But I Smile Anyway…

I am so excited to invite Marje over to talk about her latest project, which she took on over the Lockdown period; a project I have taken part in too! I’m not going to ramble on, but please, read on for Marje’s wonderful description of This Is Lockdown!

Thank you to my lovely friend Ritu, (who is an awesome contributing author,) for invitinag me to her lovely blog today to talk about: This Is Lockdown.

This project has grown enormously! It started off as a popular series on my blog, in which writers and authors shared their thoughts about isolation during COVID19. At the time, I was writing my COVID19 personal diaries, flash fiction, poetry, and short stories to take my mind off the sad news reports and escalating deaths. It didn’t occur to me that this coping mechanism would become a published book! As the contributions grew, I realised that this lovely project had the potential to become much more… Not only that, but it could connect a diverse bunch of authors who might never have discovered each other if it weren’t for COVID19.

The wonderful contributing authors and creatives are many in number!

Richard Dee, (Sci Fi , Steampunk, Amateur Detective author,) Catherine Fearns, (Amazon Bestselling Author of Police Procedural/Mysteries and Music Journalist,) Lynn Fraser, (Author,) Jackie Carreira, (Writer, musician, designer and aspiring philosopher,) Willow Willers, (Poet and writer,) Sharon Marchisello, (Murder Mystery, Financial non-fiction,) Fi Phillips , (Author, Copy Writer) Jeannie Wycherley, (dark stories, suspense, horror,) Chantelle Atkins, (urban fiction, teen/YA,) Tracie Barton-Barrett, (Speaker/author,) Peter Taylor- Gooby, (Crime, Love Stories, Political Fiction,) Ritu Bhathal, (Chick Lit romance, poet,) Alice May , (Author, Artist and Speaker,) Miriam Owen, (Blogger and Doctural Researcher,) Drew Neary and Ceri Williams (Ghost Horror, Supernatural,) Katherine Mezzacappa, (author name: Katie Hutton,) (Historical Fiction/Romance,) Sally Cronin, (huge supporter of indie community/blogger/author) Debby Gies (D G Kaye), (Memoirist/NonFiction,) Adele Marie Park, (Fantasy, horror, urban fantasy,) Marian Wood, (blogger, poet and writer.) Samantha Murdoch, (Writer, Blogger,) Beaton Mabaso (Blogger, African Storyteller,) Frank Prem  (Poet, Author,) Anne Goodwin (Author, Book Blogger) Sherri Matthews (Writer, Photographer, Blogger,) and Jane Horwood and Melissa Santiago-Val – Community Masks 4 NHS

I arranged the book into two sections. The first half is a compilation of my personal diaries, poems and photography and an anthology of writings about isolation from contribution authors, their poignant poetry and thoughts at this time.

Here is one of the pieces from Sally Cronin:

Double Etheree – Silver Lining

I
believe
there is a
silver lining
to isolation.
A chance to reassess
how we effectively use
one of life’s great commodities
so often wasted and lamented
yet measured so accurately each day.
Time can be fleeting or last a lifetime
and it seems there is little to spare.
But during this brief hiatus
I have come to understand
that clocks do not decide
how I use this gift.
In the future
I will live
and love
more.

© Copyright Sally Cronin 2020

The second half includes my flash fiction, poetry, and a YA romance short piece: The Poet’s Club, plus a more mature piece called Love Affair, ( set post virus.)

Excerpt: Love Affair – Post Virus

Annie glanced at her scrawny husband. A glance was all it took. He couldn’t lift her, no carried wife could she ever be. No threshold over which she could be taken. Adam was different. His different scared her. She couldn’t help but imagine Adam lifting her onto his shoulders and running to the ocean, his bare skin wet with the salty water, his hard, taut muscles flexing. What would happen thereafter? Would he leave her to the fishes, or scoop her up with dreamy kisses? She knew what she would become: a carried Jezebel; perhaps she’d like that more.

© Copyright M J Mallon 2020

Recently, I sent out ARC copies to contributing authors, and the lovely email comments I’ve received back have touched me deeply…

I’d like to mention this particular comment:

“I particularly loved the beginning when you talked about your uneasiness of COVID, despite what was being reported. What I find absolutely remarkable is that although we live on opposite sides of the pond, our experiences were/are so similar.” Tracie Barton-Barrett (contributing author.)

This is the unique aspect of This Is Lockdown. Our global experiences are so similar in many ways. Unfortunately, this is a worldwide pandemic, so whether we live in the UK, Italy, Australia, USA, Canada, Zimbabwe…, we are sadly, all in this together and there is much common ground.

Therein, lies the secret, internationally we must draw together and try to help each other through this. Work towards a common goal – overcoming this virus.

