One Year Later

It was a year ago this weekend that I suddenly found myself out of work. We had barely two week’s notice that AMI was foolishly shutting down Weekly World News. Since then the company has continued to flounder so in the long run, getting out of there was probably a good thing. The newspaper was a hoot to work on and I miss it and maybe someone will wisely find a way to resurrect it.By the time I packed up my desk and left, I had already alerted the free world I was available and was determined to find staff work. There were calls and meetings and a few formal interviews. Then…silence. Along the way, I collected unemployment and filled my schedule with whatever freelance work I could find.As the weeks passed, the freelance work continued to come my way, from various sources, and I was busier than ever while setting my own hours. Once I was invited to help ACE produce the Heroes Happen here comic strip, I had a very full schedule with Famous Monsters in the offing.By Christmastime, the job leads had dried up and the freelance was flowing so I sort of shifted mental gears. I was going to try going fulltime freelance even though there remained that constant fear I’d wake up and all the work would vanish.Of course, there was no knowing that come January being fulltime freelance was the best decision I could have made. And since then, it has continued to work well as stuff continues to get done largely from the hospital.I have work to fill every hour through late October and maybe beyond as I talk to people about stuff and then more odds and ends may turn up.Will it all vanish tomorrow? Maybe. Will a fulltime gig get offered? Maybe.The last year has been professionally more successful than I could have imagined so maybe these things really do happen for a reason.