However, I find myself more easily distracted by random things. I head to the kitchen to get a drink and end up cleaning off a counter. I go to the bathroom to take care of business and end up rounding up towels for the laundry. Go out to get the mail and end up playing with the dog.

It doesn’t help that the weather has us cooped up in the house. It’s been wet and rainy for days. Poor Athena doesn’t understand why we haven’t been to the park, but she gets so dirty! And bathing her is a chore and a half.

I’ll be heading back to Arizona for a few days in a couple of weeks, to accompany my stepmother to a few appointments. Haven’t decided how I’m getting there just yet, with the current state of air travel.

I need to go out today to get the car smog tested so I can finish the registration stuff, and I need a few groceries besides.

I’d rather curl up on the couch with a book and a cuppa.

Ah well, the joys of being a growed up.

Photo by Ismi Fitri Hodijah on Unsplash

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leaving on a jet plane

I’m headed back to Tucson in just over an hour. I’ll be gone for four days, coming home Thursday evening. On the agenda is a couple of doctor’s appointments with my step mother, getting her set up with in home care and dealing with some paperwork.

I’m also working three of those days, so that could be interesting.

In other news, I’ve seen the cover for the third Blood Witch book, and it is stunning like the first two! Still waiting on edits, but should have those soon enough. I’ve even managed a bit of writing this week!

I also got around to processing the pics I took when I was in Tucson last, at the procession for the Day of the Dead. You can find the whole set here.

My heart hurts to hear the news out of Colorado Springs this morning. I can not comprehend the level of hate required to walk into a crowded nightclub and open fire on a crowd of people just because they are not like you (I’m assuming here that early reports about it being a hate crime are true).

This will be the first Thanksgiving I’m not with my brother and family. Not entirely sure how I feel about that, if I’m honest. But it’s also the first holiday my step mother won’t have my father and it just feels right that I spend at least some of it with her.

On that note, I should finish my coffee, take out the trash, pack up the work computer and get dressed. Should probably eat something too. Long day will be long.

Be kind, Readers. Love with all of your heart.

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do what you love

When I was younger, I used to hear the adage “Do what you love, love what you do,” but I don’t remember knowing too many people who loved what they did for a living. I don’t remember a single adult in my life as a child who didn’t spend more time complaining about the day job and trying to get away from their day job than they did talking pleasantly about coworkers or the actual work.

I was also led to believe that no one “normal” can make ends meet as a creative. All the musicians I knew had day jobs. The only writers I knew of were those lucky ones who escaped the day job by sheer talent and perfect time/place. Art was something for personal satisfaction, not something you could expect to make a living at.

I don’t think I set out to find a job that I loved as much as I do the technical writer career I sort of backed into by accident over twenty years ago, but here I am. It is so satisfying to know every day that I get to do something that I am remarkably good at, something that I love, something that allows me to impact not just the company’s end users, but the actual development of the product and how it is presented to those users.

That isn’t to say that there isn’t stress, or that I don’t have days where I just…don’t want to…but even on those days I still love what I’m doing.

I get to solve puzzles, troubleshoot software, wrestle with words and constantly refine language and it’s use one our product and in our online help. It isn’t something I’d thought I’d be doing when I left high school, but I feel it is exactly where I was meant to end up.

Happy Wednesday, Readers! I have so much to do, both for the day job and for the moving work. Tomorrow it’s a half-day’s work, and then I’m off to start the job of hauling my belongings from one place to the other. Take care of you and those around you. Be kind and be happy.

Photo by Christopher Beloch on Unsplash

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ease on down

It’s been a hell of a year, hasn’t it?

On the one hand, it feels like 2021 flew by and I have no idea how we’re in the last week of the year. On the other hand, the events of January 2021 feel like they were two years ago, not one.

A lot changed for me this year.

I got laid off of a job I was enjoying, but which didn’t pay me well. I struggled financially to the point of needing to be bailed out by friends. I applied for, and received, rent relief from the California government (though it took forever). I started a new job on my birthday that I both love and that rewards me financially (and treats me like a grown up adult person). I finished writing two books and started querying with the first one in the series (still querying).

And here at the tail end of the year, I’ve made the decision to move closer to my family, now that I have a job that is permanently remote.

