Last month, I was honored by a kind invitation by Jasmina Siderovski, Editor-in-Chief of eYs Magazine, Australia, and Marsha Casper Cook, eYs Team Author, to contribute to an article in the Spring 2022, edition 16, of eYs Magazine.
Five writers were asked to write their personal thoughts on the effects of the global Coronavirus–the beginning, middle, and the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.
If you are not familiar with eYs Magazine, I invite you to peruse the many wonderful articles in the current issue. Martha Casper Cook’s article, “Nothing Is The Same. Everything Is Different”, begins on page 29 with contributions by Marsha Casper Cook, Carol Solomon Proesel, Marta Bishop, Eleanor Parker Sapia, and Jack Remick. My essay appears on pages 32-33.
Happy Reading!
ABOUT ELEANOR PARKER SAPIA:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning historical novel, A DECENT WOMAN (2017 & 2019 International Latino Book Awards) and the award-winning collection of poetry, TIGHT KNOTS. LOOSE THREADS. (2021 International Latino Book Awards). Eleanor’s books are published by Winter Goose Publishing.
Eleanor is currently working on her second novel, THE LAMENTS, and a new collection of poetry, currently titled ERASE AND REWIND.
This blog post is a later version of an essay I was honored to contribute to eYs Magazine, an online Australian magazine. I’m grateful to eYs Magazine CEO and author Jasmina Siderovski and contributing author Marsha Casper Cook, for inviting me.
Three years on, two vaccines, and two boosters later, I have managed to duck contracting the Coronavirus disease. This morning, I administered an at-home Covid-19 test after a recent ten-day visit to my home country of Puerto Rico. I tested negative. I am relieved.
Whether or not folks have tested positive for Covid, most people I know, including myself, are still cautious and judicious about where we shop, dine, and how we travel. I still avoid dining indoors and large gatherings. When I leave the house, I wear a mask and keep hand sanitizer in my purse.
A few friends and family members who contracted Covid are glad to have had the disease as they claim to have shored up antibodies against hospitalization (and death) with a potential future infection. That could be true. Me? I do not want the disease. I deal with daily autoimmune issues, thank you very much.
Physically, I have escaped the virus. Emotionally, I know the stress of the last three years, which included the politics of Covid, US politics in general, and especially quarantining and experiencing the global pandemic lockdown solo for a year and a half with my dog, has affected me. Before the pandemic, I lived alone by choice. It’s another matter entirely to be forced to live alone. Of course, it affected my emotional health. These days, I am a bit more anxious, less happy-go-lucky, less impulsive, and more reactive to bad behavior than before the pandemic. Can you relate? Thank God for writing!
My daily decision making now involves questions such as, should I fly or drive to that wedding? Do I need brown sugar bad enough to go to the store today? Should I travel to Puerto Rico this summer? Is it time to begin accepting dinner dates and in-person book events to market my two books? Much thought and deliberation about potential risk are always involved. To some, this may sound a bit much, but to me, it feels weirdly “normal” in light of the state of the world and current events.
In 2020, I read an article that stopped me in my tracks. It spoke about men, women, and children in quarantine around the world living with their abuser(s). Folks were living with spouses or significant others, who in “normal” times, they would have separated or fled from. They were staying put for various reasons—fear, economic dependence, toxic emotional attachments, perceived safety. Tensions ran high and across the nation, best friends stopped speaking and families took opposite political sides. Children, who are dependent on stable adults to handle and maneuver unknown or dangerous situations, found themselves living with stressed out parents and caregivers, and dealing with at-home learning with stressed out teachers. Most were trying to do their best; however, some folks lost control of themselves.
The rates of domestic violence in the United States and Puerto Rico during 2020-2121 rose to frightening proportions. Murders of transsexual people reached dangerous levels in Puerto Rico. Femicides rose dramatically around the world. Tragically, femicide is not new, yet during 2020-2021, when people were losing their jobs, their homes, their livelihood, their minds, the numbers reached ungodly, unacceptable numbers. It was frightening to watch what was happening to women around the world, and ultimately to their children and families.
Mass shootings in the US, an ongoing tragedy in this country, have risen exponentially. On July 5, 2022, at least 314 mass shootings were reported in the United States. This year. In one country.
Committed, selfless social workers, mental health therapists, nurses, medical specialists, laboratory workers, hospital staff, surgeons, and doctors have been incredible during this global pandemic. Absolute heroes, who’ve experienced high rates of burn out are exhausted. Mentally spent. Who cares for them? Healthcare systems around the world were pushed beyond safe, sane limits. In Puerto Rico, doctors and nurses and medical specialists fled the island to the United States seeking better paying jobs. Where does this end?
