Greetings, readers!
April has just about come and gone, and with it, another month of living stories and creating them.
I’m finding – or perhaps I should say that I’m being REMINDED – that crises are often opportunities to not only grow, but to create, and to help others with the art and content that we put into our worlds. Art is life, and when life takes a turn for the worse, we as artists talk about it through our respective creative mediums in order to cope and make sense of what is happening around us.
To that end, I am very proud to say that I have been able to finish the first draft of yet another short writing project; this one a regular short story (in contrast to the novella I finished last month).
This particular project is unique in the sense that it deals directly with the current COVID-19 crisis that we’re in.” The story is about a young man who is a senior in high school and isn’t going to get to play his senior season of baseball for his school team. His ex-major leaguer grandfather – who has been like a father to him – takes him on an outing, clandestinely (because of the quarantine), and allows him to observe certain aspects of nature in action that basically enable him to see his predicament from a different angle. I won’t spoil the rest, but suffice it to say, I’m pretty excited about this one…and about other short story ideas I would like to finish, and perhaps combine with this one (and maybe the novella) into a collection of some kind. More to follow.
My preoccupation with this new project has not left much time for editing the novella this month, but I hope to change that in May; as well as work on some new material – short stories, poetry, and the like.
I have also entered two contests – one an essay contest, and the other for poetry – that I should hear back from later this year, in the early part of summer. Additionally, I was given a chance to hopefully have three more of my poems published in a special COVID-19 edition of the West Florida Literary Federation magazine, which will likely be published later in the summer, if all goes well. Again, art mirrors life, and so I am very excited to have the chance to participate in this project.
On the novel front, I continue to seek to broaden my base, so as to sell more of my existing work. My publisher, Tammy Koelling of WordsMatter Publishing, has been invaluable in this regard; helping me get a weekly video series off the ground, and creating other opportunities to raise my profile, even with all of the challenges we are facing.
While the video series is not quite taken off yet, I have learned a lot about quality recording, video production, and other technical aspects as we move toward a regular time of creating and posting videos. My videos will be centered around messages of encouragement and hope, as well as discussion of literary themes and stories from various books I’ve read.
In closing, I will leave you with one of the poems I submitted to WFLF for their special edition publication. It’s titled “Quarantine.” Ominous-sounding as the name may be, I hope you enjoy it! And I pray that all is well with you and your families.
Remember, you can find me on Facebook (“John W. Gibson, author”) or at my website: www.johnwgibsonauthor.com. I look forward to interacting with you!
Until May,
John
Quarantine
Separate me…
…from negativity,
Anxiety, fear,
And the machinations of evil and aspiring men.
Seclude me…
…in quietude,
In succor, in comfort,
And in love.
Inoculate me…
…against angst and panic,
And if I am to be in chains,
Let me be chained to goodness,
Mercy, and service to my fellow man.
A body destroyed is a tragedy;
But a soul taken through fear is a crime against God’s creation.
JWG
2020
