I have a day job -- one that takes up a large part of my day -- but that's ok, it's what has paid the bills all these years . . . and it's great, except when stuff goes sideways.
For example -- being contract garment decorators, we rely on technology to get the job done, printers for creating films, a huge exposure unit for burning screens, a very large gas-driven dryer for curing the screen printed shirts, multi-head embroidery machines for . . . well . . . embroidery, not to mention computers. Yes, we still use floppy disks (about the only industry that still does). What happens when one thing stops working? You guessed it -- mayhem.
So, the large-format printer for the screens went out. Fatal Error flashed on the screen. Nothing good comes from those two words (and brown liquor, but that's another story). To fix said printer would cost almost as much as a small child, so that's out. Getting a new one is just a little bit more money, so that's a no brainer -- now to wait the 3-5 days to ship it . . .
If that wasn't all, our big dryer broke . . . as in doesn't work now. It's all fixable, but that delays production, which equates to irritated customers. Holy cow.
So with all of that, how does one even try to find the time to be creative? Ha. I don't. I cower in the corner with my knees hugged tight to my chest. No, not really. But it feels like that's a good option sometimes . . .
It's times like these that make me appreciate how simple it is to pound at a keyboard and create. How the act of creation helps slough off the tension and stress that can come from the day job.
I'll be starting book 4 pretty soon here -- the outlining is done, just have to decide if I'm going to make this a true stand-alone book or if I'll make some references to the earlier stories too . . . either way, it's going to be a fun adventure . . .
Terry