May You Live In Interesting Times

I know this should be a post designed to make readers happy about getting rid of 2020. I should avoid politics, after all, most of us are either scared or worn out about current affairs, let me tell you my good news. 2020 ended on a good note for me personally. After a long negotiation, I sold a middle grade non-fiction manuscript to Scholastic. The contract was signed near the end of December - publishing houses do work during the holidays. Unlawful Orders is scheduled to be published in 2022. Mainstream publishing is a long and winding road. My original blogging plan had been to begin a series about my journey along that road. But circumstances have caused me to delay that set of posts.

Exactly a week ago today, I was in the middle of an internal debate. I've heard many of my friends rhapsodize over Bridgerton on Netflix. I am one of the apparently small number of people who do not subscribe to Netflix. To sign up or not sign up was my number one question last Wednesday morning.

I also cared about the results of the runoff elections in Georgia for Senators. The standings were being presented by my chartthrob, Steve Kornacki in his khakis. If you don't know Steve, check out People's Sexiest Man alive 2020 issue. He's definitely the sexiest nerd and deserves to be made a hero in a book.

At the same time, because I multitask, I was watching Congress, as a sort of civics lessons. It’s the first time in my entire life I had paid attention to the electoral vote count. (The first time I even knew it happened.)  Last, but absolutely not least, my fractured mind was working on a new WIP about two girls and a witch at a summer camp in Wisconsin. Never say I can't fracture my brain into multiple pieces. 

Then the news broke in, and it was not about the Georgia results. The only thing on my brain from then until after midnight was the full scale invasion of the US Capital. I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about anything else, not the Bridgertons or even my WIP, since.

 

It’s almost like 2020 was the prologue for every dystopian novel ever written, and now we are entering chapter one. The good news:  sometimes the main story is very different from the prologue. 

I choose to be positive. Just as we read and love romances set in the Regency period or WWII, 2020 and 2021 will someday form the setting for great historical romance novels. You know, books with titles like: My Socially Distant Love, or Love in the days of Insurrection or We Met on Vaccination Day.

In the last few days my life and work have gotten back to normal. I have a virtual meeting with my critique partner scheduled for next week. I’m also in discussions about a new YA project with my agent. Between making final edits on Unlawful Orders, my magic-strewn WIP, and now this possible new project, I can’t help wondering if external conflict might be good for my productivity.

But I can’t help remembering the old curse: “May you live in interesting times.” I bet a lot of us can now understand exactly how cruel that curse is.