It has been four long, grueling months since my previous employer of over eight years unceremoniously informed us (and when I say “us” I mean 800 of us) that our services would no longer be required.
We had no more than 20 minutes following a brief company-wide Zoom call to download any important files and close out projects before access was completely cut off and we were left standing outside the virtual office with virtual cardboard boxes tucked under our virtual arms. (It was May, so there was no virtual rain falling on our virtual heads to really round out that scene.)
Since then, I, along with a LOT of others out there, have been focusing a significant amount of time and energy on landing that next exciting role and because of that, my creativity has taken a major hit and I am only now starting to recover from it.
I have two contracted projects on my plate and I have barely touched either of them since the tragic events back in May.
Let me just say that even someone with my extensive and award-winning career (TV Promo Writer/Producer for Warner Bros. and Disney, award-nominated tabletop Game Designer (Pinebox Middle School, Flash Gordon, The Sixth Gun), award-nominated Author (Cinema and Sorcery), produced Playwright (Doctor Who, Dark Shadows), practical special effects Fabricator and SAG Puppeteer, and Voice Actor) is having as rough a time finding a decent job as everyone else out there.
I’ve submitted well over 100 applications since the layoffs and I’ve had exactly ZERO interviews. None. Nada. It’s demoralizing and soul-crushing, but it is what it is.
Fortunately, I have an amazingly supporting partner (we’re celebrating a BIG anniversary next month, by the way) who is helping me through all this and encouraging me to climb back up on that horse to refocus on my writing and restart my voice acting career. More about that later!
Anyway, the horror adventure I’m writing, titled Long Night, is pretty much ready for playtesting, so I’m hoping to bring it to the table in October for “Spooky Season.” Once I’ve done that and made changes as a result, I’ll get it into the publisher’s hands and move on to bigger and MUCH better things.
I’m here. I’m persevering, and you can expect more exciting game-related content in the future including posts about my experience at Gamehole Con in mid-October!
Roll ‘em if you’ve got ‘em! Dice, I mean!
