Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: Taped music.
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 464. (Sorry! I read more than I first thought! lol)
TOPIC: NO BREAKS FOR THIS STRUGGLING WRITER--BUT SHOULD I BE ALL THAT SURPRISED?
I hate this! But what else can I do?
The city of Everett has it out for the poor and the disabled.
Namely me.
In 2 months--by October 1st--both my wife and I will be out of a house and home.
We knew this was coming 2 years in advance and still we couldn't do anything. When you live on such severely limited income as I do--you can't plan ahead, nor can you save any sufficient funds for that "rainy day".
All you can do is live in fear each and every day and wonder if you'll have a roof over your head the next.
This morning, we got a notice from the management that housing has denied us our next year's voucher based on the fact that it couldn't accept another rent increase--and so we have 2 months to find other suitable housing.
The only problem is is that the asking prices for most rents start at $800 for one-bedrooms and almost $1000 now for 2-bedroom apartments. (They wanted $962 for the coming lease year (2009), while last year we were paying an increased $862 a month in rent. Which would've sucked out another $140 on top of the $226 I already owe for my portion of the rent. (I found out from my wife what they were really wanting. Our housing coordinator must've gotten the earlier number wrong by mistake.))
I only have $537. And even if either me or April were working, we still wouldn't have enough to make basic ends meet. 95% of our last paychecks went to rent alone the last time we worked in 2000 and 2001.
And rent back then was much cheaper than it is now.
If we cannot secure a place by October 1st of this year, it's going to mean abrupt end to my publishing ambitions and everything else that I've labored hard over for the last decade.
I can't tell you when I will be able to resume my writing, but it's safe to say that The Starchild won't be published at all until at least 2020 or later--instead of 2011 or 2012. (As I had hoped.)
For this, I'm sorry. But life hasn't been easy for me and I've had to swallow my share of setbacks more than once.
This one's just another bitter pill that I have to take--because there is no avoiding what will happen to both my wife and I over the next several years at most.
I'm not angry--though I should be. I should be pissed and spewing hot lava from my guts. But I'm just oddly depressed at having to lose everything all at once and not being able to do anything about it.
Maybe I'm just finally glad it's over and I can move onto whatever else is going to be presented to us--minus what few creature comforts that we have to ourselves.
Our stuff is going into storage, but the fate of our animals is uncertain. Due to the fact that so many people have abandoned their pets after losing their homes to foreclosures--with animal and kill shelters are underfunded and overmaxed...?
There's really nothing we can do.
If there is a slim chance that we can squeak our way out of this mess, it's this: There's a small possibility that we can "port" our voucher from one housing agency to the next--and allow us to live in a much smaller one-bedroom.
If for one more year.
The only trouble is, I don't have the $325 needed for the transfer fee. Now...there is another possibility that the management will be gracious enough to let us make monthly payments while we live there, but we're not betting the farm on that happening.
If this doesn't work, and we aren't successful in finding a place in 8 weeks, I just want everyone to know that I didn't go down without a fight.
I've done everything humanly possible and nothing worked.
As for my writing--it's a moot point. I'm going to try and finish Starchild Duel and at least one chapter of Stories of the Dead Earth--to leave off where I need to go to next whenever (and if) I resume writing.
This could be many years down the road--so I just want you all to know this.
But I won't have any definite idea on when I'll be back to write and share more on my cool writing and other book projects.
Sky
