After One Year of Covid

 

It's been one year since Covid 19 shut down the entire world, and it seems there is finally land on the horizon. It had been about hundred years since the world saw a good fashioned pandemic (the Spanish flu in 1918 was the last), so we were long overdue.

But now we have a vaccine out for this virus, so we should be seeing its final throes soon. I finally received my first shot today, and will be returning in about four weeks for the follow-up. Additionally, one of the colleges where I teach just announced we are returning to in-person classes in the fall. While there are new variants of the virus emerging, getting the vaccine is supposed to keep us from getting so sick we need hospitalization, or even face death, even from those variants. Factor in that most people are just plain tired of being cooped up, and all indicators show that we this is ending one way or the other.

So what did you accomplish as a writer? And for that matter, what did I accomplish as a writer? Honestly, things were a bit distracting, with not only the pandemic, but also a TON of misinformation about it, and a very contentious presidential election. Factor in the summer of protests from the Black Lives Matter movement, and there was a lot to keep track of. I don't think I'm alone when I say I could have been more productive than I was. But there were areas where I was productive.

I did manage to finish editing my first novel. . . again, after a mentor looked it over. I wrote a query letter for it and sent that out. I also finished my other novel, and began editing it. I sent out a lot of works, and many of them fell to dead letters, but I noticed I'm starting to receive the rejection letters again (which is a very good thing), another sign this pandemic and quarantine are in their final throes. And don't be afraid of those rejection letters. I've started reading those books for my Frankenstein research project again. And yesterday, I finally wrote another short story.

Could I have been more productive than that? Probably, but it also goes to a point I've always suspected was true: the more you do, the more you want to do, and the less you do, the less you want to do. Writing kind of works like that, perhaps more than other aspects of life. So keep plugging away, and I will do the same.

Lately

 

I confess that lately I have not had as much time as I would like to write fiction, or my Frankenstein project. However, that does not mean I have not been writing. As everywhere else in the world, schools have gone online, and I teach college writing for the majority of my income. I therefore had to convert my classes to an online format. Even though I worked on that throughout the summer, and even took a few training classes to accomplish this, I still had a LOT to do.

This past semester, I taught a total of seven classes as three higher education institutions, and I taught a total of three different classes, a developmental writing class, a beginning composition class, and a research writing class. What it really came down to was essentially the equivalent of writing a college composition textbook that could accommodate all three of those levels of writing. Luckily, I have been teaching for a little over ten years now, off and on, and I had a lot of materials to pick from. I wound up choosing a portion of this old textbook, and a different portion from that one, along with my "all star hall of fame" collection of sample essays to use for the students to pattern their writings after.

This did give me some experience with research writing, and may be some experiences I can use when returning to the Frankenstein project. It also granted me some experience with what works and what does not when teaching online.

The semester has now ended, and after doing some housecleaning, and celebrating the holidays, I am trying to return to fiction writing. A lot of markets seem to be slowing down at accepting and deciding on submissions, however, and the entire publishing world is slowing, partially due to the pandemic, and partially due to the economic impact from the pandemic. It looks like the end of this pandemic is finally on the horizon, but it seems it will also leave us with a world that is far different from what it was before the catastrophe began, just like a good horror story.

Why Write During Times Like This?

I have seen on several social media pages that some people are questioning why anyone would or could write, draw, or otherwise create any type of art during times like this? The world seems to be in turmoil. The Covid-19 pandemic is still going strong, although many people seem to have moved on. Numbers of infections continue to increase in many states and regions in the United States. There are still many protests going on for equal rights for African-Americans, although thankfully there appears to be few violent clashes.

Some might even argue that we should be helping defeat the pandemic, or providing support for those who are marginalized. And they may be correct.

However, I would also argue that writing, and more broadly creating any type of art, is a way of providing support for a cause or helping stamp out a pandemic. Writing and other arts help move opinions and has done so for thousands of years. It reflects the time, encapsulates it for generations to come.

Besides, at some point the world will calm back down and things will come to some sort of new normal. It would be nice to have a world to return to and a world without any sort of art is not much of a world at all. And that makes this the best time of all to create your respective art.

