Hey, so if you just want to vote on the poll, I’ll put it up top. If you want to read the long explanation on why these are the options, you can click the read more option.

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As 2021 draws to a close, I think a lot of us are asking…what the fuck was that? LOL.

Anyway, I do want to apologize for continually rescheduling my projects and then promising things without delivering them. You guys have been great about it, but I do want to acknowledge that this is a problem I have.  One of my big resolutions for 2022 is stop overpromising my time. I keep saying I’ve built in time for burnout, but I haven’t, so I’m trying to do a better job this next year.

I’m also working on doing with in my professional life, but I know some of my readers are either currently teaching, former teachers, or know a teacher and it’s so hard to stop working. This profession really is a calling and it’s hard to turn off that voice in my head that says I can do this just a bit better if I spend more time on it. And that’s hard enough in a normal year, but — man, this year has been challenging in ways that keep surprising me.

Every thirty school days, I do a complete change over of students, meeting 50-60 new kids and getting to knew so many new personalities, working on the new chemistry – it takes so much out of me. I really miss having just the same kids every day all year.  My teaching style is super chill and laid back which only works when the kids know you and have relationships you. It takes so much mental energy to do that every other month (and the sixth grade still switches every 15 days).  That’s part of the reason I keep saying – I think I have a handle on this, but then I just don’t because I can’t anticipate that energy change.

And while my handle on my personal anxiety seems to be okay (haven’t had a serious spiral since August, so yay for me!), the job stuff is getting worse.  Our school is getting hit hard with a Covid outbreak — we’ve got more than 50 kids on quarantine, I’m trying to do Zoom meetings and conduct the normal classes, and it’s just getting worse. I’m going to spending part of my break converting my courses to hybrid so students on quarantine can still do the work effectively (or to prep for a short shutdown).

It all just affects the ability to focus after work and I’m just not able to write effectively during the work week. I set some goals for Mad World’s edit and I’m behind on that. Flash Fiction has been crap since I gave up writing it on the weekends. I have a hard deadline date for Karma to be completed edited by December 29 so I can post it on December 30. That’s my number priority at this point.

So in order to get off to a better start for 2022, here are my options, at least for the next three or four months

1. Pause Flash Fiction until Mad World is edited.  This means Scars and Signs of Life get completely taken off the schedule (Poor Signs, lol, started it more than a year ago). I’ll throw all my weekend energy into Mad World to get it edited for release in April. Then we can reevaluate Flash Fiction.
2. Keep things as they are with the understanding that Mad World might not be out in April (likely a delay until May or June). This is mostly because my writing schedule won’t really be routine, but that might be okay with you guys and if it is, that’s totally fine. I don’t mind haphazard updates, lol, but I feel bad 😛
3. Pause one flash fiction and edit Mad World. This may or may not delay Mad World. My plan for that is that I would write Flash Fic on Saturday or Sunday, then edit on the opposite day. We could vote on the flash fiction, but I’d probably pick Signs personally since it’s been in progress much longer.  The delay would depend on what kind of editing Mad World needs and how much which I honestly don’t know yet.

I’m really okay with any of those choices, so please feel free to choose the one that you most want to see. Some of you guys like the flash fiction more and don’t care much about Mad World, and others are looking forward to the finale. I just want to gauge where the community is so I can make better plans. Here’s the poll again:

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