Currently, the American economy seems unstable. The world seems unstable. There’s an ongoing war in Europe. We are paying soaring gas prices and often dealing with limited food products on grocery shelves. Europe is experiencing global warming with insanely high temperatures and fires across the continent. What’s next? I asked that question last month. Then, monkeypox reared its ugly head. Today, more than 16,500 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries.
While millions of us may have escaped Covid-19 infection, hospitalization, and death, none of us have come away unscathed, unaffected. Not one of us. I will never forget the 6.38M souls who lost their lives in this global pandemic. I felt as if we’d lost an entire generation of our elderly. Sadly, over 300 people die from the disease every day in the United States.
Be kind. Practice patience. Breathe. Wear your mask. Get the two vaccines and available boosters. Laugh often. Make your mental health a priority. Live simply. Plant a garden. Choose peace.
Most importantly, consider advocating to make Covid-19 vaccines and boosters available to every single person on our planet. It has always been vitally important to take care of everyone, now more than ever.
Eleanor Parker Sapia
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning historical novel, A DECENT WOMAN (2017 & 2019 International Latino Book Awards) and the award-winning collection of poetry, TIGHT KNOTS. LOOSE THREADS. (2021 International Latino Book Awards). Eleanor’s books are published by Winter Goose Publishing.
Eleanor is currently working on her second historical novel, THE LAMENTS, and a new poetry collection, currently titled ERASE AND REWIND.
The writing life can be a pretty sedentary life. It’s my life and a personal passion that involves heavy thinking, research, learning, hard work, and sitting. Lots of sitting. I can’t recall as sedentary a year as 2020. My body craves movement. My heart desperately needs to hug and kiss my children and loved ones. My soul dreams of beautiful vistas, a gorgeous beach, a turquoise ocean, a pool bar, new adventures, good times.
The year of the plague. Prolonged stress. Managing emotions. Emotional well-being.
Older people surveyed in the first couple of months of the pandemic showed a higher resilience to the pandemic lockdown. It’s not that older folks were not suffering at the same levels as younger folks, they were and they were more at risk. It appears older folks coped better with the stress of living and surviving a global pandemic.
Why is that? I believe it’s because older people have more life experience. We have better coping skills and resilience gleaned from a lifetime of challenges and difficult experiences along with a good dose of wisdom thrown in that only comes from experience.
For two weeks now, younger tourists and spring breakers in Puerto Rico, my birth place, are losing control and forgetting themselves and others. Friends and family members on the island say it’s been a nightmare dealing with tourists and young people ignoring mask mandates, running amok in cities and on beaches, and being rude and violent with the police and with locals. Seriously?
We’re all dreaming of a beach vacation with a fully-stocked pool bar and dancing under the stars. Come on!
If you can’t behave like a civilized human being during a global pandemic, stay home. If you can’t show respect and obey the rules while on vacation in destinations, such as Hawaii, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, where people live, work hard, wear masks, and try to keep their Covid-19 infection rates low, stay home. Period. Yes to stricter laws for dealing with such ridiculous behavior.
Run amok in your own neighborhoods and cities. Don’t ruin it for others. I want to get home soon.
Stay safe. Wear your mask. Practice safe distancing.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR PARKER SAPIA:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing in 2019. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”. Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico. Her debut poetry collection, “Tight Knots. Loose Threads. Poems” is due for release in April 2021.
A brief recap of early 2020 as I peek around the corner in 2021.
In February 2020, my son and his girlfriend, who live and work in Bangkok, Thailand, called to inform us of a virus outbreak in China. When my son called with the concerning news, I was reading David Quamann’s Spillover:Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic about zoonotic diseases (diseases spread from animal to human).
That phone call was all it took for me to pay full attention and remain hyper alert for news out of China. My immediate anxiety was fed by my fascination with books, films, and documentaries of the pandemics of the past, disease, and outbreaks of deadly viruses. A decade prior, I’d read Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone and Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs & Steel. I was obsessed with documentaries on the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. Like many others, I was convinced we were about to experience the first pandemic since 1918.
As news began trickling out of China, I grew more anxious. When brave Chinese doctors leaked reports to the world of their fears and the inability to contain the deadly virus, I knew we, citizens of the world, would be affected–our lives would never be the same. When those same doctors, COVID-19 martyrs to me, were detained and soon died of the disease, fear gripped my heart. Tragically, the virus was proven to be as deadly as they’d predicted and feared.
