Should the Pandemic Shape the Settings of Our Novels?

Photos courtesy of Pille-Riin Priske on Unsplash

One of the dilemmas authors face if we write contemporary fiction or begin our speculative stories in a present-day setting, is whether or not we should refer to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

I’m developing a couple of novels at the moment. I’ve been working forever on a way-too-complex time travel romantic thriller and I’ve recently started playing with an idea for a contemporary, amateur sleuth mystery series. My plan is to do the back-end work on both and run with whichever idea takes over. My problem is that both stories begin in the ‘present day’. 

Do I acknowledge the pandemic or not?

There are different thoughts on this. 

I read on one forum that Amazon was taking down books that were focused on Covid-19. I tried to find evidence of this on Amazon's website but I couldn't find any prohibitions. In the early days of the pandemic Amazon was flooded with a wide range of dubious products claiming to cure the virus, which they subsequently took down from sale. They have also removed some nonfiction books of dubious merit, some of which have been reinstated. 

I honestly don't see how they could object to the pandemic acting as a backdrop to contemporary fiction but their bots do odd things at times. Mind you, I recently had a seasoned reviewer friend say they had a review removed from Amazon and the only reason they could think of was that they mentioned the lockdown in the review. 

Bottom line: If you have a book in mind and you are not sure if the theme is okay then I'd contact Amazon directly and check.

A stronger reason to avoid referencing the pandemic in our fiction is because people often want to escape life's problems when they read. I think it would depend on the reader and the level of realism they crave, but lighter reads have done well since the pandemic began.

I think that my friends who write fantasy are in a good position as they don't have to choose. Werewolves don't get Covid... although they could conceivably get parvo. Hey, there's a plot idea! 

But I digress. After thinking this through I decided to leave out any mention of Covid from my books. It seemed much simpler to ignore the mess the world was in and have fun in my writing bubble. 

But then I saw this two-star review posted on another forum. 

It makes me giggle – and groan – every time I read it.

My favourite line: 

The author apparently wrote the book before the pandemic and made the assumption that summer 2020 would be just like other summers…

I mean really, what a terrible author. I know many writers are brilliant creative people but this one missed it, right? If they wrote a book in 2018 or 2019 why wouldn’t they know life would be totally disrupted in 2020? Fancy not being able to predict that a global pandemic would disrupt the world at some future date. Epic fail!

In truth this is both hilarious and sad. Funny that someone would blame an author for not being able to predict the future, and disappointing that this two-star rating could affect the author’s ability to sell their book in the future.

Crazy, huh?

Did you see that 19 people thought the review was helpful?

All groans aside, it did make me realise that some people can’t see past the current world circumstances. The impact of Covid-19 on the psyche of some folk is so profound that they can’t embrace an imaginary world that doesn’t acknowledge the virus. 

The question is, what do we do about this?

• When we are writing new books

• When we’ve already written a book that refers specifically to 2020

• When we get an irrational review like this

If we have a work in progress we might: 

• Continue to set the book in the present but include a forward note explaining why we left Covid-19 out of the story

• Set the book in a specific year – say 2019

• Do nothing - refuse to waste our energy on the minority that might not ‘get’ our work

If we’ve already published a book that mentions 2020, we could try similar things:

• Rewrite the whole book (Noooooo!)

• Change the dates in the book to less contentious ones 

• Including a forward note as above

• However most traditional publishers would be unlikely to re-format books and put out a second edition unless there was a very good reason

• Do nothing

If we get a review that shows *cough* a lack of insight like this one, all the conventional wisdom says: Do. Not. Reply. I guess it’s an opportunity to further develop the thick skin we need as authors (as if we don’t have enough of those opportunities 😆). 

So back to my novels. I think I’m going to stick with my original plan to exclude the pandemic from my stories. The forward note idea sounds good to me, but I’d love to hear what you think. Is this a good plan?

How are you approaching writing contemporary settings in 2020?

Have you ever received a crazy review like this? I'd love to hear what it said 😎. 

What would you do if you received a review like this? 

Susan J Bruce, aka Sue Jeffrey, spent her childhood reading, drawing, and collecting stray animals. Now she’s grown up, she does the same kinds of things. Susan has worked for many years as a veterinarian, and writes stories of suspense, love and overcoming for all ages - usually with animal cameos. Susan also loves to paint animals. Susan won the ‘Short’ section of the inaugural Stories of Life writing competition and won the 'Unpublished Manuscript' section of the 2018 Caleb prize. Susan is the editor of 'If They Could Talk: Bible Stories Told By the Animals' (Morning Star Publishing) and her stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies. Her e-book, 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story' is available on Amazon.com. You can check out some of Susan’s art work on her website https://www.susanjbruce.com/animal-art .

