We may be toward the end of the immediate crisis, but there are still 12 hundred Americans dying of Covid every day. In mid-March, 2022! That blows me away every time I think about it. What we have learned to live with is incredible.
I heard Stephen King interviewed about his latest book a few months ago, and he admitted to pushing its time period back to just before the pandemic. He didn't want to write about it. But I kind of felt like I had to.
So my newest YA book, the concluding novel in the Bean series, is set in the really terrifying opening months of the pandemic, back when we were wiping our corn flake boxes down with disinfectant. It's called The After Times, and the title is a riff on a phrase I kept hearing during the beginning of quarantine: The Before Times. In The Before Times, we went to movies, we didn't wear masks, we didn't run through the grocery store to try to get out in ten minutes...
And then came Covid. The After Times, like all the Bean series books, is a time traveler. It centers on my newest, youngest characters: Grace, Dylan, and Zoey, but the old-timers from the first three books are there, too. Everyone ends up quarantining together. There is a demon--or possibly demon(s). And a tornado. And some stained glass windows that do things that stained glass shouldn't do. And also a cameo appearance by the Patron Saint of Music, who turns out to be a total badass. I had fun writing the book
At first I wasn't sure you could do a good book under Covid Protocol. Turns out it shapes the plot in very cool ways: who might be contagious or exposed, how so much being shut-in is affecting peoples' heads--and the big question: can time travel spread the Virus? Read The After Times and find out!
Thing is, it'll take a while. I just now submitted my working copy of it to my usual publisher. I'm hoping they'll like it. But it's never too early to get people interested, so--HEADS UP!
Otherwise, I'm writing poems, getting ready for National Poetry Month. Here's the official poster, if you want one. I've had a few publications lately: Rattle Poets Respond back in September, and I won the Internet Poetry Bulletin Board Competition in December. Was honored to be in the excellent Autumn Sky Poetry Daily feed a little while ago. I have a couple of chapbooks put together, too--but I'm thinking of combining them into a full-length collection. We shall see.
So, despite war and pestilence, the words keep coming because writing is the only thing I can do to keep from losing my mind. Me and my desk wump of a cat Bella keep our office hours daily, and the work gets done. Speaking of which, I have one more submission to make today--and then I'm running out to get some caraway seeds for the soda bread tomorrow. Hang tough, everybody. We'll make it through.