Changes

Today is my last day as a full-time employee at Job in Northern Virginia. The problem is that my company is supported largely by government contracts, and while we won large contracts to do various jobs for the government, these are hard times, and the government is not funding the contracts we’ve won. So we have had layoffs. And layoffs. And layoffs again. And now, downsizing to part-time some of us who were formerly full-time employees.

BUT–

Now I have more time to write.

My YA fantasy novel, Darkness Rising, is currently in the editing stage. My cover art is due in a week. I found a terrific cover designer. And I’m working on a new website.

This website, my friends, is going to be retired. Sometime next month, my writing website-slash-blog will go live. I will not be posting daily briefs about Israel and politics. I’m not quite sure what I will be writing about besides, well, writing.

When I first started this blog, I had just been laid off from my second job as an entry-level programmer. It was during the bad old days of the bursting of the tech bubble. I decided to create the blog (by hand!) as a way of keeping up my web skills, and also as a way of starting to write every day. Sure, it wasn’t fiction, but then along came Iseema bin Laden and the Hulk and a few other things, and before I knew it, I had an audience and a desire to write even more. Eleven-plus years later, well, the writing paid off. In a few weeks, we will know exactly how much. However, the writing is taking precedence over everything else. Writing for a living is what I’ve wanted all of my adult life. Blogging about Israel, Jewish issues, and politics is a hobby.

That said, well, I’ve never been able to keep my opinions to myself. Honestly, I have no idea what the future is going to bring. But I know that this is the most important, most meaningful, and hopefully most life-changing year I have ever had. I hope you’ll all be along for the ride, but if you’re not, well, there’s a great, big JBlogosphere out there that I helped to found, and that will do just fine without me.

And by the way, take a good look at the rough cover copy. I think many of my readers will find something they like in the novel, particularly the source of the Catmages’ powers.

Andy Cohen was just your average middle school kid who went to class, played videogames, and tried to avoid the class bully–until the day that Goldeneyes came into his life. She’s a Catmage, a cat with human intelligence and magic powers. He’s the boy in the prophecy who is supposed to help the Catmages stop the Evil One from rising again–if they can find Nafshi, the most powerful Catmage of them all. Will they find her in time, or will the enemy kill her and steal her powerful Magelight? Darkness Rising, Book One in The Catmage Chronicles, coming in August. By Meryl Yourish.

If you liked Harry Potter, I think you’re going to like The Catmage Chronicles. And yes, you will hear about it here, first. Immediately after pushing the “publish” button on Amazon, I’ll publish a post with a link to the novel, which will be available in ebook and trade paperback.

Change is often a good thing. It’s time for me to take a new path. Stick around and see what happens. But if you don’t, well, thanks for being here. It’s been a fun ride. But I’m going to make that left turn at Albuquerque and see what happens.