Positively Quarantined

Yep. It got me. The ‘Rona.

Last week, I was diagnosed with good ol’ COVID-19, right at the tail end of my quarantine period. I thought I would be in the clear, but just two days shy of being released from quarantine I developed sinus congestion, full body aches, severe fatigue, and a cough.

The cough didn’t last long, and thankfully neither did the body aches, but the sinus ick and fatigue are hanging in there, and I had a brief bout of weird but interesting sudden loss of taste and smell. Otherwise, I’ve felt almost normal. It’s odd, having this virus that’s caused so much worldwide panic and destruction but feeling so…me. I know I should be counting my blessings that, as an immunocompromised patient, I am doing as well as I am, and while I count my blessings, I also lament that I was just days away from getting the vaccine, thus weeks away from being more resistant to this whole mess.

Is this the way I wanted to get more writing time? NO! I would ideally have been back at work by now, but nooooooo, I had to contract the virus and end up stuck at home for even longer. Ugh! Talk about a mixed blessing. Now I have, let’s see, eleven more days of essentially uninterrupted writing. Wish that correlated to paid days of writing, but nope. Not for me.

Since I’m well ahead on the Hell on Earth trilogy, I’m trying to look on the bright side. I might–might–even finish Book 2, Hell’s Rejects, before I go back to work. If I can pull that miracle off, it’ll give me nearly three months to write Book 3. Weird how life works.

The only problem with this quarantine/virus is I don’t have the energy to push the marketing aspect like I should. Every time I even think about contacting Facebook groups or other outlets for some screen time, I just can’t summon the energy to do it. I just stare at the laptop, get disgusted with my lack of motivation, and dive back into my WIP to hide. If I could just push past that, I’d probably sell more copies!

Part of my hesitation stems from not knowing where I’ll be, work-wise, when the first Hell on Earth book releases. Will I be back full time? Probably, but if so, what will my schedule be? It’s not like I can check the computer at work, because, y’know, quarantine. Hell, they probably don’t know what my schedule will be. After all, I have to test negative before I can come back. And while I feel fine-ish now, who knows how I’ll feel in a week and a half?

Oh, well. Better to be thankful for what I can do and forget the things I can’t. Onwards and upwards with the WIP, and I’ll see how I feel the next couple of weeks!