New Year, some new things, some seem like old times

Well, it appears it is time for my New Year posting where I say that I either quit my job or got a new one. :)

Well, once again, I've done both--or rather, am about to do both.  Due to all the same things that were happening last year, I've decided to once more go rogue.  I'll be leaving my current full-time position on January 20th (my birthday present to me) and freelancing as an instructional designer (which I've been doing on the side for the past couple of months, anyway.)  One of the side contracts is offering me more projects as well as the ability to work from home full time, so I'm going with it.  Am looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, have been working on my writing again and have gone in a new direction with a new name. Kate Sterling isn't going anywhere, but will be more dedicated to lighter fare: light, contemporary romance and comedic paranormal romance.

So... drum roll please... I now introduce to you the darker side of Kate Sterling: Keri Armstrong, where the focus will be more on urban fantasy, mystery/suspense, and dark paranormal romance for both adults and young adults. https://keriarmstrong.com/ 

What a difference a year makes...

This time last January, I was on cloud 9 (or higher, depending on what’s the best.) J

I had quit my full-time job on December 31^st 2014, and was attempting to fly solo for 2015.  Life was beautiful.  Around the end of May last year, however, fear started to settle in.  I’d had a lot of unexpected expenses, also needed to see a doctor but couldn’t afford the Cobra payments and due to bureaucratic snafus with ObamaCare, I had no insurance (don’t get me started), and my daughter was accepted at the expensive college she applied to.  Right about that time, an opportunity came up in a company to work full time with a former boss that I really liked, so I took it and went back to working full-time on 6/8/15.

From then until now, it has been non-stop work and health issues. (I suspect working 60-90 weeks every week, working all holidays and weekends, might have something to do with the health issues, but who’s to say?)

I’ve basically given up my cover art work due to lack of time and energy, as well as the spasms that have developed in my back, right arm, and leg, which cause me to lose control of my limbs at some point nearly every day now. It started getting worse June (hmm… coinciding with the demanding new job… and keeps getting progressively worse.)  I saw a doctor who referred me to a neurologist, but since the insurance I have is awful and can’t afford all those tests, I haven’t been back.  However, the GP seems to think it’s from stress… go figure…

From January 2015 full of hope to January 2016 wondering what the heck I’m going to do now. L

So, since today is my birthday and I’ve been doing a lot of hard thinking the past couple of weeks, I took the day off to think about where I am and what I could change.  Came to the conclusion that self-care, a positive attitude, and daily meditation on all the things I have go be grateful for will help tremendously.  That is what I plan to focus on for the rest of the year. 

I also came up with a writing plan for the year.  Since the art is on hiatus until I can get my arm under control, I’ve installed Dragon dictation software on my computers and have been having fun training my dragon. J  It’s very helpful. In my insanity, I even attempted NaNoWriMo with it in November and made great progress.  Lost my voice for a couple of days, though, from all that talking. J

Am hopeful that with the dictation software and a good plan, I might actually get back to writing again and release a couple of books this year.

Fingers crossed… J

And to you who may be reading this:  I wish you and yours the best year of your lives for 2016.

I miss the bloggers...

Yesterday, I saw somebody mention on Facebook how much they missed the blogging days before FB and Twitter.  I agree.  The connections just seemed deeper, the information more interesting. But then it seemed we were all just so busy... and still are.

Yet so much has happened over time that trying to capture it in 140 characters or less seems impossible.

I miss the days of long, thoughtful posts by Natasha Fondren, Stewart Sternberg, Charles Gramlich, Sidney Williams, Steve Malley, Edie Ramer, Avery DeBow, Wayne Sallie, Jon Zech (so very missed!), and so many others.  Granted, several people do still post to their blogs, but the days of sharing of an active blogging community appear to be behind us.

And sadly, I'm as guilty as anybody for neglecting it all. Yet reading about Randy Johnson's passing on July 12, which was also Jon Zech's birthday, has made me a little nostalgic today and caused a few tears to fall.

Yet time marches on. We run, we stumble, we fly, we fall. Then get up again and again until the day we do it for the final time.

Here's hoping we all fly at the last.

It's the little things...

So, I've decided to go back to my roots with this blog (in other words, writing about writing and life in general) rather than talk too much about the graphic design.  After all, I have plenty of other places where I share the artwork.

Since quitting my "day job" to see if I could make it on my own as a freelancer, I've started writing again. I spent most of today editing some old work that I plan on re-releasing, as well as working on some new stuff. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed that. 

So, to get ready for what I hope will be at least 4 new releases this year, I wanted to put together a website for my books.  I already had a domain name that I purchased last year and never used, and it's still good for another year. However, as I looked into various options, I decided to just keep my old friend Blogger, and point the domain name here.

Well... that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!  However, after much ado, I now have "katesterling.net" pointing right here. It was so exciting! Lol. Like I said, it's the little things in life that count. :)

In other news, I also starting working as an editor for Cobblestone Press again, in addition to creating cover artwork for them.

What's new with you?