Holy career path change, Batman! Did y’all know I was MOVING?!
Well, this is actually a fun post for several reasons: first being this is actually about two career path changes in one. And I am also moving twice to accomplish those things! Also also—I’ve already made the first move by the time this post has gone up. (Because queueing things in advance is way better than losing my head during a cross-country moving process.)
(Fun edit: I actually had to move this post back a week because I had to move my move back a week due to covid. Not actually fun to do!)
I am no longer on the East Coast, so goodbye, proximity to NYC! I did not use you in the least for your publishing powerhouse status. (I did, however, utilize it for anime conventions and good food spots. I already miss that vegan BLT…) I am now back firmly in the Midwest, where I’ve lived once before, and I have a pile of mixed feelings about that.
But at least it’s not humid as sin out here. Legitimate sin. My glasses would fog up when I stepped outside, that’s how horrifically humid it would get.
But I’m only in the American Midwest for about eight months—because in March, I get to move again. And this time not cross-country, oh no, it’ll be an international move. Even more of a logistical, expensive* nightmare! (*Technically it will be cheaper overall for the actual move, because I’m not bringing as much shit with me.)
Drum roll please.
I am moving to Japan!
I got a job to teach English in Japan, and it starts in March 2023. (Japanese school years start in March/April.) It’s certainly going to be a big career change, that’s for sure, not to mention a big life change. I’m very excited! I am going to eat my weight in tofu.
But since my lease was up, and Jersey is expensive as fuck to live in, I had to have another move to live somewhere for the 8 months until I land in Tokyo. And since I’m already moving in a big way, why not add to the big life-altering decisions I’m making?
So for the 8 months until I leave, I’m going to consider myself a full-time author. I have one book that will be published August 19th—the first in my Your Local Guides To The Supernatural series, How To Kill Gods & Make Friends—and I aim to have a second published before I leave next March. (Self-pubbing is a lot faster!) I’m going to be revamping my Patreon, actually build my mailing list, and, of course, do a metric fuckton of writing.
I know I’m capable of pouring out the words in staggering amounts. Repeated wins of NaNoWriMo prove this, as does my ao3 account. So my primary concern is my own self-discipline. It’s going to be a big leap for me to try this, and I hope against hope that I’m capable of handling both the self-discipline side as well as the business side of being a full-time author who primarily self-publishes. (Because there is a business side, and I would rather write 200k words than tackle it, and yet, I have to. Ugh.)
It’s a scary, big change to make, and I’m aware that I’m in a very privileged position to be able to do a trial run of this sort of thing. (And other life situation things that let me concentrate on that versus more job hunting.) So why not take advantage of it! My dream job is to be a writer—preferably a stay at home spouse, though not a stay at home parent because kidlings are not in my future—or to be part of a video game localization team, so let’s see if I can’t buckle down at stab at the former.
And moving to Japan and that immersion will certainly help me get on track to that second one, should I decide to keep my writing career as a side gig only.
