Writing in the Age of Coronavirus by Stephen Lomer
Okay, so, I’m pale, I’m chubby, and I spend most days in my own solitary company. Am I an author, or a victim of the coronavirus lockdowns?
Turns out I’m both. And while others are champing at the bit, eagerly awaiting the moment when they can resume their extroverted lives, I continue tapping away, my routine largely unaffected by the pandemic restrictions.
There is one thing I miss, though, and that’s working book fairs and conventions. It’s one thing to receive a report every week from amazon detailing how many people have bought your book, but it’s something else entirely to stand there face-to-face with someone and pitch your novel, and still another to make a sale and put a personalized greeting on the title page.
With the pandemic still in full swing, I continue to write and continue to publish. But are the days of book fairs and conventions gone forever?
I don’t know.
In the Before Time, in the Long, Long Ago, we authors would pack up our gear and drive to a hotel ballroom or convention hall and set up for a day of selling. We’d sit inside a concrete bunker for eight hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, breathing recirculated air and inhaling whatever it was that thousands of footfalls were kicking up from the carpets. We would shake hands and pose for selfies. There was no social distance of any kind.
For the moment, book fairs and conventions are shut down, and most are rescheduling for 2021. Will authors be willing to go back to the concrete bunkers and breathe recirculated air, shake hands, and pose for selfies?
I don’t know.
I’d like to say that once a
vaccine is available and COVID-19 is just a memory that people will return to
doing what they love. But for me, the true love is the writing. So much as I
would enjoy being out there and meeting you all, for the immediate future, you
can find me hunched over my keyboard, a bottle of diet Coke close at hand,
doing what I do best.
by Stephen Lomer
Joining forces with Her Majesty’s Royal Typo Brigade, Typo Squad takes up residence in Buckingham Palace to try and draw out this dangerous madman.
With the lives of the royal family in their hands, will Typo Squad be up to the challenge of finding and capturing the Wordmonger? Or will history repeat itself?
Typo Squad is dealt a terrible blow by Anton Nym and his new errorist cell, known as the Erristocracy. But when all seems lost, the tide turns with the rise of the Typo Alliance.
With a new headquarters, a new captain, and the arrival of some truly unexpected allies, Typo Squad is set on a collision course with the most dangerous foes they’ve ever faced.
Will Dick and his team be able to overcome the odds and make the world safe from typos once and for all? Or will Nym and his inner circle be victorious in the end?
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