As news reports of infections began to surface in Europe, the UK, then Washington State and New York City, everything I’d read in the book Spillover became real, immediate, and terrifying. I called family begging them to prepare. I ordered face masks, disposable gloves, and bottles of hand sanitizer and spray bottles of Clorox.
Interesting note and proud Mom moment: In 2020, the Thai company my son works for, Open Dreams, won the annual MIT Solve Competition with their incredible and timely app called PODD, Participatory Onehealth Disease Detection, that specifically traces zoonotic diseases in animals throughout Thailand.Amazing~!
So, with my passion for history, reading diaries and journals written during the Spanish Flu of 1918, and my love of writing mixed with a fascination of the great pandemics of our world, I did what came naturally–at the end of March 2020, I began to chronicle my daily life in lockdown.
The end of March also marked the last time I hugged and kissed my daughter, my sister, and my nephew. We’d gathered at my sister’s home on a warm Spring day to enjoy a wonderful al fresco lunch on her sunny deck. I took a group photo to commemorate the day, unsure of what lay ahead.
The year 2020 will be long remembered.
I was vaccinated with the first vaccine in early March. My second vaccine is scheduled for March 30. I have no fear of these life-saving vaccines. I feel hopeful, for the first time in a long time. I can’t wait to hug my kids and loved ones!
My one regret…and it’s a huge regret that revisits me as we peek around the corner in 2021– Trump didn’t do what he should have done in regard to rushing the roll out of COVID-19 vaccinations across the nation. The unnecessary, tragic deaths of over five hundred thousand Americans weigh on my heart and they should weigh heavy on his mind and heart.
Stay well. Wear your mask. Practice safe distancing. Get your vaccines.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing in 2019. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”. Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico. Her debut poetry collection, “Tight Knots. Loose Threads. Poems” is due for release in April 2021.
Eleanor is the mother of amazing adult children and currently lives in Berkeley County, West Virginia with her Chihuahua Sophie.
I hope you and yours are well. I also hope you’ve received your first vaccine. Even better if you’ve had the second shot. If not, I hope you’re on a short list. That’s a lot of hope!
Two weeks ago, I received my first vaccine. I will admit to higher than normal blood pressure that morning and it rose as I stood in line in a gymnasium with hundreds of folks after a one year lockdown. But what a happy day. A few hours later, I had a sore arm and maybe two hours of a low-grade fever, mild chills, and a dull headache. No big deal! As a person with autoimmune disease, I thanked my body for doing what it does best–fighting disease. I imagined my immune system filled with tiny She warriors with spears at the ready! I joked with my kids that somewhere in my compromised, but beautiful immune system stood Gandalf The Grey on the bridge, shouting, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” Yes, I have an active imagination and I’m a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, smile.
Like many folks, I’d been on several vaccine lists. While it took two months to be notified with an appointment date, West Virginia has had one of the most successful and efficient vaccine rollouts in the nation. Some friends were surprised at that news because West Virginia is a red state. I don’t know about all that–I am thrilled with the vaccine roll-out in my adopted state!
My appointment for the second vaccine is scheduled for March 30. I’m a bit nervous about the reaction(s) that may occur with the second shot, but like Dr. Fauci says, ‘It’s certainly better than getting COVID.’ Amen. Get your vaccines.
March 11, 2021 marked the first anniversary of our US coronavirus-related lockdowns. To say 2020 was horrible doesn’t quite do our experiences justice, does it? I don’t know if there is one appropriate, all-encompassing adjective to accurately describe 2020 as our experiences are so different.
In my January 25, 2021 blog post (I can’t believe it’s been that long since I blogged), I said I wouldn’t rehash all that happened in 2020. Months later, I realize it wasn’t a matter of ‘I wouldn’t’, it was more like I couldn’t rehash all that had happened. At that time, I hadn’t processed it all, not even a little bit.
It’s often impossible to process the past if we’re in the thick of what ails us…and we are still living in a pandemic.
Yesterday, as I began this blog post, 548,058 Americans had died from COVID-19 and worldwide the number of deaths was 2,674,597 million. This morning, 549,484 Americans died. The worldwide number is 2,685,458. The numbers are heartbreaking and difficult to grasp. What my brain (and heart) has difficulty processing is how quickly the numbers rise, within minutes, seconds.
Families and loved ones of poor souls around the world who succumbed to the novel coronavirus have experienced a year of unadulterated hell. 2020 was a year of immense grief, paralyzing fear, perpetual anxiety, and unspeakable suffering. Although the number of deaths continues to rise, the number of cases is slowing down in the US, in large part because of President Biden and the government’s successful vaccine roll-out, and the quick turn-around of vaccine production and distribution. Thank God, Trump is gone.
