Winding Down…

So today I, and every other editor and writer working for Samhain, was hit with the news that the company is in the process of winding down. They’ll be honoring their current commitments to projects ready for publishing, and will continue to sell books, but all new projects have been stopped. In a year or so they will close their doors for good.

Bottom line… I’m out of a job.

Working for Samhain was probably the best writing related experience of my life. I’d cut my teeth writing for magazines and newspapers, learned a regular work ethic with my comic strip, and in the end finally got some of my own books published, but Samhain represented a true turning point for my career.

Instead of just working on my own projects, I was responsible for helping other writers make theirs better. And if the feedback from most of my authors is any indication, I was pretty good at it.

(note to self: collect endorsements…)

With this new found free time I’ll be pursuing other projects. Write more book reviews, finish a novel that’s been “almost done” for over a year now, work on another novel that I’m currently excited about as well.

Naturally I’ll be looking for a new publisher to call home, but in the meantime I intend to set up my own freelance editing site. If any of my authors need me, I want to be available to them, as well as anyone they might want to recommend. It’s been three years since I even considered working on my own like that, so I need to re-research the market.

But all that is for the future.

Today is instead a day for mourning and remembrance, but definitely not regret. I wouldn’t trade the last three years with Samhain for anything. I’m not going to stay home and mope like someone died, I’m going to take my wife out and celebrate the good times.

It’s all about perspective.

Also, we won’t order anything expensive.

My authors often complement me on how much I teach them when we work together, but the fact is it’s always a two-way street. I have learned just as much about being a writer by working with them.

And for that, I have every reason to be grateful.

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