It seems somehow fitting to be at the end of the year and packing up my life. It gives me a chance to review all the steps that brought me here…to clear out what is no longer necessary and savor the things I love. Quite fitting for this time of year, I think.

I haven’t heard back yet on the house I want. The landlady made it clear when I applied that she’s “looking for the right tenant” so she is taking her time making the decision. I am still looking, but there were very few listings in the week leading up to Christmas, so I anticipate I should start seeing more listings next week.

In writing news this week, I wrote the epilogue for the third blood witch book, and it surprised me by leaving an opening for a fourth book…which I then wrote the first chapter for, so that’s a thing that is happening.

I have this whole week off from the day job, and I’m using it to both write and get myself packed up. It’s about time I got off the computer, cranked up some tunes, and got busy. Y’all take care, Readers, and ease on into 2022.

Photo by Eliza Diamond on Unsplash

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rainy monday

It’s a rainy Monday here in California. The cats are both curled up sleeping. My bathroom floor is flooded (landlord hasn’t fixed the leaky roof yet). I’ve been at the computer since 5am.

There’s so much going on it feels weird to just be sitting here.

I think I found a new house, so I’ll likely be moving in January. Which means packing over the holidays. Fortunately, I have more than a week off to do it in.

I really dislike moving, but I really need to get out of this place I’m in. And this place I looked at yesterday was really cute. I’ve already started packing, and my aim is to do at least 3 boxes per day going forward. I’ve emptied the TBR bookshelf already. Tonight I think I will tackle the big book shelf in the office.

One thing that’s nifty about packing though? You find things you forgot that you owned. I found attachments to my vacuum cleaner I don’t remember ever seeing. I found my Wii, and a stash of old photos.

And while the act of moving sucks, the idea of a new place is luring.

I better get back to the day job, Readers. Happy Monday!

Photo by reza shayestehpour on Unsplash

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travel in the time of COVID

One week from today, I will be in Denver, CO for a convention unlike most others I have ever attended. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious about the travel and the collection of people in small rooms. Sure, I’ll double mask on the plane and the con has good COVID practices in place (everyone must be vaxxed and have a negative COVID test for starters), but my only experience with “crowds” was in August this year, and there were only twelve of us.

I considered not going. Several times. However, Sirens is a place that feeds my soul, and if I’m honest, my soul has been sorely in need of feeding.

Sirens is a place where we get to explore the world of speculative fiction (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, etc) through the lens of voices that are not considered “traditional” in that space. By which, I mean: women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. (Reminder that this year’s anthology, “Villains and Vengeance” is available now!)

It’s part reader’s conference, part writer’s retreat and part networking weekend. This will be my third time at Sirens.

Of course my COVID anxiety is only just part of my anxiety, because there is also the uncertainty of travel, particularly since I am flying Southwest, and my agoraphobia, which has only gotten worse since the start of COVID. I have the advantage of a) flying an airline I know well, out of airports I know well; b) the con hotel is also familiar; c) FRIENDS.

I think having friends who know/understand my *stuff* is my biggest coping mechanism. It provides a safe space when there is no safe space. I anticipate a need for a lot of hermiting time when I get back.

For now, though, Readers, I have a few hours before I have to start the day job and my coffee is fresh and hot. I think that means it’s time to write. Happy Friday!

Photo by Eva Darron on Unsplash

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Yesterday, while cleaning, I found my box of Halloween decorations that I’d forgotten I even have. Orange and purple lights, two black light bulbs, caution tape. I haven’t lived anywhere that I could really decorate outside for a very long time.

My current home doesn’t face the street either, but I miss setting up decorations. I don’t really get trick or treaters, but I’m thinking I will dress up the porch anyway.

I no longer have the dummy heads that I made all those years ago, so I need something for my witch. I may swing by the Spirit store when I go for my walk to see if they have something I can use. I need a little joy these days.

The company I work for is having a contest for costumes and for decor, so maybe I ‘ll get bragging rights.

While I dig for the right clothes for my witch, I will also be digging out the clothes that I need to pack for Sirens, which is now less than two weeks away.

I will be adding to my “members only” story over on Ko-fi this week, the first part is up and open to all. For only $1 / month, you can get access to the story as it goes along.

My coffee cup appears to be empty and writing time awaits. Have an amazing Sunday, Readers!

Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash