With the coronovirus ravaging the world like a metal rat, I find it ridiculous to send agents a query about my fictional “fantasy” manuscript. I’d rather have them spend that time at home with their kids and making sure they stay well and healthy. When there’s a dire crisis actually at hand, you drop what you’re doing and help, not plow on without consideration.
My husband has been tracking this pandemic since January. Because of this, he sorts relevant information and posts daily updates with relevant articles for our local Santa Cruz station KSCO at ksco.com. If you’re still not taking this pandemic seriously, I highly recommend reading these updates. He’s done many things I’m proud of. This is definitely one of them.
What am I doing then?
Staying at home to prevent spreading Coronovirus. When my youngest daughter got a bad cough at the beginning of March, we began quarantining our family. I spent two weekend nights sleeping beside her to prevent her from coughing; it was enough for me to pull ourselves out of all their activities, if anything to prevent anyone else from getting our flu. All of us are healthy now, but we haven’t seen anybody for 21 days.
Teach and entertain my two girls. I’ve been homeschooling them for two years, now. For me, it was just a matter of extending the structured activities to all day, rather than until lunch. Last week, we planted a garden from seed. This week we made bread from scratch. I’m exhausted by evening, when my husband and I discuss the weight and fate of the world.
Read the whole series from my booklist. An agent recommended some books for me to read. Though I’ve read the first book in each of the series – a book a week – now I get to finish all the books in the series. Thus far, my favorite is the The Fifth Season, where geophysical magic and dystopian apocalypse meets Beloved.
Improve my online presence. In the past I’ve intentionally avoided an online presence because of time restrictions and, namely, I didn’t want invasive Facebook following me around. (Also, my girls seemed less happy when their mom was attached to her phone.) Now that we’re all in quarantine, or very soon will be, I might as well offer another source of entertainment to the world and show others I can engage with the online communities. As a mom homeschooling for two years, I’m hoping I might offer insight to other parents.
I’m shifting my online presence to be more about myself as an author rather than about a book I self-published 6 years ago.
- I’ve created this new writer website.
- I’m updating all my old content and accounts that I’ve left to sit for several years. Perhaps I will even begin sending newsletters again.
- I’ve changed my Twitter account username to be more about myself as an author and not as a book.
- I will be commenting on social websites regularly.
- ALSO, after checking out countless of library books over the years, I’ll finally be writing book reviews.
- Perhaps I will post new videos on YouTube.
In conclusion, I wish you all well.
STAY AT HOME and STAY HEALTHY