My diaries in This Is Lockdown are expressed from a writer’s perspective, but they are also from a family perspective. They honestly share the manner in which this virus affected my family of four: myself, hubby and our two grown daughters. To date, we have been lucky, and for that I am incredibly grateful. There are anxious moments, sad stories, but there is also a sense of overcoming, hope, and kindness.

Talking of kindness and positivity, I’m thrilled that Jane Horwood and Melissa Santiago-Val have contributed a piece about their fundraising venture #CommunityMasks4NHS and free masks for charities and not-for-profit organisations.

To date, they have raised a staggering £30,000.

And the masks are cool! Here I am wearing a sea themed one. Yes, I am missing the seaside!

During this time, I have been the mother hen trying to keep the peace and making the best out of this horrendously scary experience.

Both myself and my eldest daughter have been on furlough from work (a scheme in the UK to pay 80% of the salaries of employees to keep them from redundancy.) My hubby has been working from home and my youngest daughter has been studying and working in her part-time job in a supermarket.

We have spent more quality time together in this lockdown than we have for an exceptionally long time. This has been challenging at times, but it has also been rewarding. Empty nest syndrome is beckoning. From the end of August my eldest daughter will leave to study at Strathclyde University in Glasgow – Secondary Teacher training. My youngest is returning to Manchester to complete her last year at University.

It will just be hubby and I!

Change is coming, COVID19 is still here. So we must carry on. We will hand sanitise, stay as safe as we can, learn to adjust to this ‘new normal.’

Except my ‘new normal’ is different. I am now a keen yoga enthusiast, (Yoga With Adriene,) I bake more, I’ve learnt so many ‘new’ blogging and publishing skills. During lockdown I’ve added a newsletter to my blog, I’ve learnt how to use Kindle Create… and my youngest daughter created a brief promo video for my YA Fantasy The Curse of Time.

ttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1tt08n0wZ_OOo0U6DhpBIzVvbxgFlncb2/view?usp=sharing

I will forever remember this time in all its shades of light and darkness and hope you all stay safe and well.

I’m so excited for This Is Lockdown, I have a good feeling about this, I hope it will showcase all the brilliant authors in the anthology. I’m looking forward to reading more from them and sharing in their successes.

This Is Lockdown releases on 20^th July, it is on preorder until then.

Buying Link:

Amazon UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08CD1MCFB?pf_rd_r=NPA6S5SQJ30A6VYX87Q5&pf_rd_p=e632fea2-678f-4848-9a97-bcecda59cb4e

Amazon US link:

Author Bio

I was born on the 17th of November in Lion City: Singapore, (a passionate Scorpio, with the Chinese Zodiac sign a lucky rabbit,) second child and only daughter to my parents Paula and Ronald, only sister to my elder brother Donald. I spent my early childhood in a mountainous court dwelling in the Peak District in Hong Kong.
It’s rumoured that I now live in the Venice of Cambridge, with my six-foot hunk of a Rock God husband. My two enchanted daughters often return with a cheery smile.

Sometimes when the mood takes me, I adopt an alter ego, M J – Mary Jane from Spiderman. I love superheroes!
When I’m not writing, I eat exotic delicacies while belly dancing, or surf to the far reaches of the moon. To chill out, I practice Tai Chi and Yoga. If the mood takes me, I snorkel with mermaids, or sign up for idyllic holidays with the Chinese Unicorn, whose magnificent voice sings like a thousand wind chimes.

My favourite genres to write are: YA fantasy, magical realism, and various forms of poetry. I blog about books, writing, photography and inspiration at: https://mjmallon.com

I enjoy writing articles celebrating the spiritual realm, my love of nature and all things magical, mystical, and mysterious. One of my greatest pleasures is reading. I’ve written over 150 reviews at my lovely blog home: https://mjmallon.com/2015/09/28/a-z-of-my-book-reviews/
I’m a member of a professional writing body. SCBWI, the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators.

Links:

Authors Website:https://mjmallon.com
Authors Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-Mallon/e/B074CGNK4L
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/m-j-mallon

Collaborative Group: https://www.facebook.com/pg/5SpiritualSisters/

An anthology and compilation of diaries, short stories, flash fiction, contributions from the ‘isolation writers,’ plus poetry written during the time of lockdown in the UK. This Is Lockdown is written from a writer’s perspective highlighting the simple pleasures of day-to-day life during such an uncertain and frightening time. It also gives a glimpse of the blogging, writing world. The book showcases several authors and their thoughts on what it is like to experience ‘isolation’ as a writer. I also discuss the handling of the pandemic and my thoughts on what might happen next. In the final part of the book I include my latest short story idea: a YA romance and various short pieces of poetry, and flash fiction inspired by the pandemic.

And there you have it! Make sure you get your copy!

Thank you so much to Marje for taking the time to actually compile everything together, and to make it into a book that we can read, to remember this crazy time!