Wow, how the world has changed since that post in 2020. I’m not sure why I quit blogging other than I became fixated on COVID. I am an ER nurse, so I worked it and when not at work, I watched CNN. It was constantly on in the background, morning until night. I sewed masks and I’m not a sewer but I learned. The demand was high and there wasn’t enough of anything, though I’m sure we would have been okay on toilet paper if not for the TP frenzy!
As I watched CNN, the number of dead rose from the hundreds to the thousands and then to the millions. Eventually, I had to make myself quit watching the news for my own sanity. I realized I was somewhat obsessed (as were many people) with this sci-fi movie we were cast in. Old pandemic movies became eerily accurate. Everyone knows someone who died from COVID. The CDC says that 60% of Americans have been infected. I’ve had COVID twice. Job hazard. The second one just recently and it was a doozy.
Everything is so different now as we were thrust into a no-contact world and new rules were written, but we adapted quickly to virtual technology as did the writing world. Virtual conferences weren’t too bad! I could turn the video off, mute myself, and stay in my pajamas. I could clean house, crochet, or a myriad of other things while other writers, editors, and agents dropped pearls of wisdom into my ears, but my mojo was stumped.
This summer Midwest Writers Workshop offered a hybrid conference. I was tempted to do it virtual again. In fact, I didn’t register until just a few weeks before the conference because I couldn’t decide. I chose go in person, to drive three hours to Ball State, and pay for a hotel for three nights because I needed to be with my tribe. I needed to see the people I had spent the last eight years of my writing life with. It was so worth the effort, so great to see their smiling faces, to get real hugs. I needed to be among writers and talk writerly things, mingle with old friends, meet fresh faces, buy books, and just do writer things! I came home recharged and set to working on my book again. Those who know me, know this book has been rewritten so many times! I just couldn’t seem to get it quite right. I’m finally there.
At the beginning of November, MWW hosted its annual Agent Fest virtually. We had just started doing Agent Fest separately from the summer conference in 2019, so it was born shortly before the new era of virtual communication. I pitched to three agents, got two requests and a referral to another agent within the same office. SWEET! You can get a glimpse of that book here.
I’m doing some final polishing for a few weeks and then the first of the year, I start 2023 with a new character. Clara has been a part of me for so long that I don’t know if I can ever write another character as completely as I’ve written her. She is synonymous with my writing life.
Here’s to a brighter future for all of us. We are the survivors.
Loretta
