18 Apr Waiting on Spring
Week five completed in the stay-at-home isolation. I was a little less focused as the week went on. Not sure why but yesterday, I couldn’t get up any motivation to work at my computer. Instead, I went outside and raked up debris in the garden and yard, went for a walk with Ted, and watched the Hillary Clinton bio on Netflicks. I guess sometimes you just have to change gears.
I recommend the Hillary documentary. It’s four episodes of about an hour each. There’s footage of her life through the years with commentary by Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, political staff and reporters. The main takeaway is how the media and political opponents succeeded in creating a personae for her, often fabricated, that ultimately derailed her bid for the presidency. Well, this and the misogeny which is difficult to deny. The first episode was a trip down memory lane to go back to the time in the fifties and sixties when women had few options outside of teaching, secretary, nursing and motherhood. I was somewhat younger than Hillary but I certainly experienced or witnessed in my mother’s generation a lot of what she went through. Anyhow, watch the documentary if you get a chance and let me know if you find her treatment by the press and her political foes, including Trump, as disturbing as I do.
Publishers Weekly gave Closing Time a good review so that was a nice thing this week. On the not-so-good side, my events in May have now all been cancelled or postponed, including a speaking engagement at Quinte Public Library in Trenton. However, on the plus side again, I’ve been getting some nice emails from readers and feel that people are rallying to help get word out about the book and series. Thank you to each of you for every mention on social media and recommendation to friends. I also think that people have a lot of time for reading now so this could also work in Closing Time’s favour 🙂
It was also my week to post on 7 Criminal Minds blogspot and the question concerned my reading selections outside of crime fiction. Perhaps you’ll find a few books to add to your reading list. From my more literary list, I would highly recommend Starlight by Richard Wagameese and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens although the other books are all good too.
So, on we go into another week at home. I think often of all those working in the hospitals, in stores, on the road in delivery trucks, in government and on city crews — those who are sick with the virus or grieving for a loved one. These are tough times for so many. We’re lucky to have a home and yard and a comfortable place to spend this isolation and I don’t take this for granted. I hope that you are well and staying strong as we live in this new, strange reality.