UNEMPLOYED AT LAST

A merger with Avalon Publishing and Perseus Books a few months ago culminated today with the closing of Avalon’s New York offices, something everyone had been preparing for the last six weeks when they got their pinks slips.

Imagine this surreal experience, working for months on new releases and back catalog reprints to have three of the imprints eliminated and rows of catalog titles labeled as “donated”, or otherwise rendered unsellable, books that were slated for the stores only weeks earlier. The sheer amount of paper-based resources that were rendered moot was staggering.

So my Chelsea gig is over and I’m unemployed for now and prefer it that way. Working full-time in NYC is no way to enjoy the city, the amount of time taken up by commuting and work has left little else to partake in and the city had the potential to become just another place to live in, albeit a very expensive and crowded one.

I am not sad.