Hard(ish) Times

Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn’t change my work as a writer a single bit.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Despite people having more free time on their hands, my and other writers’ book sales are down dramatically. Because schools and libraries are closed for the foreseeable future, the paid speaking and presentation engagements that I’d been counting on to supplement my book income are not going to happen this year. Since my wife and neighbors (and, apparently, their dogs) are now working from home, the peace and quiet I need in order to write and engage in the business of being an author have disappeared. With restaurants closed, I’ve found more and more of my day consumed by meal preparation. And finally, the overall state of the world (the pandemic, the economy, the political landscape) has deeply depressed me, making it very difficult to do what do, which is to write creatively and entertain readers.

Still, if there’s one thing that being a full-time writer over the past 25 years has given me, it’s the ability to forge ahead in uncertainty and to count my blessings. Unlike Charles Bronson’s character in one of my favorite movies, Hard Times, I don’t have to “ride the rails” around the country looking to make money in bare-knuckle boxing matches. I just have to keep writing, which is a lot easier on the hands and face than fighting, that’s for sure.
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I recognize that there are people in the U.S. and the world right now who are truly struggling. A lot of people have been laid off, or are being furloughed, or are having their wages cut. It’s all terribly tragic and depressing, but there is a silver lining: people have more time to read, and are making escape into the world of fiction more a part of their lives. I mean, seriously—there are only so many news reports you can see about racial injustice, violent protests, looting, police brutality, etc. before you just want to quit society altogether, move to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and start a maple syrup farm. I know this is how I feel, and I have a sense that it’s how a lot of readers feel.

Recently I received gushing messages from two readers—one via email, the other via Facebook. Both readers thanked me for what I do, and both added something to this effect: Chris, with all of this COVID-19 chaos in the world right now, it’s been really great to be able to escape into your books—places where there’s no pandemic, no panic, no social media—just entertaining story, witty dialogue and hours of reading enjoyment. (Okay, I admit that I added that “hours of reading enjoyment” bit.)

Well…I’m working on it—slowly.

Still, although my progress has been slow and I’ve been low on self-motivation, I have been inching along—particularly with the “Big Book,” my “teen epic” about a group of teenagers in 1986.
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While reading and revising the 600,000-word, 2,000-page manuscript, and dividing it into a series of smaller books, I’ve been keeping myself steeped in the world of the 80s, listening to songs like Def Leppard’s “Photograph,” Scorpions’ “Rock You Like A Hurricane,” and, it goes without saying, Van Halen’s entire pre-1986 oeuvre (David Lee Roth forever!). (On an unrelated note, I’ve been reminded of how awesome Mötley Crüe was, too—especially their “Kickstart My Heart.”)
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Other 21^st century “hard(ish) times” developments for me: I had patellar tendonitis for the month of March, brought on by too much exercise; my old 3G “slider” cell phone died and I’ve had to learn how to use my first-ever smartphone; and I’ve exhausted all of the “bingeworthy” programs on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus—programs like Victoria, The Crown, Poldark and Bear Grylls. Having exhausted all of the quality TV programs, I’m back to reading epic-length works, including Gibbon’s tome The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, and Stephen Ambrose’s biography of the Lewis and Clark expedition entitled Undaunted Courage.

I know…rough.