For me, this has been a real roller coaster of a year. The sudden los of gainful employment in April sent shockwaves throughout every aspect of my life. When I found myself with loads more unaccounted for time I really thought I was going to get loads more writing completed.

The plan had been that the mornings would be dedicated to job searching (as task made much easier by the internet) and the afternoons would be spent writing. Boy, that plan never worked.

The stress of not having a regular job really took away my ability to concentrate. While I did get some writing done, including I think one of my strongest stories even if the coordinating judge at the Writers of The Future Contest disagrees,  by and large I got very little written. Certainly my novel suffered.

Two months ago I landed a job as a temp at the healthcare giant, Kaiser Permanente. I almost passed up on the job as the offered pay was barely more than the unemployment compensation I was receiving, but I did take the job.  (One reason was that I prefer to work to no and another my belief that having a job makes it easier to land another.)

While I am still a temp, things are looking optimistic that I will transition to a regular full-time employee at Kaiser. This is very good. We’re talking good pay, good benefits, and a union to help protect me for the inconsistencies of poor management.

Currently at Kaiser we are doing a lot of overtime. This is the busiest time of the year for my division. For the last three weeks I have been working 10 hours a day for 5 days a week, and then putting in a half day on Saturday. It would be expected that so much overtime would be an additional drag on my writing, but that would a conclusion at odds with my observations.

I purchased a backpack – I need to walk a mile and a half everyday to get from work – and began taking my MacBook Colossus with me to work. Even dead tired and working like a dog, I am writing every day on my lunches and my breaks. I’m not yet back to thousand words a day, but I will be hitting that goal and exceeding it soon.

It’s not the tiredness; it’s not the hours, it is the emotional stability of having my problems in my rearview mirror that seems to be the singe most important factor.

I must say, it feels good to be back.