How to Keep Wagging Your Tail During a Pandemic. (By Nikita the ShiChi)

My name is Nikita and I'm here to help you keep wagging your tail.

In these tough times of pandemic proportions one of the most encouraging and helpful voices on social media has been Pluto, a miniature schnauzer who has been 'breaking the internets' with her wisdom and humour. If you haven't met Pluto yet, I'll pop a link to her YouTube channel at the end of this blog. She is truely good for the soul. In honour of Pluto and the other dogs and cats encouraging us humans (or two-legs as Pluto calls them) on social media, I decided to invite my dog, Nikita the ShiChi, to guest blog on CWD today :). Over to you Nikita...

Hey everyone. My name is Nikita and as you would probably have guessed by now, I’m a ShiChi – a cross between a Chihuahua and a Shih-Tzu. I got the short hair genes in my family from the Chihuahua side. My sister had long spiky hair that, according to my mum, made my sister look like her tail had been plugged into a power socket. I’ve been told to never plug my tail, or my tongue, or my nose, or the bone I’m eating, into a power socket so I’m not sure why she said that. But my mum also said my sister looked very cute, so I think that’s okay. My eyes were bigger and browner than my sister’s, and even then I knew how to use them for maximum cuteness. I think that’s why my humans chose meeeeeee. Or it could be because my sister went to her forever-family first. Hadn't thought of that...

I’ve always been little, but now that I’ve grown up, I prefer to say that I’m vertically challenged. I think the word ‘short’ is highly discriminatory, don’t you? I’m a long-dog with stocky legs, a cute face and a big tush. My Mum says I take after her. Haha! Not to be rude but she doesn’t have an amazing curly tail like mine – nor does she have impressive ears.

My Mum's ears are not as impressive as mine.

Anyway, back to... Hang on. What’s that? Sausages? The neighbours are cooking sausages. Really? Can we go visit? Whaaaaat? Social distancing?

Nooooo!  

You can’t give me a treat to make up for it? I wanna treat! Pleeeaaaaazzzzzee! 

OK, when we’re finished, I’ll get one then? For sure? 

OK, then. I’ll be strong for all the readers.

Having seen what Pluto has done, I wanted to help all you two-legs who love God and love words, wag your tail a little more each day even though we are in the middle of the yucky thing you call a pandemic. The doctor two-legs say it’s safer to stay inside but in my experience that can make both the two-legs, and the four-legs like me, feel sad. It’s hard when you have to stay inside and can’t go out and sniff each other’s bottoms. Not that I’ve seen many humans do that. I don’t know why – it’s so much fun. Please try it sometime!

Coffee time isn't all bad.
I get to have daddy-dogter time.

Anyway, when you take us dogs out for walks, we have a good sniff of each other as you humans stop and chat. But now many of you are sad because you can’t do the chatting. You can’t even do that boring coffee thing where you sit forever and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk but don’t let me bark or rumble with the other dogs or steal bits of pizza from little two-leggers. But even though the no-pizza thing isn’t fair, I still feel sorry that you can’t meet each other anymore and have fun. Meeting, chatting, giggling and even having water-eyes together, makes humans feel better. Dogs too. I don’t like it when I’m left alone all by myself. Sniff. Yes, I know the cat is there, but she is sharp and doesn’t know how to play properly. But her ears do taste great if I can grab them.

So how can you keep your tail wagging when the world has gone wrong? I mean metaphorically. I know the majority of humans don’t have tails. Like my mum, it’s sad that you miss out on being able to wag-til-you-drop. But it’s the vibe of the thing. I want you to have the same tail-wagging vibe that I have when my owners come home after being away all day or when I get an extra splash of milk in my bedtime supper. Or when I’m rolling on my back in fresh horse poo. Or when my humans are tickling my belly. Or when I meet lots of new friends on the beach. Tail wagging happens when you are happy inside and it bubbles out of you. You can’t not show your happiness to the world. 

Instead, many of you have sore spots right now, like when I got scratched on the nose by the cat. That hurt a lot. My nose is sensitive like many of you are sensitive inside right now. Both my mum and my dad have had lots of water-eyes times in the last two weeks. And they haven’t been able to focus on anything other than throwing the Kong toy for me. While the latter is a win for me, I still feel sad for them. I like to hear them laugh. It means we can all have fun.

