{"id":1447,"date":"2016-05-13T11:49:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T16:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2016-09-24T08:06:27","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T13:06:27","slug":"the-grand-experiment-what-ive-learned-from-2-years-of-self-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/the-grand-experiment-what-ive-learned-from-2-years-of-self-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grand Experiment: What I’ve Learned From 2 Years of Self-Employment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"amesjump\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years? Really?<\/em> Wow, that flew.<\/p>\n

Thanks to hedonic adaptation, everything becomes mundane after a while, even kicking the 9-5 rat race routine to the curb. But this is still the best mundane ever. No regrets. I haven’t spent a weekend in fear of Monday morning<\/a> for two whole years now! I love what I do, even when I get temporarily sick of certain tasks (editing, barf).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s New<\/strong><\/p>\n

My husband and I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, which is also a “Whoa, already?” sort of experience. We’re quite pleased with how far we’ve progressed in a decade. Transitioning to self-employment has been a welcome part of that progress.<\/p>\n

When there haven’t been holidays, birthdays, and weddings to attend, I’ve had my head down working on Book 2 of the Sword and Starship<\/strong> series, entitled Harbingers<\/em>. I’m very close to handing the manuscript to my editor for her final read, and very excited over that fact!<\/p>\n

While she does her review, I’ll work on outlining Book 3. Unlike Harbingers<\/em>, which was a mostly mature draft when it broke off to be its own thing, Book 3 will have to be built up from nothing. I hope to leverage all I’ve learned about novel writing to get from start to finish in a reasonable amount of time.<\/p>\n

Also, a local book club is going to read my book later this year, and wants me to attend their discussion meeting! This’ll be the first time I speak about Blood’s Force<\/em><\/a> in a public forum, which makes me a little nervous, but it’s exciting, too. Since I have Harbingers<\/em> on the brain, I hope I don’t give away any spoilers by accident!<\/p>\n

What Hasn\u2019t Changed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Setting realistic deadlines, accepting setbacks, and treating myself with compassion. I had a bad bout with the flu a few months ago, and had to accept the fact that I was no good for anything<\/em> for a solid 2+ weeks. Several projects got derailed. I feared I’d never get my brain back, but sure enough, it returned. And I’m still right around where I hoped I’d be regarding my progress on Harbingers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Still, every now and then, I run into a novel situation where the old nagging voice inside my head takes over. “You should’ve done better, you idiot!”<\/em> All I can do is recognize when it happens, and remind myself to be at least as kind and understanding with myself as I would be toward someone else in the same position.<\/p>\n

Income Breakdown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, just for the hell of it. Money was never the goal of this transition.<\/p>\n