Unlike many people of 2020, I spent most of that time in one room because my bedroom and my office share a single space.
But even on weekends, I remained in that room because my hobby is writing fiction. In my case, the truth is, perhaps, stranger than fiction.
A couple years ago, I had an idea for a new BryonySeries trilogy called Limbo. I wanted to explore the movement and growth among the people in a place where progress, for the most part, just stops - with the overarching theme of rebirth.
So I outlined the series and then, when I used the rest of my vacation time in December 2019, I outlined the first book, confident I could write all of the first draft 2020 (which I did).
The first book in the series, called The Phoenix, explores that theme in two parallel stories in a late nineteenth century fishing village.
One story (the odd chapters) is about a twelve-year-old girl who is stuck inside one room at Munsonville Inn with her parents. The family lives "on the move" (supported by the mother's money) as the father chases one story after another, hoping to break into journalism into a big way.
He's mostly hindered by a recurring illness that winds up making him deathly ill. And his wife, while his biggest supporter, is his biggest enabler. Their daughter has learned to mentally grow up fast. She's (mostly) a detached, unsmiling observor to the entire situation.
The second story (the even chapters) is about two newly turned vampires who are trying to figure out their new non-life from the confines of a mansion in the same village. They initually dine in the villagers (who are already reeling from the loss of life from a previous tragedy), and those villagers attribute these new deaths to a mysterious illness. So, for their protection, people are told to stay home.
Of course, they continue to die. Until, early on in the book, the vampires are ordered to find food elsewhere.
Yes, I had chosen to write a quarantine-type of story in what turned out to be a quarantine type of year.
So while I spent my work time writing COVID stories, I spent my down time writing about illness and sheltering in place. The irony struck me one day as I was working on the novel.
But I did finish it before the holidays and sent it to my editor. I've incorporated (most) of her suggestions.
Topher Gleason created the cover art last year and Rebekah created the cover and learned a new skill to do something a little different with the formatting.
And now, the proof copy is on its way and should be here by Monday.
