Strange and Mournful Days

Writers have been hit with several 2020 smacks, including no in-person book signings, cancelled conferences and workshops, having to learn to navigate Zoom meetings (and by that I mean, remembering you’re on camera when you yawn or wander around the room wearing a nice shirt and the bottom half of your Snoopy PJs, etc.), mask confusion (contributing to mass confusion), home schooling, and so much more that has totally interrupted our writing time and energies.

Life has been, shall we say “different,” for the last several months. I can see the future now, where parental threats will be: “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to 2020 you right upside the head!” and everyone will understand, at least until current generations pass on and something new replaces 2020 as “the bad old days.”

But these crazy daze (pun intended) have also made for interesting improvements in some things. People get creative when faced with new roadblocks. Those who fought going digital have been forced to tackle it, and many realize it wasn’t that bad, or as hard as they had thought it would be. Book sales have not taken the nosedive that was predicted, although a lot of brick and mortar stores have had to up their online presence as people deal with “Safe at Home” but, again, many have found it wasn’t as hard as they thought and it gives them another previously untapped revenue stream that will last well after COVID finally dies a much-anticipated death.

One of the best “fixes” during COVID is the fact that Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Pikes Peak Writers, and Northern Colorado Writers are combining their otherwise-cancelled conferences into a fantastic collaborative virtual event—for FREE—that will be available to stream for the entire month of September! The event is being called the “Colorado Writer’s Collaborative,” and will feature at least 25 speakers and workshops. Check out their websites for more info (https://rmfw.org/; https://pikespeakwriters.com/; https://www.northerncoloradowriters.com/) as the dates get closer.

While I know I’ll miss the in-person aspect of the conference, this will give all of us a chance to learn, participate, and virtually hang-out with many of our writer friends—and make more new ones! I think we’ll all need a bit of writerly contact after the slog of the past few months, dealing with so many issues we never expected to. So, thank the conference chairs and their volunteers from these organizations for figuring out how to help their members, and non-member writers! And WRITE ON!