One Year

I just went back and looked at my post from this week one year ago.

One year ago, all we knew about Covid-19 was that it was new and scary and really, really dangerous.

One year ago, we’d just entered quarantine.

One year ago, I had three kids living under my roof because reasons.

One year ago, I said that I doubted we’d be going back to school in person at all for the 2019-2020 school year.

One year ago, all the theme parks in Florida closed down for the rest of the month.

One year ago, the conventions and reader events started to postpone and cancel.

Now?

Well, school is still not in person, not for everyone. My son has attended his first year of high school from his bedroom.

The theme parks were closed for three months, and still aren’t all the way open.

I’m back to one child under my roof. Miss the other two like crazy, but it’s not safe to see them. Not yet. Soon.

I had my first Covid vaccine shot last Tuesday. There’s word of a promising antiviral. As rates of vaccination have gone up, the number of hospitalizations for the 65-and-over age range has gone drastically down.

Things aren’t the way they were. They may never be the way they were. But there’ s hope now.

It’s an odd feeling, hope. I’m not used to it.

On the writing front, there’s been a LOT of writing this past year — since last March, I’ve written:

• three books in The Chronicles of John Zebedee.
• Time for No Mercy
• Wings of Air
• The first third of Heir to the Firstborn.

There’s a lot more to come, too. And that’s just new words! I’ve edited and reedited the first three Swords of Charlemagne books and am working on book four, and I’ve proofread the first two once I had proof copies, and am working on the third.

Wings of Air drops a week from tomorrow, on Amazon and everywhere ebooks are sold (and you can order the print books!)

I’m still on the RWA Board, still working my tail off. The Super Seekrit project will launch next month, and it is going to be AMAZING.  (okay, so it’s not really so super seekrit — I’m the lead on the Pen to Paper project, which used to be called Push to Publish. But I can’t tell you anything more until we launch so SUPER SEEKRIT!)

Several of the conferences I was supposed to attend in 2020 are in the planning stages for 2021. I have my hotel reservations for Orlando Reads Books, and Books at the Beach. The only reason I don’t have my hotel reservations for RWA Nationals or Necronomicon is because there’s no hotel block for those yet. And I have my fingers crossed! Things are still tenuous for conventions, and several others have postponed or cancelled their 2021 dates. So we’ll see what happens.

One year ago, I wrote in this blog that the only way out was through.

We’re almost through, folks. Just a little more.