Eight years ago next week, I retired from full-time work. I had been freelancing since 2009 and upped my game. I loved not limiting my writing to healthcare as I had in my full-time career.

Now is the time for another transition, and I’ve decided to stop writing in the commercial space, though I will write here on Substack whenever I feel like it. I did not come to this decision easily, but three different and unrelated issues brought me here.

1. Next Avenue, a publication I loved, was defunded when the current administration cut the funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. My first piece there ran on Christmas Day 2020, and my last piece will run next week. The publication was edited by Julie Pfitzinger, who was a dream editor. Here’s an example: I pitched her a story about the 60th anniversary of “The Sound of Music,” and when she offered me a contract, she confessed she didn’t like the film, but the editorial team outvoted her. How many editors are that honest? For me, that piece turned out to be my favorite of the more than two dozen pieces I wrote for Next Avenue.

2. The freelance climate has changed dramatically since I started freelancing in 2009. Pitching has always been a gamble. Editors are overworked and overwhelmed. Publications have closed, and those staffers have come into the freelance space. Every writer must learn to deal with rejection — that’s a given. But in the before times, editors didn’t commit to stories and then ignore submissions, ask writers to recontact them on a certain date and then ghost them, or take stories that never ran. And many publications have stopped hiring freelancers. It was never fully about the money for me, and the hassle/benefit ratio has changed, because my life has changed.

3. Over the past year, I’ve taken on a new role: caregiver. My husband has some health problems, and I want to be there for him. I don’t want deadlines keeping me from doctors’ appointments or distracting my attention. Let me make this clear: this is my choice. He always tells me to do what I want. This is what I want to do.

So I’ll be publishing about once a week here on Substack, and this account will remain free. If you aren’t already a subscriber, please subscribe.

I’ve had a helluva ride since I started freelancing in 2009, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. And I’m grateful to all my special pals from Open Salon, the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, and the Monday Review who buoyed me up with every freakout over a story.

I don’t have a clue what will happen next, but today it’s time to turn the page.

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To read my commercial work, go here.