Disruption

Keeping busy during lockdown has been a quantum change. Routines are different, all indoors. I have adapted always moving forward, reorganizing, and finding my way in a new world. I do a prison style workout of sit-ups, pushups, and a resistance band everyday along with some stretch and Tai Chi videos. My reading time has doubled as I dig into the seventh book of The Wheel of Time series, Crown of Swords. I cannot believe I have waited so long to read one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. I also have finished January River, a novel of the American dream and loss and love, by Bernard Jan translated from his original Croatian. It is fascinating to see the country through the eyes of someone on the outside looking in. My writing time has also increased as I forge forward with my dystopian sci-fi novel, Future-Thrill. The pandemic has had some influence in side details with mentions of past sickness and aftereffects of war and disease. The subject sounds heavy, but it is not. The engine that runs Future-Thrill is pure serial adventure with lots of action and twisted cyberpunk. I have the outline set, yet the story surprises me as I write it; there is nothing like a work of fiction taking a life of its own in a creative fashion. My characters of Cade and Frost, augmented and looking for a way off of a dying Earth, demand story changes as I write them in their moment. The spark that comes from that frisson is what keeps writing interesting since a novel is always a long project of many months.

So many new and strange things are online now. Every Friday I can catch a favorite club of the past, Numbers in Houston, Texas, as they do a live stream. Metallica Mondays are thing where the band plays past shows online. I saw a play of Pride and Prejudice performed for Playbill on Zoom that reminded me of the Hollywood Squares in the group feeds and it was interesting as the actors were in character at their homes in plain clothes. The experience was similar in setup to the Saturday Night Live at home editions without the fancy graphics and premade videos. I watched Rob Halford of Judas Priest do a live Q&A on the bands last shows and the prospects of their future tour. All of these and more focus on allowing out of work entertainers and crew to have an optional venue to get revenue. Not necessarily for the stars but for the crews that are out of work at this time. Work has shifted and a depression is coming, but we as a society will survive.

Time goes on. The submission grind continues with Lane Bowden 1973 and my Rebel’s Edge series making the slow rounds. I also slightly changed Anarchy - Strange Tales of Outsiders with a different print size to slim the paperback and have released my first novella as a free ebook on all digital platforms. Where the Road Roams is eleven years old and I figured it would make an interesting gateway into the beginning of my writing world.

The quantum change is more on the inside than on the out. I am using this time to refocus not just on external things but on things of the spirit and hope for humankind.

Stay safe and wash your freaking hands!

DS