{"id":8562,"date":"2020-05-15T21:17:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T21:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=8562"},"modified":"2025-06-27T18:49:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:49:30","slug":"hardish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/hardish-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard(ish) Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn\u2019t change my work as a writer a single bit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Turns out, I was wrong.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Despite people having more free time on their hands, my and other writers\u2019 book sales are down dramatically. Because schools and libraries are closed for the foreseeable future, the paid speaking and presentation engagements that I\u2019d 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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Still, if there\u2019s one thing that being a full-time writer over the past 25 years has given me, it\u2019s the ability to forge ahead in uncertainty and to count my blessings. Unlike Charles Bronson\u2019s character in one of my favorite movies, Hard Times<\/em>, I don\u2019t have to \u201cride the rails\u201d around the country looking to make money in bare-knuckle boxing matches. I just have to keep writing, which is a lot<\/em> easier on the hands and face than fighting, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u2014there 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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Recently I received gushing messages from two readers\u2014one 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\u2019s been really great to be able to escape into your books\u2014places where there\u2019s no pandemic, no panic, no social media\u2014just entertaining story, witty dialogue and hours of reading enjoyment. <\/em>(Okay, I admit that I added that \u201chours of reading enjoyment\u201d bit.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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One of the readers who contacted me said she\u2019d downloaded the entire Dakota Stevens Mystery Series. Having just finished book one, she was sad that there were only five books in the series and asked me when book six was coming out.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Well\u2026I\u2019m working on it\u2014slowly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Still, although my progress has been slow and I\u2019ve been low on self-motivation, I have been inching along\u2014particularly with the \u201cBig Book,\u201d my \u201cteen epic\u201d about a group of teenagers in 1986.
–<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
The John Nash-like (BEAUTIFUL MIND) work area, where the “Big Book” is being culled and refined into 10+ smaller books.
–<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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A close-up of the Big Book, divided into possible smaller books.
–<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While reading and revising the 600,000-word, 2,000-page manuscript, and dividing it into a series of smaller books, I\u2019ve been keeping myself steeped in the world of the 80s, listening to songs like Def Leppard\u2019s \u201cPhotograph,\u201d Scorpions\u2019 \u201cRock You Like A Hurricane,\u201d and, it goes without saying, Van Halen\u2019s entire pre-1986 oeuvre<\/em> (David Lee Roth forever!). (On an unrelated note, I\u2019ve been reminded of how awesome M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce was, too\u2014especially their \u201cKickstart My Heart.\u201d)
–<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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https:\/\/youtu.be\/fuKDBPw8wQA<\/div>\r\n
Van Halen’s “Panama”: One of my favorite workout songs in 1986, and one that gets a LOT of play for me now that I’m writing about that year in the Big Book.
–<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Orcutt, May 2019, about to go deliver a presentation about the Big Book to Millbrook High School.
–<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Other 21st<\/sup> century \u201chard(ish) times\u201d developments for me: I had patellar tendonitis for the month of March, brought on by too much exercise; my old 3G \u201cslider\u201d cell phone died and I\u2019ve had to learn how to use my first-ever smartphone; and I\u2019ve exhausted all of the \u201cbingeworthy\u201d programs on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus\u2014programs like Victoria<\/em>, The Crown<\/em>, Poldark<\/em> and Bear Grylls. Having exhausted all of the quality TV programs, I\u2019m back to reading epic-length works, including Gibbon\u2019s tome The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>, Alexandre Dumas\u2019s The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, and Stephen Ambrose\u2019s biography of the Lewis and Clark expedition entitled Undaunted Courage<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I know\u2026rough<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a>\r\n
Snoopy and Woodstock are feeling the hard times from COVID-19 as well. Won’t you help them afford a proper doghouse by buying one of my ebooks, now on sale for the low, low price of $2.99?<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019 book sales are down dramatically. Because schools and libraries are closed for the foreseeable future, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,423,145,247,366,30,244,251,245,77,78,365,7,39,11,43,293,12,233],"tags":[563,242,192,124,136,555,528,98,99,557,161,556,265,276,530,367,558,561,294,243,562,93,540],"class_list":["post-8562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-a-study-in-crimson","category-a-truth-stranger-than-fiction","category-amazon-kindle","category-book-promotion","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-ebooks","category-google-play-books","category-kindle","category-novels","category-one-hundred-miles-from-manhattan","category-perpetuating-trouble","category-personal","category-short-stories","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-the-man-the-myth-the-legend","category-the-perfect-triple-threat","category-the-rich-are-different","category-writing-life","tag-563","tag-a-real-piece-of-work","tag-a-truth-stranger-than-fiction","tag-amazon","tag-authorship","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-dakota-stevens-mystery-series","tag-economic-downturn","tag-google-play","tag-hard-times","tag-kindle","tag-one-hundred-miles-from-manhattan","tag-pandemic","tag-perpetuating-trouble","tag-snoopy","tag-the-man-the-myth-the-legend","tag-the-perfect-triple-threat","tag-the-rich-are-different","tag-van-halen","tag-writing","tag-writing-during-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8562"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9551,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562\/revisions\/9551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}