I dipped my toe into the waves of "what am I going to do now". I decided to draw on what I consider two of my strengths: reading and writing. 

After researching sites that will pay for book reviews, I determined a book reviewer career will not pay the bills despite one article mentioning that top reviewers can make almost $65,000 per year. Yeah - and how many of those are there?

Book reviewing, on the other hand, removes the guilt of reading if its purpose is to attempt to bring in even a modicum of income. 

So far, I've submitted applications to two sites (yes - there is an acceptance process) and a review to one. I reviewed A Gentleman in Moscow. The review is on Goodreads if anyone is interested. 

The sites I'm interested in, which actually pay, provide "assignments" of books. This means that my reading material will not always be to my liking, but it may broaden my reading horizons. That's always a good thing. 

It will also force me to focus my writing. These sites are not looking for the "oh, this book was wonderful"type reviews. They expect a summary, a critique, and a recommendation in about 350 to 400 words. One site has a list of rules that I'll have to study if accepted.

I'm still working on the proofreading concept, as well as closed captioning. And somewhere in there, I'll be delving back into creative writing of my own. 

I'm beginning to feel like creating adjunct income for my retirement will not rely on one type of work, or one employer. In order to satisfy me, I may need variety. While teaching, my students provided that satisfaction - each day with each student was a new adventure. In retirement, perhaps my ability to shift from work type to work type may be my new inspiration. 

Each of these prospects summons a different view and forces me to vary my thinking - hopefully a tactic that will keep me at least mentally young. Striking through someone else's prose is completely apart from pulling phrases and concepts of my own out of those filing cabinets in my brain. 

I'm holding instructional design in reserve for now. Endeavors in that area require an entirely different type of focus. Right now, I'm not in the frame of mind to conjure that type of focus. In fact, I worry that doing so before I'm finished with the initial slide into retirement could be my undoing. 

I still need space. I need a certain lack of structure to repair a few hard years. I need commitments to be shifting and shiftable. The different stages retirement may go through are just beginning to dawn on me. I am totally in the first toe in the water stage.