Well.

Here we are.

The end of 2020.

Let’s see. We had horrible murder hornets, horrible fires in Australia, horrible police shootings, horrible explosions, and presidents acting like horrible children.

Oh yeah, and that coronavirus thing.

With 2020 coming to a close (thankfully), I’ would like to hope I can look back on 2020 and say I’ve accomplished much. Well, you know what they say about hope, right?

In Canada, we were put into lockdown in March. Overnight, my “office job” became my “couch job”. That’s okay, though. I’m used to computer-ing on the couch. After all, this is where I’ve written and published my first three novels. Going off the fact Shakespeare wrote some of his best works while in quarantine during the bubonic plague, I thought I should at least be able to get my fourth novel out the door. Right?

Right??

Me and my workspace (aka, my couch)

Well, here it is December. I literally have not been into my office in nine months, and I’m not joking. My corner of Canada has been in strict lockdown to the point where we can be fined or even sent to jail for having a Christmas party. (Again. No joke). I leave my house for essentials only, because if crowds gave me the willies before COVID, they are a frickin’ hive of pestilence and disease now! Amazon has become my shopping destination of choice, food delivery apps keep the family from eating each other, and walking the dog is like a get-out-of-jail-free card.

I’ve been stuck at home for nine f’ing months, and what have I written?

Ten virtual cookies if you know this meme!

Well, I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. Given the state of the world, my anxiety has been through the roof. Although the dreaded panic attacks have been few, and the ocular migraines have been even fewer, I have developed mild claustrophobia. There have been those heart-pounding times where I’ve gotta get the crap outta the house or I’ll suffocate. Thankfully Mochi loves extra walkies. And I think she also knows when I’m having my moments because she gets super cuddly. We’ll snuggle on the couch and watch Netflix until I calm down. Of course, now she’s so used to getting pets and cuddles while I’m working, she thinks she can have them whenever she wants. So, we’re still learning.

Why work when you can pet me?

I have managed to start a new series—a fantasy series I’m planning on crafting into a multi-book epic fantasy set in a world that underwent an industrial revolution, promptly started a war, then lost all that revolutionary knowledge. The kicker is everyone can use magic in some form or another. Crafting that world has kept me busy. I’d say this is steampunk The Wheel of Time meets Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.

My “trapped in a video game” novel has also received some love over the endless months of lockdown. I’m thinking of splitting it into two books . . . more of a “Video Game Novel, Part I” and “Video Game Novel, Part II” sort of deal, since the point where the manuscript breaks into the next novel by no means makes a cohesive story, nor does it allow the first “book” to tie up any plot threads. The manuscript is creeping up on 300K words. Seeing what my 120K YA novel looked like coming out of KDP, a novel at 300K would not only be a door stop, but a ridiculous doorstop at that. I got this idea from SAO and Alice in Borderland manga’s (Netflix has a live action adaptation of Alice, so you should go watch it RIGHT NOW!) Same premise as both: players are stuck in a game while the game is trying to kill them.

I’m a purist, so you get the Japanese trailer. Ha!

And the third novel I’m working on outside of my published series . . . well, how do I explain this one? I got the idea from a music video, of all things, and in all truth, the music video has nothing to do with the novel. I’d describe this idea as Pacific Rim meets Mad Max. (Like I said, nothing to do with the video… which bee-tee-dubs is NCT 127’s Superhuman). There’s the “giant robots” element of Pacific Rim, the post-apocalyptic collapse of society elements of Mad Max, and they’re all tied together by, who else, the United States military.

Yeah, work those welder’s gloves, Haechan!

I have, of course, been working on my 4th novel like a good little writer. The cover design is coming along, and the story itself is 75% written. About 50% of that has been self-edited, and primed and pretty for my editor to utterly destroy.

All the pieces I need are here. The real hurdle is finding the motivation. Lately it’s not so much a question of me just sitting down and writing, it’s more a question of wanting to write. Some days, I look at the file names and throw an adult temper tantrum because I just don’t want to write! The good thing is, tho, when I do manage to sit down an write, I pump out 10K-20K in a day. I go into ‘go away, leave me alone, I’m writing’ mode. Now I just need to figure out how to get more of the motivations and less of the temper tantrums.

With the holidays fast approaching, I think I’ll ask Santa for a streak of creativity and perhaps a strong cup of coffee. I hope that’s not asking too much of the jolly ol’ man. After all, there will be no milk and cookies to be had, at least in Canada. Sharing food is now taboo even though COVID isn’t a food-borne illness.

Until next time, keep bundled safely in your homes and keep your “social distance”. After all, people are scary when it’s NOT a pandemic. Or maybe that’s just my anti-social-ness talking.

Happy Holidays!

– Rissa