It's weird (like your beard) looking at my old posts on this page and on my blog. It makes me cringe while simultaneously making my heart flutter. I was passionate if not a little naive back in -- Jesus -- 2012.
What's been going on since then, you might wonder? Well. Life happened. It happened to me so hard. I was dreaming of becoming an actor back in those days. I finished up my undergraduate degree at WVSU and started working for Radio Shack. I then quickly realized that living with my friends, and then eventually having my own 1 bedroom apartment, was, unequivocally, expensive as balls. So my part time status at Radio Shack quickly turned into a full time keyholder position. Then, it turned into a store manager position. As 25 hours per week turned into 45 hours per week, my time at the theatre became less and less and I was becoming a company man. During my tenure with the Shack, I moved all over WV and Ohio. I found as I was moving every six months, that I was pretty good at this retail thing. I was REALLY good at selling people things they didn't need. Apparently Radio Shack thought I was good too, because they kept giving me more and more responsibility. Then it happened, just like the white winged dove, I got the call from the big wigs, aaaaand, "Radio Shack was filing bankruptcy and closing!" Oh well, I thought. I'd collect the severance and then unemployment, and then I'd actually start pursuing my actual career of being a performing artist. The only problem was, I was now 6 years older. Holy shitballs, I was in retail for 6 years?? Damn, no matter, I can still do it, right? However, like Trump says, "WRONG!" During my few months of unemployment back in 2015, I became deathly ill. And by deathly ill, I mean, I literally almost died in my recliner in my living room. If it hadn't been for my now fiance Amber, I would have become a shitstain in that lay-z-boy. She took me to the hospital and I was diagnosed with an immune disorder. An immune disorder that I would forever more have. Horrible luck, right? Especially since I was unemployed and had no insurance to pay for what was becoming a medical debt of epic proportions. So after they got me better, I realized I had to get back to work immediately. Some old Radio Shack contacts got me a new management job for Dollar Tree. So I went back to work doing the retail thing once more. Armed with a two week supply of Prednisone, I figured I was ready to jump right back into the working world. And for a short time, two years in fact, I was ready. I was more than ready. The success I had working for Radio Shack translated to Dollar Tree perfectly. In two years, I had managed three different stores, and overseen the opening of three other stores. I had expanded my retail power and I was unstoppable --
"WRONG!" (Trump voice)
2017 was the time for my immune problem to resurface with a Die-Hard-Bruce-Willis like vengeance. I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I had pneumonia for almost 6 months actually. The over exposure to the public that comes with retail work had almost killed me again. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was in the hospital again for seven days. So I quit my Dollar Tree job, which at that time had found me in Kentucky, and I took a small sales job near my parents' house, so I could focus more on my health. Moving back in with mom and dad was rough especially now that I was 30... Holy shit... I was 30 and I was living with my parents. I couldn't even remember the last time I wrote a bit of fiction or even had been on a stage. Between being a 9-5er, or more appropriately in the retail manager world -- a 9-9er -- I had completely abandoned my dream. I spent the next year being more responsible with my health and life choices and after having a few medical procedures, I was looking at a decent 2019 on the health front.
Things were looking better, so I did what any rational person would do, I started working again full time for Wal-Mart, because, apparently, I had learned nothing. I did however, manage to do one thing, well, two things, that were smart. In 2019 I finally got back on stage. It had been the better portion of 10 years, but I was doing it again. And it all flooded back to me, the desire, the creativity, the camaraderie of being onstage with the other players. After our run, I immediately signed myself up for another production that is happening this summer in 2020 (stay tuned for more details on that.) The second thing, and most important thing, that I did in 2019, was I asked that girl that saved my life way back in 2015 to marry me. I love you Amber, and I do this all for you and for our family! She said yes, and I couldn't be happier. In October of 2019 we moved into our own (very expensive) house! I love my soon to be wife and our kids! I'm very fortunate to have found my person.
Work, however, was another matter. I was still trapped in the never ending cycle of working for someone else, and being overly exposed to the public, which, as you guessed it, was taking its toll on my health. So after working another year for Wal-Mart, I got some bad health news. In November of 2019, I was informed by my doctors I would need a serious procedure done on my lungs. All the years of recurrent pneumonia had finally effed me in the a for good. This procedure would mark the end of my public working career. No more working in the public, no more selling, no more doing the thing I was REALLY good at...
Or was it?
I was at a huge crossroads. I'm going to be 34 in March, and I've only really been good at a couple of things in my life. I was good at selling things, and I was good at being creative. I figured now, with my health the way it is, I'm never really going to be able to have the glamorous "famous actor" lifestyle. That didn't mean, however, that I couldn't still be an actor. That didn't mean that I couldn't still play onstage as a hobby. I'm still going to be on that stage this summer, and for many years to come, hopefully.
It did leave me with the huge question mark of how I was going to survive. How was I going to put food on my table? How was I going to pay my kids' orphanage bills? How could I combine the two things I was good at (being creative and sellings things) into one big and hopefully profitable thing? In addition to acting like an idiot on a theatre stage, I had found that I was also good at stringing together a sentence or two.
So here it is. I'm back to selling things! Selling things to you that you want! Let me take your money and then let me ship to you the thing you want! Let me in turn, use that money to write more creative things (and also pay my kids' orphanage bills!) If you shop in my shop on my dubya productions fb page, that helps me to finally get all my writing projects off the ground and finally be that not-so-starving artist that I've always wanted to be.
My first planned project to publish will be my Gerard novel. This is a project that some of you might already know about. It's a project that is officially more than a decade in the making. If you browse some of the way older posts on the dubya productions fb page, you'll see a lot of stuff I was working on. Another project I'm working on is a serial killer novel about a man who murders people but then trips out and thinks the people he just murdered are trying to kill him! As always, my manuscript ideas will always be free for people to view and I'd be more than happy to bounce ideas off of anyone who takes an interest in my writing.
I just want to let everyone know how frightened I am about taking this step, and going all in finally on my own business. Thank you for any support you might give the dubya productions store or my writing!
More updates will be coming soon!
As always, this is Josh Whisman, telling you all to enjoy beef. I love you.
