Blues

Yes, it's a post about That Which Shall Not Be Named. I'm trying not to take chances here.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but I am in the deep doo-doo. All my working life I've worked at the family business, which is a small holiday park. In recent years, following the death of my father, it's been tough to keep the place going but we were just about managing. Part of that involves keeping an eye on my mother, who is getting on a bit. She lives, with me, in the family home which is the main base of operations for the business.

Now in the UK, within the next few weeks, people over 70 will be advised to isolate themselves. In our case, isolating my mother without also isolating me right in with her is going to be basically impossible. On top of that, our home office, including all the computers, files, accounts, the damn safe etc. is right in here with us. On top of that, my extended family who live next door have two members, my sister and her son, who are both very high risk for infections, and they'll probably be isolating too.

We've got a plan to keep going, but it's going to be touch-and-go. Basically, it's not at all unlikely that by the time this whole thing is over, I'm not going to have a job, a business or any income to speak of. I'm not going to rant and rave here about the UK Government response or the level of support they're giving us, because it's still very much early days, I don't know how things will shake out and I do know that the people advising the Government know a hell of a lot more about these things than I do.

However.

I'm not going to sugar-coat this- I'm bloody terrified. I have literally no idea what my life is going to look like in a few months. I truly envy those of us in our community who can just view the lockdowns and quarantines as a chance to catch up on some painting or reading. For me, those things are going to be about all I have to try to keep me calm- and believe me, right now, I am most definitely not calm. Even when my father died, in an accident that played out right in front of me, we at least had some idea what we were doing next. This time, there's no map and only the loosest of plans.

I'm truly hoping that I'll look back on this post in a few months time and laugh about how worried I was. But right now, for all of my vaunted imagination, I can't picture that scenario.

Now there is one thing you, the reader, could do for me which would very slightly help. As you will probably be able to see from the side-bar, I'm an aspiring author. It's fair to say my books haven't exactly set the world on fire so far, and I've been trying to save for a proper publicity campaign. Obviously any thought of that has gone out of the window for the time being. Over on the main site for my books, I've been building up some artwork ready to commission some pros, but other than that I can't see myself being able to afford, or mentally focus on, anything else of the sort right now.

Hopefully more like this to come, if I can draw without having a mild panic attack!

So simply put, it'd help an enormous amount if a few people who've been kind enough to read this far would pick up a copy of the first book, read it, and review it, either on Amazon or on sites like Goodreads. All three books are free through Kindle Unlimited, if you're a member of that. I make basically nothing on book sales, but a few more reviews (especially of the third book, if anyone makes it that far) would mean a huge amount for me and would provide a real morale boost.

Regardless, I greatly appreciate anyone who's read this, and know that if you have the misfortune to be caught up in the current crisis, my thoughts are with you. Let's hope that there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel we now find ourselves in.