IWSG Isolating History

Hello there!

Whether you’re just passing through, or looking for a comfortable online group in which to share your writing journey, you’ve come to the right place! The Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers resources, tips, timely news, how-to’s, and don’t do’s – all the support we writers can use to make the most of our craft.

We meet on the 1^st Wednesday of every month. Feel free to browse around and mingle. As in the words of IWSG founder and “Cassa Series,” author Alex Cavanaugh, “Your words may be the encouragement someone else needs” Join us!

This month’s gracious co-hosts are:  Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard!

This month’s Optional Question is:  The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

Odds are there are more of us willing to answer that question then there are those of us willing to ask it. I don’t imagine there are any rules of verbal engagement when we’re all in the same predicament, but there are indeed varying degrees of need. For some, it’s a hug, a nod of understanding. A reassuring word goes a long way – even by phone or text. Sometimes you just want to talk to someone, hear another’s voice. Sometimes you just need T-paper – or a job.

I check in with friends and family weekly to trade empty-shelf horror stories and news of businesses past, present, and going under. It all seems shamefully extreme. But it is what’s happening today. Isolating as it is, we are all living history.

And who better to record, and thus preserve history as it happens than we writers? I expect there to be a good many speculative fiction books and films emerging from all of this, not to mention a few “True Crime” stories with titles such as “2020: Uncomfortable Hindsight” or “Murder in the Pantry”

Thanks to a bum arm, I was ahead of the home-delivery game. I didn’t feel like braving the crowds – then. Now we are ordered to stay in place while stores have stopped deliveries, citing empty shelves as truckers struggle to keep up with demands. I figure the truckers are spending at least a little time looking for open rest stops or decent places to eat. Although most of our bars had to close, and restaurants are take-out or delivery only, it was heartwarming to read that a prominent insurance company agreed to cover the good Samaritans willing to make deliveries. However, at 5:pm on March 31^st new ordinances go into effect (for our own good, of course) which will likely undo all the good we’ve tried to do by prohibiting ALL nonessential moving about, depending on which branch of public servant happens to stop and ask what you’re up to.  This is one of those occasions when you just know there’s a missing jigsaw piece under the sofa.

“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears” ~ Barbara Johnson (American Literary Critic)

What she said. And, in following that lead, I’ve read four books, written three short stories, edited two, and at long last, granted my father’s years-long wish of completing his memoir. It is my deepest regret that he passed away on March 8th, three days before his memoir went to press. But it was his love of trivia that led me to choose that as a theme for this year’s April A to Z Challenge. You have signed up, haven’t you? There’s still time!

Historic Trivia:

Founded in 1976, The Apple Computer Company sold its first computer kit for $666.66. Steve Wozniak said the price had no relation to the “mark of the beast,” it was just that he liked repeating numbers. Another defining marketing ploy was the rollout of Macintosh 128K in a single commercial called “1984” that aired during the third quarter of Superbowl XVIII. This time, the allusion was indeed intended and ended with the words, ”On January 24^th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh, and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”

In all, we’re doing alright. So far, we’ve avoided the virus. My sweet family has been so incredibly careful to ensure my overall health that I’ve come to wonder if I’d see them more if I did get sick (just kidding, folks!)  I spend time outdoors when others aren’t around. What if someone came near? What if, overcome by exuberance, I lost control and hugged somebody? Gasp!

 I look forward to the day I can ;-)

Happy Writing!