Earlier in the month, it was reported that a staggering one in five Americans had experienced a death in the family. The suffering and exhaustion experienced by doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and caregivers is unfathomable. I don’t know how they do it day after day after day. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Stranger or friend, I don’t know one person who hasn’t been affected by COVID-19 in one way or another. Most of us still worry about the safety of our children, our loved ones. Unless, of course, you are a loyal MAGA follower, who still believes COVID-19 is one big hoax. In that case, I feel sorry for you.
Doctors and nurses across the US share story after story of patients on their death beds, who at the ends of their lives, still don’t believe in the reality of the virus. I would imagine a medical professional must feel enormous frustration, disbelief, and yes, anger as they care for and intubate non-believers and anti-vaxxers on their death beds.
I cannot fathom this mentality, this selfishness, this madness.
Stay safe, friends. Continue to wear your masks. Continue to practice social distancing and get your vaccines as soon as possible. I need to hug my children and my loved ones.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing in 2019. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”. Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico. Her debut poetry collection, “Tight Knots. Loose Threads. Poems” is due for release in April 2021.
Eleanor is the mother of amazing adult children and currently lives in Berkeley County, West Virginia with her Chihuahua Sophie.
Welcome to the end of 2020. Trump’s sideshow. The reality TV presidency. The hellish year. The year of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The year the majority of Americans woke up or finally believed the epic past and present greed and corruption perpetuated in this country by voting. The year most Americans finally acknowledged or looked at the abuses committed against minorities, the poor, LGBTQ folks and against immigrant families. Even my staunch Republican family member, who voted twice for trump, voiced her distaste for trump. That’s saying a lot.
I’m not going to write about 2020 in this blog post–the good, the bad, and the ugly of this pandemic year. We lived it. We’re still in it. You, me, and our loved ones. Our neighbors, friends, and strangers. Many of us are suffering, dying, and on the verge of emotional meltdowns/break downs. Too many have died. This year was a royal bitch and we’re nowhere near out of it.
American hospitals are in crisis. Our healthcare workers and healthcare facilities are overwhelmed and exhausted. In LA County, 14, 000 people a day test positive for Covid-19, that’s every 10-15 minutes. A new, more virulent strain of this virus is in the US. Two cases already. I heard a frightening report about a shortage of oxygen tanks in California. Oxygen. Holy God.
The goal to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of the year? Not happening. Only 2+ million Americans have received the first vaccine. So. Stay home. Wear your mask and keep doing your part to stop the spread of this virus. Hang on and stay safe. Vaccinations are coming. When? Well, that remains a big unknown. I pray our heroines and heroes on the front lines of this pandemic have already received their vaccines and that the rest of us are vaccinated by Spring 2021.
I started writing this 2020 Pandemic Diary on March 15, 2020. I’m amazed I kept it up. It wasn’t easy. I’m saving all my pandemic posts for my children and those who will come after us.
I honestly don’t have a lot to say on the last day of 2020, except that I’ve learned many important lessons. Living alone, which I’ve always enjoyed for making art, was an absolute bitch.
I wish you good health in 2021. Good health. As I’ve always believed, that’s everything.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”, edited by Mayra Calvani.
Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico, and an as yet untitled collection of poems about the many facets of love, which often remind her of the complicated relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.
This week, in a normal year (remember those?), I would have donated and helped hand out canned goods and coats at the mission down the street. I would have picked up a fresh turkey, fresh cranberries, baking and sweet potatoes, spinach, corn, and the ingredients for baking bread, muffins, and pumpkin pies for Christmas dinner.
If it was my turn to host our family, the white linen tablecloth and napkins would be pressed, white candles bought, the good plates washed and the silver polished. I would have gathered greenery, berries, and picked grape leaves from the grapevines in the courtyard to decorate the grapevine wreaths on my front door and the kitchen door. I love Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, the appropriate-sized baking pans, bowls, pots, and cooking utensils would be washed and ready for morning. Cookbooks propped open to favorite family recipes, piled one on top of the other in order of preparation, would wait on the oak table in my kitchen. The aroma of simmering cinnamon sticks, cloves, cranberries, and orange peel would fill my home as I wait for my children to arrive. I’m happiest when surrounded by my children and family.
Around 8 in the morning, still in my pajamas with a good café con leche, food prepping would begin–cutting, chopping, dicing, boiling mashing, sautéing, and blanching—with Christmas music playing in the background. My children would join me later in the kitchen. We have wonderful memories of Christmases past.
