To Blog or Not to Blog? Is Regular Blogging Worth It?

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June was a busy month for me: I got back into working on my Secret New Novel draft (which won’t be Secret for much longer!), I had a few editing jobs that needed finishing, and I’m *still* unpacking and organizing after my move back in April.

As a result, I realized that I needed a blogging break, and took the last two weeks of June off.  For several years now, I’ve been blogging regularly every week with very few weeks missed, but during June, blogging felt less important than the other, more urgent matters demanding my attention.

Of course, the world didn’t come to an end because I didn’t blog for two weeks.  Instead, I felt more in control of my workload, and felt like I was prioritizing based on what needed to be done.
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I’m Taking Time Off From My Day Job and Using That Time Productively (Oh Yeah!)

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As some of you may have heard, back in the fall I was planning a Christmas trip back to New Hampshire to visit family and friends…which I ended up calling off when COVID cases and restrictions ramped up.  This sucked pretty hard, and while I don’t regret calling off the trip, it’s unfortunate that circumstances forced me into making that tough decision.

Here’s the good point, though: while planning the trip, I got approved for a four-week vacation from my Day Job.  And when I called off the US trip I decided I’d still use the time off.

Quick bit of backstory: My job as an ALT on the JET Program comes with, among other perks, 20 paid days off per year that are pretty flexible, especially if I schedule them in advance.  Last year because of COVID I barely used any, so when my new JET contract started in August I found myself with a mouth-watering 29 days to use or lose as I see fit.

And I have no intention of losing them. Continue reading »

I Was Having Problems at My Day Job and Talked to My Boss About It

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Yep, this is kind of a serious post.

Things in general haven’t been going well for a while, and I’ve kind of been in denial about it.  My writing’s still stalled, I’ve been way too insanely busy, and I’ve been pushing myself too hard during the week and then crashing hard on weekends.  None of these has been doing me any good.

Apart from all this I’ve been experiencing some pretty bad lows, many of which can be indirectly traced back to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Even though Japan’s been grappling with the virus far better than the States, over here I still have to deal with cancelled plans, limited activities, and lot of other negative changes.

Here’s a big negative change: I had to cancel my trip back to the States in August, when I was planning on meeting friends, seeing family, and attending my brother’s wedding.  That sucked pretty hard. Continue reading »

Giving Sagelike Advice vs. Sharing Your Vulnerabilities: The Blogger’s Dilemma

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When I first started this blog my main goal was to write about aspects of the Creative/Day Job life I knew super-well and wanted to share with the world.  I knew my perspective on balancing writing with earning actual, folding money would resonate with a lot of people, and I wanted to help younger creative types who were just starting out and weren’t as grounded in how to achieve their goals.

I jotted down a bunch of ideas for topics I felt like I was a master of, and for my first year of blogging I mostly shared my wisdom about stuff like this:

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Eikaiwa Bums Chapbooks Now Available! (Plus Thoughts on Webstore Mechanics and Why Personal Touches Matter)

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The big moment’s here!!!!!!!!!!111

The actual, printed copies of my chapbook, Eikaiwa Bums, got to Japan this week and are ready to order.  I’m not going to lie—opening that envelope and seeing them stacked up was all kinds of exciting, and it was something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time :-)

Quick catchup in case you’re just joining in: Eikaiwa Bums is a 20-ish page short story about life at a for-profit English conversation school in Japan.  It’s based on some themes from my Japan novel that I pitched to the good folks at Blue Cubicle Press and that they published last month as part of their Overtime series of chapbooks about work.  (If you’re interested in how the story went from novel draft to Blue Cubicle chapbook you can read all about it here.)

I’m sure a lot of you out there are asking the same question: How can I get a copy of this fine piece of writing? Continue reading »