Among all the panicky online advice swapping, I saw someone suggest that now’s a great time to start a daily diary. We’re living through a genuine historic event, after all. Even if daily life under quarantine isn’t particularly interesting to live through, it may be something we want to have a record of later.
Technically, I’m not under quarantine. I’m a little sniffly, and Isaac is coughing, but we’re pretty sure it’s only allergies for me and the tail end of a cold for him. Isaac is teaching classes online, which as far as I can tell through the wall involves a lot of students showing off their pets. Mavro and Kuro, our cats, are popular with the kids.
I’m feeling a bit odd mentally. I can’t stop checking Twitter and the news, even though I know nothing on there is really important or relevant to me. In a way, I think I’m searching for connection. I lost my job in January, and I spent most of February feeling housebound and crappy, since I didn’t want to spent money going out. Now everyone in town is feeling the exact same way, and thousands of people are in my position too. It doesn’t feel good, but it does feel like everyone’s on my wavelength for a change.
Seattle isn’t fully a ghost town, but it’s eerie how empty the streets are. Since there isn’t much traffic, I’ve been getting some driving practice in, mostly going to city parks where I can walk without getting too close to other pedestrians. Maybe I’ll eventually work my way up to highway driving so I can go to the better, even more sparsely trafficked trails further out of town.
I’d planned to have something up on Amazon KDP by now, but my novella turned into a novel, and I’ve still got about 15,000 words to go to really do this thing right. I’m proud of what I’m working on–it combines a lot of my interests in a satisfying way. I’m excited to have it out there, especially because I do miss marketing. My one worry is that I’ll be starting my career with a book that falls in the crack between romance and SFF, and that’s an odd niche to try to climb out of. I’ll be announcing it on the podcast and doing some special episodes when it’s ready to go.