You know… I started this year with the thought that I’d blog a lot more consistently than I did last year and after February, it’s almost like I forgot.
I mean, I didn’t but I might as well have, no?
In any case, we are past the halfway point of this year and to be honest, it’s been a better year than most even if it could be a lot better.
Life has been busy.
My mind has been occupied.
But I’m grateful that I can still wake up in the morning and at the very least, smile that my world is not falling apart.
THE CATCH UP
To start off with, “Beta: The Hierarchy, Book 2” is complete and currently being edited and reworked to fix some problems and add some dynamics I missed on my first write-through.
Like Book 1, this will be self published as well. I will be making a post about the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) closer to when it’s ready for release.
I am hoping for end of September but I haven’t settled on a date yet. But it hopefully will be soon.
THE OTHER
The other book needs to be edited as well and prepped. It is my hope to publish that one through the traditional route but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it.
I was advised to just self publish whilst querying for a publisher and I might still do that but I feel like I want to test out the traditional route even if it’s just this once.
Hopefully, that will also end well.
THE LAST
For those of you who enjoy my occasional poetry, I’m sorry that I haven’t woven anything into the tapestry that is the poetry section of my website.
To be honest, I’ve had a lot of material to work with but the emotions have been too current(?) to digest into words and rhyme.
But seeing as I’m here, I plan to return back to it. I miss it and it did help to unburden myself from emotions that weren’t worth carrying anymore.
You know… It has been a while since my last blog post and honestly, I shouldn’t be writing in the mood that I’m in. But, writing in an emotional state tends to be the best state in which I can make words make sense.
I need words to make sense.
2020 was and is supposed to be a different year. A different way of thinking, new moves, new life and the promise of something completely out of this world. Something I’ve been chasing since she said yes to me over the phone when I told her I’d like to date her.
The dream of a new house and a new car. A few books out under my name and some upwards movement with my life and that of those around me. Colleagues had plans in place, I had weddings to attend and one to plan even. There was a positive trend to the year.
And then. Covid-19.
Covid. Flipping. 19.
And all the heavy lifting that had been put in place from the months before… All the sweat and tears and frustration and stress of trying to pull everything together into a cohesive picture suddenly goes out of the window. The monsters and the burden that had been discarded down were suddenly back up as the scramble re-began and trying to pull it all together.
I mean, it’s not everyday that one sits to fight and survive a pandemic, even if the death stat is about 5% of total cases. 5.3% to be pedantic, really.
Still, the wedding is most likely going to be postponed. The vendors are back into negotiating stages. The house process is postponed. Stress levels are rising. Everyone is working from home and all of this…
All of this = Little Picture.
It’s the extent of the things that I can control, even if the control itself is nothing more than an illusion. A brilliant and sweet illusion but the faux control is still enough to give off the right amount of dopamine that is just grand.
And then, there’s the big picture.
A global pandemic.
Who knew all the years of watching disaster movies would end in us experiencing one? Real-life imitating fiction and we’re living in it in real-time. Right to the tip-top second.
The coronavirus, Covid-19, is spreading like a bad rash on a hot day and we’re barely keeping it back. The hospitals are overflowing with patients, everyone and their moms are getting sick and the unfortunate souls with outstanding health conditions are being forced to come to terms with what it means to contract the virus.
Countries are struggling to contain the spread, entire cities are trying to survive. Face masks are low in supply, the economy is having one heck of a wild ride and the sneaking suspicion that things will be a lot different when the virus has completed its cycle assuming, of course, that it completes its cycle.
Conspiracy theorists are filling the airwaves with half-truths and misinformation, looking for something or someone to blame. 5G is the current culprit as people attribute the technology to being capable of causing difficulty in breathing. I mean, I’m a tech guy but for all my research, I haven’t seen anything to attribute it to such.
Still, the false belief that it was 5G that kickstarted the virus has made its way on WhatsApp and Facebook and you know what happens after that.
Italy and Spain are battling the worst of it. USA is barely doing appropriate testing, along with their cousin, UK. The middle east is doing their best to sort out lock-downs while Africa (as a whole continent) is trucking on because (a) there’s a false belief that we’re immune and (b) we don’t have the testing facilities to prove otherwise.*
*Well as far as I know…
Nonetheless, I guess one of the best things to come out of this is the awareness of just how much the nurses and doctors all work to keep everyone else safe and sane. When this tale is over, I hope people remember them to forever be the heroes that they’ve shown themselves to be. More importantly, I pray that they will be able to be whole again when it’s all done.
All in all. Covid-19 has us by the privates and it’s squeezing tight.
The Big Picture.
So, here I am… angry and frustrated at how my plans for the year have more or less been tanked. And feeling guilty because in the face of the problems I’m looking at, I’m intentionally ignoring the bigger issue of what the world is experiencing.
And even with the knowledge… Even with the realisation that nothing matters until Covid-19 is sorted out and a vaccine is found, I still can’t help but feel like the year has robbed me of what I had been looking forward to for years now.
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