Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Writing in a changed world...by Sheila Claydon
In my book Miss Locatelli, Arabella has to up her game very swiftly to help save the family jewellery business when her grandfather becomes gravely ill. I wonder how many of us will have to step in to do something similar, if not as dramatic, as Covid 19 continues to sweep across the globe.
Certainly here, where I live in the North West of the UK, many people are already working very differently as they search for ways to keep their businesses going. Local stores that once could rely on the footfall of regular customers for income, have introduced delivery services. Yoga and Pilates teachers now stream classes online. Childcare nurseries and pre-schools are doing the same with singalongs and fun activities. Bridge clubs are playing online, and, for the less experienced, also providing lessons. All banking is done online and doctors are carrying out most of their consultations online, except to the very vulnerable. Restaurants are now delivering meals to those people isolated at home and providing takeaway for others. Taxi drivers are delivering food. Shop assistants from high end department stores are stacking shelves in supermarkets, while security men have moved from nightclubs to the supermarket carparks to ensure that everyone follows the strict social distancing rules imposed on us all.
Of course we adapt and one of the British ways of adapting is to resort to gallows humour, so dark jokes abound, as do amusing home made videos of whole families singing coronavirus themed songs to well known tunes. And we are surprisingly obedient. Very few people are flouting the guidelines put in place by government as it tries its best to manage the pandemic. Instead we cross the path when we see neighbours approaching on our daily dog walk, and conduct our conversations across a 2-3 meter gap. We socialise online too. Nearly everyone I know speaks to friends and family daily, mostly on Skype or similar, and share meals and drinks across the ether as they chat. My own granddaughter will be 18 next week and plans are already in place for an online all day party where family and friends can check in at any time on a digital platform that will allow them to speak to one another as well as the birthday girl. It won't be the same, but it will still be fun, and thanks to the wonderful delivery drivers who have kept working throughout, she has a lot of presents to open too.
There are so many other ways in which we are all adapting, from downloading newspapers online instead of looking forward to the ubiquitous daily delivery that was so much part of British life, to young families spending a lot more time with their children, and throughout it all we wonder what will happen when this is all over. Will we revert to our old ways or will some things have changed forever? Only time will tell but I do have a separate question of my own.
Will books change? Will writers find that they are adapting their stories to an altered existence. We have all read stories written in the past century that appear very outdated, where the characters appear less than realistic in both their attitudes and speech. Neither historical fiction nor contemporary, they no longer seem to fit our mindset. Of course fantasy and futuristic novels will still resonate but what about family sagas, contemporary fiction, even crime novels. How will the global pandemic affect them? Will writers be able to produce stories that ignore our changed world...should they? It's a philosophical question that only time can answer.
In the meantime, stay safe everyone.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Book Launch in the Time of Pandemic
With bookstores and libraries closed and book tours canceled, authors with books coming out face the challenge of connecting with potential readers.
But during these times, we also turn to books to raise our spirits and give us comfort. My new novel Mercies of the Fallen is set in another perilous time in America’s history — the Civil War. Ursula and Rowan are both fallen people, plagued with traumatic pasts but facing their troubled times with courage and heart. I hope you’ll find their story uplifting.
And I hope you'll lift a socially distanced virtual glass with me in celebration of publication!
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Music Soothes Troubled Times
This winter, a friend coaxed me to join her choir. This wasn't something I'd thought of doing since high school. During my childhood and teens, I belonged to choirs at school and church. I enjoyed them and continued to like singing alone or at occasional public events, despite my diminishing vocal quality. No longer able to hit the high notes, my range became limited to about five notes. My voice cracked and stained by end of each song. The tones fell flat, to my own ears.
My friend got into choir for something to do after she retired. Before then, she'd had no interest in singing and, unlike me, hadn't taken piano lessons as a kid. She explained that some choirs required auditions. Others don't, including Shout Sister, her all-female choir.
She gave me printouts of lyrics to her group's current roster of songs. Leonard Cohen., Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles; my long-time favourites. I had spare time and was looking for activities this winter, since I was away from home in Ottawa, helping a relative through medical treatment.
"I've arranged for you to try out the choir this week," my friend said. She'd also convinced the administrator to give me a special rate if I decided to stay, since I'd only be there for part of the year.She gave me printouts of lyrics to her group's current roster of songs. Leonard Cohen., Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles; my long-time favourites. I had spare time and was looking for activities this winter, since I was away from home in Ottawa, helping a relative through medical treatment.
"Okay," I said, because she'd gone to all this trouble.
Wednesday afternoon, we drove to her choir practice at a local church. About seventy women, mostly seniors like us, stood in a horseshoe shape facing the choir leader. No sheet music. The notes rose and fell with the leader's hand, a method of music reading I found easy to follow.
The meeting brought back memories of my youthful choirs. "Don't interrupt the line of music by taking a breath." The director echoed my earlier choir leaders. "Sustain the last note." The large group sang harmonies that sounded lovely to me. I found myself able to sing all the notes. Either the organizer selected songs suited to amateurs or she arranged them for unpracticed female voices.
Best of all, for those two hours of song I forgot my worries about my family member's health challenges. The choir had me hooked.
I looked forward to the weekly sessions. After two months, a woman I talked to during the break convinced me to participate in the next week's concert at a retirement home. Performing with the group was fun and gave a new dimension to choir practice. Our concert ended with the 1970s O'Jay's anthem, Love Train, which urges people around the world to join hands and form a train of love. At the rousing finish, we were supposed to join hands with the person beside us. Some of us did; others refrained.
The following week our choir session was cancelled due to COVID-19. It soon became clear we wouldn't be singing for weeks and months. Then the organizers set up practices on Zoom, a virtual meeting site that has taken off in this time of home isolation.
I'm not swift with technology and worried I wouldn't figure out Zoom, but with a little advice, Zoom worked easily and well. Now, I follow the leader on my computer screen, while thumbnail pictures of choir members appear along the top or side. During breaks, I switch to gallery view, with thumbnails filling the screen. The first two weeks, over fifty members signed in each time. I'll miss week three since I'll be driving from Ottawa, west across Canada to my home in Calgary .
At the virtual Zoom session, the director puts us all on mute, since the system can't co-ordinate our voices. I discovered my voice doesn't sound as good alone as I sounded to myself with the group. It still cracks and strains for those high notes.
I wouldn't want to start with choir online, but virtually continuing with familiar faces and songs was more satisfying than I'd expected. Again, for those two hours, choir brought me out my despondent mood. For the first time since this mass isolation began, I felt that most of us won't be permanently damaged and we'll return to our humankind.
Shout Sister operates in numerous Ontario locations. Ottawa has three branches, with our afternoon group the most recent sister. Here's a YouTube video of one of our older sister groups performing Ben E. King's Stand By Me, a song our newer group learned this year.
I have several friends in Calgary who belong to choirs. A year ago, I asked one of them what he gained from being in a choir. He said, "When you sing together, you make each other so much more." I agree.
Labels:
#amwriting,
#anxiety,
#choir,
#COVID19,
#dealingwithstress,
#Music,
#musicforhealing,
#Ottawa,
#ShoutSister,
#socialdistancing

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