- My latest post “How are You Feeling?” was written in hopes followers of this blog would respond with their own comments and stories about coping with the pandemic. I was disappointed in the lack of response.
- I’m coping by working on my next novel. It seems to be about halfway done, though I’m usually the last to know. It continues where my Florida Folk Magic Trilogy ends, though it’s by no means a sequel (unless my publisher tells me it’s a sequel).
I’m also coping by re-reading old books, currently James Patterson’s Instinct about a serial killer who leaves cryptic clues to his next victim by placing a playing card next to each person he murders. The novel came out in 2017 and was co-written by Howard Roughan. It demonstrates the problem with the police using the services of an expert. If the murders keep going on and on an on, the expert really isn’t solving anything. If the murders stop right after the expert solves the whole case on page 20, you don’t have much of a novel.- My wife and I see to be trading the low-grade flu back and forth. Not sure how to fix that except for both of us to take it easy and get extra sleep.
I listened to Queen Elizabeth II’s brief pandemic speech on TV last night and though it was a reasonable appeal for working together to solve this crisis as Brits have done before. She’s old enough to remember the Blitz, the country’s attempts to find safe places for the children, and the resolve with which everyone mobilized for efforts in battlezones and on the homefront.
Comfort food is a high priority with us right now. I just took a squash casserole out of the oven to be warmed up for several meals. My wife’s been making pies and rice casseroles. We usually pair these with whatever we can find on TV, including “How to Get Away With Murder.” Our joke with that series is that (like “Lost”) we seem to know less and less about what’s going on after watching each episode.- Stay well.
Malcolm
Malcolm's Round Table 
I thought our Queen did a grand job with her little pep talk. Marvellous old lady of 93. It’d be a bold virus that’d mess with *her*! She became a mechanic and military truck driver in the war, I believe. She has seen more national crises than most of us, and more eejit Prime Ministers as well, I expect.
T B H this crisis hasn’t meant a big change in lifestyle for me – except that my social life (what little there was of it) suddenly stopped. Or it might be more accurate to say it went online, where I am now still able to do my weekly yoga.
I am lucky to have plenty of house and a bit of garden to roam around in and am happily catching up with reading and keying up handwritten drafts. I’m also doing National Poetry Writing Month.
I am rumbled, however, by my little tribe of critturs. The dog has been glued to my heels for nearly a fortnight now. He obviously senses a stressor in the house. And the cats all want snuggles. Not normal! As this is my crisis not theirs, one can only assume they are empathising. And they are doing a very good job.
I should, however, ‘fess up that I am finding it impossible to write fiction at the moment. And I’m not particularly keen on writing about the whole Covid-19 debacle (although I am keeping a spasmodic diary). We are urged to call our loved ones – but all we are able to talk about is the crisis. I am both fed up with it and unable to find anything to talk (or write about) which is not that. So I carry on keying up material written earlier. I have three little books I want to have assembled by the time this nasty virus has gone. And maybe (if it really lingers) I will finally have a first full draft of my Magnum Opus about Genghis Khan.
I’m really glad to hear you’re returning to your Floria Folk Magic milieu. Wonderful characters you created in the first tranche of books. I look forward to meeting more wonderful characters a generation or two down the line 🙂
I’m leaving writing about the virus to the doctors, newsmen, poets and essayists. As my wife and I watched the Queen’s broadcast, we agreed that since she had experienced the Blitz and (as you mentioned) had multiple qualifications and experiences, she had what it took to comment on this crisis and to be believable. Sometimes out cats want to snuggle; other times they act like they don’t give a shit. Cats are cats, in that regard. Glad you enjoyed the characters in the trilogy. Someone suggested a Pollyanna novel based on the character who appeared in “Lena.” I avoided it for a while and finally decided I had to write it. Best of luck with those “three little books” you’re assembling.