Still Isolated And Still Writing

Terry and I were talking about this whole self-isolation thing last night. Except for a couple of trips to the grocery store and one to our accountant’s office in mid-April, we have not left the house except for one afternoon when we spent a couple of hours alone on a fishing pier. Nobody’s been in our house, and we haven’t been in anyone else’s house, for over seven weeks now. And we plan to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. Really, the only thing I am missing is dinner at my favorite Chinese buffet. Otherwise, the two of us are quite content to be together staying at home.

Someone told me on Facebook yesterday that he feels sorry for us because we seem to be scared to death of COVID-19. Meanwhile, he was quoting statistics he gets from blogs telling the world this is no big deal. I replied that I’m not scared to death of the virus, but I do take it seriously. I have lost three friends and a family member to it. Only one had any underlying health issues. I have a daughter-in-law who is a nurse and the clinical director in a hospital in Birmingham, working with COVID victims every day. That puts it into perspective for me. I regard her input a hell of a lot more than I do what someone says on the internet. I also suggested he not feel sorry for us, but instead, feel sorry for the fools that don’t take this seriously, himself included if the shoe fits.

What’s the worst thing that can happen with us taking the precautions we are? We don’t get to go out to dinner? Okay, no big deal. But what if all the self-appointed internet experts are wrong and the scientists are right? With any luck, we will live through it as we watch the death toll continue to mount.

One thing self-isolation has been beneficial for is my writing output. I started my newest Big Lake book a week ago yesterday, and the numbers are piling up. I did another 6,300 words yesterday. That makes over 25k words since I started the book just over a week ago. If I can continue at this pace, I will have it out by the end of the month. But I’m not making any guarantees on that. As I’ve said before, anytime I announce a deadline for a book, something is bound to throw a monkey wrench into the operation.

I was chatting briefly online with an author friend of mine yesterday and she is experiencing the same thing, cranking out anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 words a day. And fortunately for all of us authors, having so many people stuck at home has helped our book sales. I am hearing from people telling me that they usually read one or sometimes two books a month who are now reading more than that every week. After five days in Amazon’s Top 100 Hot New Releases for mysteries, my latest John Lee Quarrels book, The Road To Wrinkle Ranch, dropped off the list yesterday. I did not expect it to stay there forever, and I’m pleasantly surprised that it was that on the list as long as it was.

Today will be more of the same, and with any luck at all, I’ll get another 5,000 or so words done. As happens so often when I’m writing a book, the characters decided to take control, and it’s going off in an entirely different direction than I originally had in mind. But that’s okay. They always seem to know best.

Congratulations Richard Rousseau, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of Gone The Next, the first book in my friend Ben Rehder’s Roy Ballard mystery series. Ben is another of my favorite authors, and if you aren’t a fan yet, you will be after reading any of his books. We had 45 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon.

Thought For The Day – I wonder if clouds ever look down at us and say, “Hey, look. That one is shaped like an idiot!”