April showers

 I'm starting to think that the old adage April Showers bring May Flowers has more to do with the phrase "when it rains it pours" because every one of my clients has a deadline this month. EVERY ONE. 

Which is a blessing because they need me and a curse because I've got so much to do!! Add in Easter and family travels alongside multiple family members needing medical help and boom, it's April 22 already. 

I'm "venting" here cause I need to do that and I'm not sure anyone reads this blog :)

And in the midst of the chaos, a pitch letter I sent in January might bear fruit. Of course, they called for a meeting this month LOL. If you want something done, give it to a busy person. 

I know that I could balance things differently, but I like all of the people I work with and want to keep them all. I think if I can pull off the deadlines this month that I will be a good place for the next year and that's really the goal of freelancing isn't it? Stable income with engaging work and wonderful clients. 

Year end data dump

 

If you write a blog but don't share it anywhere, will people find it? Apparently yes. That "big" spike is when I wrote about leaving Twitter. Guessing this was all bots, but who knows, maybe a real person snuck in there too. Hello if yes! 

Social media wise, I'm still on Facebook (but muting people), and regularly using LinkedIn, Tumblr and BlueSky (under the cpd623 handle). 

Next stop today as 2024 comes to a close is to pull data for my clients, but overall, I'm pleased that I hit all of the goals I set and will kick off 2025 with a "new" client. I'm still stressed a bit about time management and getting everything done, but overall, the first year of "retirement" was good. And full-time caregiving went well. E is gaining skills as my dad is losing his and so there is some balance during the day. 

On the other data points that I like to track. I read 52 books (and moved to StoryGraph). In full disclosure mode I'm almost done with three more books, but won't finish them til after tomorrow so I can start 2025 off strong :)

We managed to get sort the equivalent of 54 boxes of stuff (and donated a bunch of that away) just in time to finally close the storage unit we set up when Dad moved in. So, all good news, but I still have piles all over my house!!! 

My biggest engagement of the year happened on AO3. As I posted earlier in September, I fell into the Bridgerton rabbit hole and wrote some stuff about Polin. It started with one story but then I got pulled into the Flufftober challenge on Tumblr and well... I wrote some more. Eight stories in all and two of them are original pieces. 

There is a part of me that wishes I'd tracked things better and watched if I posted something someplace how engagement changed, but then I realized I don't need to do that and I should just enjoy the fact that other people might be enjoying my work. Today I learned that my Reddit group's reading club picked my first story for this week and I'm freaking out a bit about the fact that everyone will be invited to read it. A lovely way to start 2025. 

Bridgerton (TV)

• Filling in the gaps (20,397 words)
• Subscriptions: 45 Hits: 8,191 Kudos: 300 Comment Threads: 55 Bookmarks: 124
• Fever Dreams (6,565 words)
• Subscriptions: 61 Hits: 4,935 Kudos: 170 Comment Threads: 6 Bookmarks: 42
• Impure Thoughts (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 2,173 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 13
• Follow You, Follow Me (3,363 words)
• Subscriptions: 4 Hits: 2,049 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 25
• Christening the Library (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 3 Hits: 1,763 Kudos: 47 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 4
• Invisible (200 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 1,041 Kudos: 75 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 14

Original Work

• A Green Leaf in Winter (1,941 words)
• Hits: 52 Kudos: 7 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 2
• Memories (100 words)
• Hits: 36 Kudos: 3 Comment Threads: 0 Bookmarks: 1

Bye Twitter

 Leaving Twitter for real this time. I tried last year but Mastodon was an epic fail with the first server crashing and me being unable to migrate data to launch a second instance. I'm willing to start over, but that was ridiculous. 

So, I spent the last year using it in small doses. And with the election outcome and X planning to use data in the site to train AI, I am really leaving. Just purged the Off Peak Productions account.

And am starting the purge process for cpd623. It's taken me two days so far to go through 700 of the accounts I followed to try to find them again. I've found a decent number but I'm sad. Not sure exactly how I'm going to delete 11.9K tweets, but I'll try to beat the 11/15 deadline. 

If you find this blog, you can find me most places as cpd623. I'd love to connect.