Writing in the Apocalypse

With everything going on now, the coronavirus pandemic continuing and now all of the civil unrest due to the murder of George Floyd, it can be hard to concentrate. It might even seem to be the end of the world. While I even named this blog post after an apocalypse, I am a bit more optimistic about the future of the country and the world as a whole. In the long term, I think we'll likely be okay. In the short term, things seem to be a bit rocky.

I, like many of you I assume, find myself on Facebook for longer periods of time than I used to. And I keep watching and reading the news to find out the latest. I've been watching some of the protests and riots on Facebook Live and other sources. We are living in a historic time, one in which, hopefully brings about some sort of needed change. It is hard not to get caught up in it. If you feel moved enough to get involved, by all means do so. Don't let me or anyone else talk you out of it.

But the bigger purpose of this post to remind myself, and if you see fit, to remind you, the reader, to keep taking care of yourself. It is best mentally to carry on as normally as possible. For the purposes of this blog that means to keep writing. Remember to tune out of the Facebook live feeds once in a while. Put time limits on how much time you spend watching and reading the news. It is good to be informed, but it is best to not let it take over your life. And again, I'm talking to myself as much as I am anyone else, as I do with most of my posts.

For myself, I've still been reading items I need for my non-fiction book on Frankenstein in film. I am also very close to finishing a rough draft of a novel about a werewolf. I've also seen a little success lately. If anyone is interested, my most recent publishing credit is a horror short story titled "The Lecturer" and was posted on Page and Spine's new Outta This World page here. And my latest poem, "A Perfect Rainbow" can be found in the latest issue of Teach. Write. here.

So what is everyone else doing to cope with the pandemic and all the other turmoil in the world today? Here is a picture from a cruise ship I was on a few years ago. I like it for its bright horizon.

How is Everyone Faring out There?

As chaos continues over this virus pandemic and quarantines continue, I thought I'd take a minute to address that we all have and will deal with the coronavirus in different ways, and that is okay. Some mean-spirited memes out there are shaming writers in writing groups if they are not being productive during this pandemic. The argument from these memes is that now that we are all shut in, if we are not being productive writers, we were and are never going to be productive writers.

I'm here to say that those memes are hogwash. Bunk. Malarkey. These can be very trying times, and when stress levels are high, writing can be difficult to impossible. It is true that some people claim to be better writers when they are stressed, but not for others. Everyone is different and everyone has to deal with this in their own way. Certainly it can be difficult to write if you are in danger of losing your job, or your house, or are having trouble putting food on the table.

For myself, I've been okay so far. I was even offered to take over another class from an instructor who could not finish the semester. However, this could be short-lived success for me. My summer classes were canceled and no one seems to know what they will do with fall classes. The stimulus money will help me get through for a little while, and hopefully there will be an end to this pandemic or some return to a new normal soon.

Writing wise, I've been a little too busy with teaching to do a lot, but I've managed to get a few words on a page. I'm not too stressed to write yet, and am hoping I don't reach that point. I try to limit news coverage because it can get to you after a while. The good news is I sold a poem to Teach. Write. and it was just released earlier today. It is available here.

So I hope everyone out there is doing well. To leave this depressing post on a happier note, here's a much funnier meme about the coronavirus from Ozzy.

COVID-19 writing and publishing.

It seems like you can't turn on a television, radio, or internet website without hearing something about COVID-19, aka the coronavirus. So in my usual philosophy of being just another monkey slinging poo around, here's my entry into the fray.

Because people are being quarantined with nothing to do, I'm seeing a lot of people in the publishing world offering free or reduced priced books from their lists, which is pretty cool, in my opinion. There are also a lot of books out there about pandemics, including the ones provided in this list.

Because I work in higher education, I have been assigned to work from home until at least early April, at which time they will reassess, and decide if we need to stay home longer. My guess is we may see all online courses until the end of this semester, but we shall see. It does give us writers and artists a chance to sit at home and work on our crafts, but at the same time, I prefer in person classes, and enjoy a little human interaction from time to time. But I understand the concerns. Students live in dorms and spend a lot of time with each other in classrooms, so colleges can be petri dishes for sicknesses and viruses. I therefore adhere to their decision, and understand its necessity.

Anyway, be safe out there and wash your hands. Good luck and stay healthy. Here is a music video to help you get though these times.