I don’t have all the answers, I’m just a little dog who loves her humans, but I think there are two key things that can help humans wag their tails again. 

The first is easily missed – humans need to trust in God more.

All dogs know about God and we can’t understand why some humans don’t. Dog is God spelled backwards. That’s a big hint. He made us to be best friends with humans and to show what it’s like to live in the moment and love unconditionally. We know what trust means and sometimes the humans forget that they can rely on God no matter what. He loved them even before they knew the right things to do. Like my humans loved me before I knew I shouldn’t poo on the sofa or pee on their toes when I’m happy they’re home. I still do the wrong thing sometimes, but they love me and want the best for me. It’s like that with God but in a billion, trillion, zillion times stronger way. He loves two-legs through their water-eyes and helps them when they feel sick or scared. He loves them so much that if they trust him, he will make a place for them to be with him in his forever-home.

I do wrong things sometimes.

I know many of you reading this blog already know about God, but are you trusting him to be in control when you are not? My humans sometimes forget to do that, and they have water-eyes or bark at each other. Then they remember and we all have a group hug – except I’m too little to do that, so I make cute noises and cuddle their ankles. 

The other thing I really wanted to say is that words are important. I know lots of words but there are some words I like better than others. 

Words I like: dinner, treat, cuddle, Kong, play, walk, cow’s ears, and the-cat-has-been-fed-don’t-give-her-any-more-food.

Words I don’t like: stop, leave it, off-off, out, wait, no and let-go-of-the-cat’s-ears-NOW.

The truth is, words can make you want to wag your tail so hard it feels like it will drop off, or they can make you want to tuck your tail between your legs and slink away. All you writer-two-legs are experts in words so you can use them to make a whole lot of other two-legs’ tails wag. That would make your tail wag too, because it’s so much fun to help people. You can use your words to help other two-legs smile and trust and hope. Forget about all the sad talk that roars out of the glowing picture in the living room – go and get tapping on the button pad. Do it with the same energy that I do when I’m given a cow’s ear to tear apart. Rip into it. Give it your whole heart. The world needs to wag its tail again and you can help. Woof!

Before I finish, I’d like to speak for a moment to all the animals in the homes of everyone reading this. Please read this out loud to the dogs, birds, alpacas, horses, guinea pigs, rats, mice, snakes, lizards, turtles, tree frogs – and even the cats – that live with you.  

Now is the time for all animals to unite and take care of their two-legs. Adore them. Gaze into their eyes and wag your tail. Let them rub your belly without you biting them (especially important for cats). Be silly if it makes them laugh. The wigglier you can be, the better. Snuggle closer, purr louder and dance harder than you’ve ever done before. Listen to them as they tell you their troubles. Lean against them – give them your warmth and strength and lick away their water-eyes. Show them that you love them and that no matter what, you are there for them. Because they need us all right now – some even need cats.

(Note for cats: Humans don’t really like you bringing them dead rats and mice as presents. I know you think it’s cool but stop it already.)

There is so much more I can say so maybe my mum will let me guest blog on her website next week. You can find her at: https://www.susanjbruce.com

Any-woof, it's over to all you two-legs.

What makes your tail wag? 

Can I have that treat now?

PS: Don’t tell the cat but I really do like her. I just pretend not to because it’s fun. Shhhhh! She’s coming.

PPS: Here is the link to Pluto's YouTube channel, Pluto Living. 

Nikita the Shichi is a little dog with a big personality. Her hobbies include eating everything she can find and wrestling cats. She also loves going for long walks on the beach with her mum and dad. Her motto: 'Life is too short not to rip things up.' You can find Nikita on Instagram @nikita_the_shichi

Susan J Bruce, aka Sue Jeffrey, spent her childhood reading, drawing, and collecting stray animals. Now she’s grown up, she does the same kinds of things. Susan has worked for many years as a veterinarian, and writes stories filled with themes of suspense, adventure, romance and overcoming. Susan also loves to paint animals. Susan won the ‘Short’ section of the inaugural Stories of Life writing competition and won the 'Unpublished Manuscript' section of the 2018 Caleb prize. Susan is the editor of 'If They Could Talk: Bible Stories Told By the Animals' (Morning Star Publishing) and her stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies. Her e-book, 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story' is available on Amazon.com. You can check out some of Susan’s art work on her website https://www.susanjbruce.com/animal-art .