end of inkspot

Inkspot closed today (see Inkspot main page). :-(

I found out that Xlibris was shutting down Inkspot on Monday. I was online and in ICQ on Monday morning when suddenly I was inundated with "UH-ohs"...all three of my in-house team (in Philadelphia) were letting me know they had just been laid off, and given until noon to clear out. Shortly after, they had to sign off because someone had arrived to shut down their computers. It was incredibly depressing, watching their ICQ ids drop off my screen, one at a time. Xlibris laid off 22 people that day, including my supervisor and his supervisor.

Yesterday, my Managing Editor and I had to send out e-mails letting the rest of Inkspot's staff know that everyone was laid off, and that Inkspot was being shut down. I sent out the last issue of Inklings this afternoon, and posted the announcement on the page. Within a few minutes, I had e-mails and phonecalls coming in from people who wanted to buy Inkspot (I sent them to Xlibris) or talk to me about what had happened. There was a lot of shock and confusion.

I still haven't fully absorbed the fact that it's really gone; it's been so much a part of my life for six years.

What am I going to do now? Take a sabbatical. A long one. The past few years have been unbelieveably stressful...I'm burned out. I'm looking forward to spending more time with Jeff. And then, I'm going back to fulltime writing. I'm looking forward to that, too. :-)

The one bright spot this week was hearing that Paul and Beckett are new parents!! :-) Casey Beckett Kwinn is 5 pounds, 6 ounces, Riley James Kwinn is 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Congratulations, Paul and Beckett!

Today's Blatherpic:

Where I want to be right now...our cottage up north. Jeff and I built this
one summer, from mixing and pouring the foundation to putting on the
roof tiles.