For a long time now, at least the last 3-6 months, I've essentially taken a step back from my writing, as well as a few other things that were always a positive addition to my life.
I'll give a brief breakdown on how life has been, some parts have been bad, others have been good:
For starters, the Jail where I've been tour guiding for the last couple of years closed down in September. That sucked, because me and 7 others were made redundant. The plan is for it to be done up and reopened; it was meant to happen this side of Christmas, but now has been pushed back to May. We're allowed to re-apply when it reopens, but that's a good while away, and it'll be run by new management, and everything will be a bit different.
What did I do? Well, at the time of hearing this news, August, Aimee had just given birth to Ollie and so I had 2 weeks parents leave to take, I also saved all of my holidays and sick days for the years, so my supervisor told me to just take it all and it would essentially cover me until they closed down, so I was getting paid thankfully, but I knew that would come to an end eventually.
I went on a major job hunt and I had a bunch of interviews but nothing came of it, which was frustrating. I wasn't applying for places that I needed a degree to work in either, we're talking, Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Tesco, Home Savers, TK Max, and some factories too, and nothing came of any of them. It sucked.
Luckily for me, however, a new Vikings show went into production in August, and I signed back up doing extra work. I tell you what, it was amazing, all the familiar faces were there from previous seasons, and there were a bunch of newbies too. I made a bunch of mates, and re-kindled some old friendships. It was a blast, and hard-going at times.
Not a week went by that I wasn't working out there, between 1-5 days a weeks, it was amazing, on average I worked about 4 days regularly. That done me until the 13th of November, where it all ended due to the season being wrapped. It'll be a good show, but now I'm back to the drawing board.
I've managed to save a good bit, so I'm not too worried, and I think things are going to work out.
Back To My Hobbies
Due to the stress of everything going on, as well as the sleepless nights of welcoming a new addition to the crew, I let all of my hobbies fall by the way side. It was a tough decision to make, but once it happened, I felt free to focus my mind and attention where it was needed most.
I've been talking and talking for a long time about publishing some of my work, and I've meant it every time I've said it, but life happens and sometimes gets in the way. The dream of publishing my stories has remained alive, and I'm coming back at that passion with new found fervor.
Is 2026 the year for that goal? I'm hoping so.
I've got plenty more stories to write, plenty more experience to earn, and a lot of ideas I want to explore. During the off time, I've not been off. I have taken down plenty of notes and jotted down ideas for world building/ lore, and stories to explore further.
Hive was the number one place where I exorcised my creative demons, and it will be once more. I'll be going in with a major focus on fiction, but there are plenty of other things I'll be writing about again. I'm going to take it one step at a time, but the daily posting ritual is what my major aim is right now. If I can get back into my old mindset, I think I'll find my discipline for writing once more.
Expect there to be much more fiction in the coming days, and with any luck my hiatus has helped to improve my craft.