Christmas 2020 will be different.
This Christmas season, I’m blessed to spend time with my daughter and her boyfriend and we will sorely miss my son and his girlfriend. We will miss family. The separations will remind us how different this holiday season is, but what is normal this year? Not much. Our lives will never be the same…and if I think on it, for some of us, that’s a very good thing. Change is good. And Lord knows, this nation needs drastic changes.
Despite the challenges, heartaches, and anxiety of 2020, we shall make new memories, have fun, take photographs to share with each other at a later time, and count ourselves truly blessed.
From my home to yours, I wish you a safe and healthy holiday season. Stay safe.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”, edited by Mayra Calvani.
Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico, and a collection of poems, titled “Thoughts on Near-Fictional Relationships”. The poems are about the many facets of love, which often remind her of the complicated relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.
** This morning, I discovered this blog post was not published. I know. My brain feels fuzzy and my sleep patterns have been disrupted this holiday season. To be sure, it’s way too early to be up. I guess old habits die hard.
On this American holiday, I give all thanks to the Native American community and their ancestors. I think of the Spaniards, who settled in Florida and founded St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, in September 1565. One hundred years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. One hundred years. It is more than time to rewrite American history books.
This holiday season, as Covid-19 rampages across this country, some people still refuse to wear masks and practice social distance. Airports are filled with passengers traveling home for the holiday. I will celebrate alone. In quarantine without my children and my family. For the first time. No cooking, no baking. No laughter in my kitchen, no stories around the dinner table. If I’m entirely honest, I will endure the day. Too dramatic? Yeah, it is.
Like me, millions of parents and grandparents are without their beloved children and cherished grandchildren today. Most parents won’t know what the hell to do with themselves. Millions of young adults are away from their families and friends. Many single folks, who’ve lived alone for years and years, will really feel alone today. I feel you.
All this makes me sad and nostalgic. I’m grieving the past. No one told me this would happen in my 60s and the only way I know how to snap out of this is to acknowledge my feelings, write it out, and count my many blessings.
I’m alive. Today, I woke up relatively healthy and virus-free. Thankfully, so are my children and family members. That’s why I’m celebrating Thanksgiving alone this year–I want to see my daughter and her boyfriend at Christmas (we’ll isolate for two weeks beforehand and drive to our rented cabin), and I want to see my son and his girlfriend in 2021. The only way to do that is to isolate myself along with my baby, my quarantine buddy, my Chihuahua named Sophie.
We are very fortunate. Today, many Americans don’t have roofs over their heads, they are out of work, and no paychecks are coming in. Families are going hungry and businesses are shuttering their doors. Please consider donating to the many organizations feeding people this holiday season and beyond.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have tragically died and hundreds of thousands more are suffering with the virus. A dear friend and his wife are currently battling the virus and I’m very worried about them. People are dying alone. Family members are saying their last goodbyes to loved ones over cell phones and laptops. It’s horrendous, unimaginable, yet it’s happening across this nation and around the world. Our heroes, the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff, are exhausted and emotionally traumatized.
For the sake of your family members and friends, strangers, and hospital personnel, stay home. It’s one day. A long weekend for some. As my friend said, “Better to miss Thanksgiving this year than to be ventilated in ICU for Christmas and the new year.” Amen.
Stay safe. January 20, 2021 can’t come soon enough.
Eleanor x
ABOUT ELEANOR:
Puerto Rican-born Eleanor Parker Sapia is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, “A Decent Woman”, published by Winter Goose Publishing. Eleanor’s debut novel, set 1900 Puerto Rico, garnered awards at the 2016 and 2017 International Latino Book Awards. She is featured in the anthology, “Latina Authors and Their Muses”, edited by Mayra Calvani.
Eleanor is working on her second novel “The Laments”, set in 1926 Puerto Rico, and a collection of poems, titled “Thoughts on Near-Fictional Relationships”. The poems are about the many facets of love, which often remind her of the complicated relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.
MARCH 31, 2020 – BLOG TALK RADIO SHOW – NEWS OF THE DAY – HOST MARSHA CASPER COOK
PLEASE JOIN MARSHA CASPER COOK, JACK REMICK, AND ELEANOR PARKER SAPIA TODAY, MARCH 31, AT 4 EST 3CT 2 MT 1 PST
What’s Happening Now is a new show. They will be discussing the current COVID-19 crisis, writing during the pandemic, and tips on maintaining creativity.
The Writing Life Blog 