Opportunities

After being the proprietor of my own community weekly newspaper from 1995 to 2001, after six years I had to toss in the towel and admit the business was a failure. I turned over what assets remained to settle some bills and took a regular job.

Being self-employed had been extremely time consuming, and as a result of taking a normal job I had - or at least felt I had - time on my hands. I started writing and submitting short stories in the fall of 2002. In March 2004 I sold "A Rocket For the Republic" to Gardner Dozois at Asimov's Science Fiction.

Fast forward a few years. I was the managing editor of a small daily newspaper from 2007 to the start of 2015 - seven and a half years. The paper struggled during the Great Recession, and by the time it was sold to a newspaper chain, I was working very long hours.

In January 2015 I took a job as managing editor of a weekly paper, and again, I took advantage of the time gained to write, but this time I tackled a novel. I wrote "Another Girl, Another Planet" in four months, from January to April of 2015. Ten months later I sold "Another Girl, Another Planet" to Kevin J. Anderson at WordFire Press.

Your mileage may vary, but at least in my case I have always taken setbacks, looked at what opportunities they may hold, and then set forward again.