My adventures last month AND a teaser

5 5 2022 

 

We were all so excited! Going to a real conference for the first time in a few years (for me). Everyone attending Malice Domestic was required to submit proof of vaccination, so we felt so safe.

 

Too safe. Most of us ditched our masks for the weekend in the hotel in Bethesda MD, and even hugged each other. It felt so good.

We loved having a crowded hotel room get together Friday night with libations and goodies. Fun and crowded and loud.

 

Here’s the panel I was on. The subject was blended genres, as all of us write something a little different from each other. It went very well!

 

Moderator, Elizabeth Crowens, me, Marilyn Levinson, Leslie Karst, Paula Benson, and Kathryn O'Sullivan.

 

I wish I had a picture of our banquet table. I sat at the one hosted by Leslie Karst and Ellen Byron. Ellen won the Agatha for Best Novel! That was awfully fun.

 

Then we left. And that wasn’t fun. You may have heard about this. Many, many of us came away with a case of covid. This late variant, at least, is not lethal to the vaxxed. But it wasn’t easy either! I had a terribly sore throat for about three days, and am still having some brain fog, fatigue, and my sense of taste is a bit off. It’s not gone, just off. The worst part of my being ill was that I was staying at my daughter’s house to have a fun week. Instead, I made them sick, too.

 

So I isolated 5 days in their guest room, flew home on May 1^st, and am now masking for five days at home. Honestly, though, I think I’ll mask for the foreseeable future.

 

Here’s the teaser! I just got the cover of my third People of the Wind novel, DEATH IN THE NEW LAND, which will be out July 19^th! There will be preorder information soon, too.

 

 

Talk about a roller coaster ride. I’m getting dizzy.

 

Habits, Old and New

12/7 Habits, Old and New

 

It’s nearly the end of the year. Good riddance again, right? I hope we don’t say that again next year at this time, but you never know. In fact, we’ve found out so much that we didn’t know—that no one knew—about the new virus, and what to do about it. Maybe we’ll be better prepared should another one come along in the lifetime of anyone living today.

 

Anyway, what I wanted to write about is the subject of taking stock. We add up what we got accomplished this year, and set down, at least in our minds, what we want to make happen next year. I know, the million dollar lottery, NY Times bestseller list, true love, those are on some lists, I’m sure.

 

I want to talk about habits, though. Many of my habits, lifelong habits, did not serve me well for the pandemic. One thing I’ve always liked to do when I standing in a line, like at the grocery store, is to try to chat with those around me. The way to initiate that is with a friendly smile and an observation of something happening, or a compliment on the person’s clothing, hair, nails. This last one fulfills part of my mission to try to make a person’s day better. Also, if they tell me something interesting…well…everything’s material. So that’s my selfish mission.

 

BUT, this is really hard to do when you’re not going to the grocery store. Then when you do go, you’re standing at least six feet from everyone (ideally) and wearing a mask. I know, you can smile with your eyes, but it’s hard to see. And you’re six or eight feet away.

 

It was time last year to form new habits. Buying lots of toilet paper. (I heard, knock on wood, that it’s scarce AGAIN.) Using hand sanitizer, opening doors with your shirt tail or your elbow, pressing elevator buttons with your knuckle. Washing your hand a lot. Making sure you have a mask in the car before you set out. Coming back to get one because you forgot to do that.

 I wonder which of these are habits I’ll keep up. If any. I’ll admit, I’ve gotten a little obsessed with buying TP. I find it hard to not get is every time I shop. That should be self-limiting when my closet runs completely out of space, one would think. I hope, though, that someday I’ll quit buying it and won’t need to stockpile any more. 2022? 2023? Who knows? No one.

 

 2021, 2022 images from Pixabay.com

Photos are mine

Social Life and Other Elusive Things

 

I’ve been battling a condition caused by a combination of my scoliosis (which never gave me a moment’s trouble before August of 2019) and the aftermath of my hip replacement surgery (coincidentally, in August of 2019). I won’t bore you with the many details, but this happened yesterday.

 

I started back with the Physical Therapist I was with in March of 2020, the one I had to quit for the pandemic. They start everything over after a 6 month hiatus, so I filled out the form again. There was a section asking what things are affected, and how much they’re affected, by my pain. The part that made me laugh was “social activities.” They wanted to know how my social activities are impacted, things like dancing and sports.

 

Hilarious! Dancing? Sports? They’re dealing with a woman who is happy she can walk. In discussion with another writer about my age, we both laughed about the social life thing. She thinks it made the pandemic easier on her to not have one in the first place. Nothing to miss. I might agree with her on that.

 

The only part I lament is my inability to handle my flowerbeds over the past couple of years. I can hire people to weed (after trying to find them for a long, long time), but they don’t weed like I would. They don’t do it right! I just discovered there’s a big pokeweed and several baby maple trees growing in my beautiful rhododendron right now. I broke off the pokeweed, but also need to cut off the trees. It would be best to dig them out, but I’m not up to that!

 

I count myself lucky that I haven’t had trouble concentrating on my writing during the plague. I know lots of writers have had that problem. Maybe I had good practice using my writing as escape in other situations in past years. Whatever, I’m so happy to be able to work on my projects and to even get some of them published.

 

Do you have leftover trauma from the pandemic? Or are you able to do things better now than you could during the shutdown? Or was your life mainly unaffected? We’re all different!

 

Rhododendron and bookshelf photos by me

Other images from pixabay.com