Sorry historians, it’s aliens or nothing

Before our entire country was (quite rightfully) sent to our room, I was already seeing a bunch of messages from historians in writers’ forums asking people to write about the pandemic.

It was a moment in history we were living through and we should be documenting it, they said. I thought about it, I really did. I write non-fiction, I write about mental health and I write about people. It really is right in my wheelhouse.

But it turned out I just couldn’t. While I was living through it and trying to process it and wondering what was going to happen next, I just couldn’t write about it.

Ghosts, sea monsters and cats, oh my!

Instead I found myself gravitating towards something that had absolutely nothing to do with the giant ‘thing’ that was affecting the entire globe. I turned to a series of stories I started during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year. It’s a challenge that gives you a month to write a 50,000 word novel or, as I discovered, a bunch of short stories. I didn’t make the 50,000 mark in time, but I did get a decent collection of stories together, which I was quite pleased about.

It was my first crack at fiction – a sort of odd combination of sci-fi, horror and humour and I found the whole process a huge amount of fun.

At the time we were being asked to write about Covid-19, I jokingly tweeted about it:

I’m hearing a lot from historians asking writers to journal/blog about life during the pandemic. Historians I love you, but that’s the last thing I want to do rn. All ppl are getting from me is sea monsters, aliens, witches and Mittens the cat #escapist #soznotsoz

Giving through escapism

My cunning plan was to finish the last of the stories once we went into lockdown, find myself a local editor and cover designer and turn the stories into an e-book.

I can’t do much to fix this mess we’re in, but I can use my powers to provide a silly distraction and support some local creatives in the process. That’s why I want to design and edit locally and why I want to self-publish and make the collection as cheap as the e-platforms will let me.

Lockdown writer’s block

The thing was, once NZ went into lockdown proper, I couldn’t make myself do even that. I had around 600 words left of the last story, and do you think I could finish the damned thing?

I’ve been working from home (and I am not complaining about that because I know I am privileged to be working at all) but it has been really hard to switch from work brain to writing brain when I’m in the same location. I just had a massive block about it.

Finished!

So on Friday I took at day’s leave, in my house/now workplace and finished the damned thing.

It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment and relief. Sort of the way I felt when I had Starboard ready to send out to publishers. It’s probably the best I’ve felt since we all got grounded I think.

I’ve now got myself an editor and am working on finding someone local to help me with a cover and I will self-publish it as an e-book. So sorry, no deep insight about Virus McVirusface or mental health during lockdown. I probably could write a whole book on that, but not now, not while I’m living it.

Instead you get aliens in Cuba Mall, piranhas in Oriental Bay, haunted nautical artefacts and true agenda of Mittens, Wellington’s celebrity cat.

At present that collection is titled Ghost Bus – tales from Wellington’s dark side, and I will let you all know as soon as it’s available.

When normal becomes the fantasy

One of the strange and sad things that happened when I was re-reading the first stories I wrote was that all of a sudden it wasn’t the ghosts and the aliens that stood out. It was the things happening in the background – browsing in a bookstore, stumbling down Courtney Place in search of a kebab, being squished together on a crowded bus.

The stories are now about a world that, at the moment, doesn’t exist. Now I look out the window and see our bus, still doing its run for essential workers, basically empty on each loop. It makes me sad but I also have hope. I am super proud of how our little country has stuck together and protected each other and one day I am sure those bits will stop being fantasy.

Don’t worry non-fiction readers and sailors

If you are one of my non-fiction readers, don’t despair, I won’t be stopping that any time soon, it’s my natural writing home, and I have a couple of projects tucked away.

For the sailors, I’m not quitting that either, even if it does take a while before I’m out on a boat again.

And if you like a little bit of both, there’s a nautically themed YA novella in the works too.