{"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":"\n

Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn\u2019t change my work as a writer a sin\u00adgle bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Despite peo\u00adple hav\u00ading more free time on their hands, my and oth\u00ader writ\u00aders\u2019 book sales are down dra\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly. Because schools and libraries are closed for the fore\u00adsee\u00adable future, the paid speak\u00ading and pre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion engage\u00adments that I\u2019d been count\u00ading on to sup\u00adple\u00adment my book income are not going to hap\u00adpen this year. Since my wife and neigh\u00adbors (and, appar\u00adent\u00adly, their dogs) are now work\u00ading from home, the peace and qui\u00adet I need in order to write and engage in the busi\u00adness of being an author have dis\u00adap\u00adpeared. With restau\u00adrants closed, I\u2019ve found more and more of my day con\u00adsumed by meal prepa\u00adra\u00adtion. And final\u00adly, the over\u00adall state of the world (the pan\u00addem\u00adic, the econ\u00ado\u00admy, the polit\u00adi\u00adcal land\u00adscape) has deeply depressed me, mak\u00ading it very dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to do what do, which is to write cre\u00adative\u00adly and enter\u00adtain read\u00aders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, if there\u2019s one thing that being a full-time writer over the past 25 years has giv\u00aden me, it\u2019s the abil\u00adi\u00adty to forge ahead in uncer\u00adtain\u00adty and to count my bless\u00adings. Unlike Charles Bronson\u2019s char\u00adac\u00adter in one of my favorite movies, Hard Times<\/em>, I don\u2019t have to \u201cride the rails\u201d around the coun\u00adtry look\u00ading to make mon\u00adey in bare-knuck\u00adle box\u00ading match\u00ades. I just have to keep writ\u00ading, which is a lot<\/em> eas\u00adi\u00ader on the hands and face than fight\u00ading, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rec\u00adog\u00adnize that there are peo\u00adple in the U.S. and the world right now who are tru\u00adly strug\u00adgling. A lot of peo\u00adple have been laid off, or are being fur\u00adloughed, or are hav\u00ading their wages cut. It\u2019s all ter\u00adri\u00adbly trag\u00adic and depress\u00ading, but there is a sil\u00adver lin\u00ading: peo\u00adple have more time to read, and are mak\u00ading escape into the world of fic\u00adtion more a part of their lives. I mean, seriously\u2014there are only so many news reports you can see about racial injus\u00adtice, vio\u00adlent protests, loot\u00ading, police bru\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty, etc. before you just want to quit soci\u00adety alto\u00adgeth\u00ader, move to the North\u00adeast King\u00addom of Ver\u00admont and start a maple syrup farm. I know this is how I feel, and I have a sense that it\u2019s how a lot of read\u00aders feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent\u00adly I received gush\u00ading mes\u00adsages from two readers\u2014one via email, the oth\u00ader via Face\u00adbook. Both read\u00aders thanked me for what I do, and both added some\u00adthing to this effect: Chris, with all of this COVID-19 chaos in the world right now, it\u2019s been real\u00adly great to be able to escape into your books\u2014places where there\u2019s no pan\u00addem\u00adic, no pan\u00adic, no social media\u2014just enter\u00adtain\u00ading sto\u00adry, wit\u00adty dia\u00adlogue and hours of read\u00ading enjoy\u00adment. <\/em>(Okay, I admit that I added that \u201chours of read\u00ading enjoy\u00adment\u201d bit.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the read\u00aders who con\u00adtact\u00aded me said she\u2019d down\u00adloaded the entire Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series. Hav\u00ading just fin\u00adished book one, she was sad that there were only five books in the series and asked me when book six was com\u00ading out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well\u2026I\u2019m work\u00ading on it\u2014slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, although my progress has been slow and I\u2019ve been low on self-moti\u00adva\u00adtion, I have been inch\u00ading along\u2014particularly with the \u201cBig Book,\u201d my \u201cteen epic\u201d about a group of teenagers in 1986.
-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The John Nash-like (BEAUTIFUL MIND) work area, where the \u201cBig Book\u201d is being culled and refined into 10+ small\u00ader books.
-<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
A close-up of the Big Book, divid\u00aded into pos\u00adsi\u00adble small\u00ader books.
-<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While read\u00ading and revis\u00ading the 600,000-word, 2,000-page man\u00adu\u00adscript, and divid\u00ading it into a series of small\u00ader books, I\u2019ve been keep\u00ading myself steeped in the world of the 80s, lis\u00adten\u00ading to songs like Def Leppard\u2019s \u201cPho\u00adto\u00adgraph,\u201d Scor\u00adpi\u00adons\u2019 \u201cRock You Like A Hur\u00adri\u00adcane,\u201d and, it goes with\u00adout say\u00ading, Van Halen\u2019s entire pre-1986 oeu\u00advre<\/em> (David Lee Roth for\u00adev\u00ader!). (On an unre\u00adlat\u00aded note, I\u2019ve been remind\u00aded of how awe\u00adsome M\u00f6t\u00adley Cr\u00fce was, too\u2014especially their \u201cKick\u00adstart My Heart.\u201d)
-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/fuKDBPw8wQA<\/div>\n
Van Halen\u2019s \u201cPana\u00adma\u201d: One of my favorite work\u00adout songs in 1986, and one that gets a LOT of play for me now that I\u2019m writ\u00ading about that year in the Big Book.
-<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
Orcutt, May 2019, about to go deliv\u00ader a pre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion about the Big Book to Mill\u00adbrook High School.
-<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oth\u00ader 21st<\/sup> cen\u00adtu\u00adry \u201chard(ish) times\u201d devel\u00adop\u00adments for me: I had patel\u00adlar ten\u00addonitis for the month of March, brought on by too much exer\u00adcise; my old 3G \u201cslid\u00ader\u201d cell phone died and I\u2019ve had to learn how to use my first-ever smart\u00adphone; and I\u2019ve exhaust\u00aded all of the \u201cbinge\u00adwor\u00adthy\u201d pro\u00adgrams on Net\u00adflix, Ama\u00adzon Prime and Dis\u00adney Plus\u2014programs like Vic\u00adto\u00adria<\/em>, The Crown<\/em>, Poldark<\/em> and Bear Grylls. Hav\u00ading exhaust\u00aded all of the qual\u00adi\u00adty TV pro\u00adgrams, I\u2019m back to read\u00ading epic-length works, includ\u00ading Gibbon\u2019s tome The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>, Alexan\u00addre Dumas\u2019s The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, and Stephen Ambrose\u2019s biog\u00adra\u00adphy of the Lewis and Clark expe\u00addi\u00adtion enti\u00adtled Undaunt\u00aded Courage<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

<\/a>\n
Snoopy and Wood\u00adstock are feel\u00ading the hard times from COVID-19 as well. Won\u2019t you help them afford a prop\u00ader dog\u00adhouse by buy\u00ading one of my ebooks, now on sale for the low, low price of $2.99?<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\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 sin\u00adgle bit. Turns out, I\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"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}]}}