@dickrubin716@bookstodon An interesting discussion of this from Continuum scifi writers festival in Melbourne. Someone researching pandemic stories from the Spanish Flu - and there were so few. People who've lived through something like that want to think of it as a blip, and aberration. They don't really want to be reminded of it. Maybe this one will be different, but be aware.
@golgaloth@dickrubin716@bookstodon As a librarian that regularly is reading through book reviews of upcoming books, there are a good number of fiction books that are dealing with the COVID pandemic
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Honestly I like books that mention Covid in them. So many people want to pretend that Covid never happened (and isn't happening) and I like seeing it acknowledged as real and not a figment of my imagination.
@juniperaugust@dickrubin716@bookstodon Must be included! The young people who went through this traumatic period must have their experience acknowledged!
@Stone1glo@juniperaugust@bookstodon Thank you both. I’m definitely leaning on including a couple chapters in this book about the lockdowns of early 2020 as a way to end the book.
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Depends on if you recognise that we're still in COVID times. If you don't, then it sounds like you shouldn't write this story.
@Rhube@bookstodon That’s a good point, thanks. I was more thinking along the lines of the deepest part of the lockdowns. I definitely still get loads of anxiety if I have to go to a crowded event these days
@willaful@dickrubin716@bookstodon I've read some interesting books that included COVID but weren't focused on it. And one interesting book where it played a significant part. Not sure I would have picked that book if I'd known, but I liked it. Of course now I can't remember the title!
@leapingwoman@willaful@dickrubin716@bookstodon In Apr 2020, Lawerence Wright published THE END OF OCTOBER, a novel about a influenza pandemic for which the world has no immunity devastates the planet. A CDC epidemiologist tries to figure out how to combat it and how his family can survive.
@mvilain@leapingwoman@willaful@bookstodon Hi all 👋 If I start this story it would be dual timeline starting in present day (ok, 2019), jumping back to the MC in high school 20 years prior & back to current. The jump back scenes would show the beginnings of relationship with his high school sweetheart, the breakup, then marrying a college sweetheart & having a kid before a divorce a few years later. The 20 year reunion sparks a second chance with the HS girl, then the Covid lockdowns start.
@bookstodon@dickrubin716 depends on the context, obviously, but i for one am mostly not reading fiction about covid yet—the bar that would make me interested enough is pretty high and i’m sure i’m not alone.
@lunalein@bookstodon Your own concerns are things I’ve been thinking of myself. If I start this story it would be dual timeline starting in present day (ok, 2019), jumping back to when the MC was in high school 20 years prior, then back to current. Each jump back would be a bit farther ahead, until reaching current and moving forward. My thought was to use March 2020 as a monkey wrench in an otherwise pretty good life the MC has built, but this would be the final third of the book
people are addressing it at various levels, its tangental in a couple of mine. I have a couple of plagues in other works which may be tweaked with current knowledge. Most of what I write is out of period.