| |
In April 2020, the whole world came to a standstill: Covid-19 was proving itself a deadly serious threat, challenging governments around the world to take it deadly seriously—or reap the consequences.
Australia took it seriously, a fact I am eternally grateful for, and at the very end of March, the school where I work called shut down. I was almost implausibly fortunate: combined with stringent lockdown measures that saw Australia’s caseload flatten and the fact that, as a teacher, I was considered an ‘essential worker’, my period of actual complete lockdown was only six weeks—laughably short compared to what much of the world has had to deal with.
Nevertheless, at the time we had no way of knowing how long the school closure would last, and as part of keeping myself sane, I decided to do a writing challenge over the two weeks of the spring break. Ten stories in twenty days. It was ambitious, a NaNoWriMo of sorts, and I had no idea how or whether I’d manage it. But following Dean Wesley Smith’s advice of ‘failing to success’, I figured I’d aim for ten-in-twenty, and be proud of whatever I ended up achieving.
What I ended up with was this anthology that you now hold in your hands: not ten-in-twenty, but six-in-fourteen, which I was still very proud of—and after which, coming on the back of two weeks of teaching online, I was ready to never see a computer screen again (or at least for a couple of weeks).
You’ll see this context come through in these stories: the ideas of escape, of illness, of finding peace amidst chaos...
These are all prominent themes in this anthology.
I think these themes are enduring enough that you will find something to enjoy in these stories irrespective of your experiences with Covid-19. And I also wanted you to understand why, when the main character in the final story laments having been housebound for three weeks (Oh no! Not three whole weeks!), some of the stories now seem almost wondrously naïve about the nature of a global pandemic and protracted lockdowns.
Regardless, may you, too, be blessed with the ability to find moments of peace amid chaos.
