I’ve decided that this will be my last semester as an educator.  Once I finish out this contract, I will not seek further employment within the business model that has undermined and crippled contemporary education in this nation.  Life is too short to be overworked, underpaid, blamed for student laziness, and treated as a second-class citizen.  I will teach to the best of my abilities this semester based on the techniques and practices that have most favorably served my students for the last fifteen years, and I will try to end my teaching career on a positive note.  After this, however, I will not be part of an educational system that views teachers as customer service reps, students as customers, and grades as a commodity.

Beyond this semester, I have no idea what the future holds for me.  I will make every effort this year to have a breakthrough with my series, but given the glutted market and difficulties for an independent to reach a mass audience, my hopes for that happening are tenuous, at best.  Regardless, I will continue to write and should finish the final book in The Brotherhood of Dwarves series this year.  I’ve also begun writing a new series of novellas, Weird Westerns about a fallen Presbyterian minister who battles demons in post-Civil War Appalachia.  After that, I intend to start a futuristic, trans-human novel about a cyborg soldier in a post-apocalyptic America.  Whether or not I can ever earn a living from it, I will continue to create as a writer.

I have until summer before I have to start worrying about replacing my teaching salary.  At this point, I don’t know what my real options are, but hopefully, something will materialize.  Whatever I do, I intend to pursue some path where I can use my creativity.  I will weigh my opportunities and figure something out.  For now, I’m just going to focus on bringing book five to life and making the culmination of that series into something special.  For this book, I want to push my skills to new boundaries and create a conclusion and resolution worthy of the overall series.  Beyond that, I have no idea what my future holds.