There is much to say about 2020, but for this post, I’m going to ask readers how they want us, as authors, to write COVID into our stories set in this year? Do you want total realism, realism with a bit of blur when it comes to shut downs, masks, and scary death statistics, or leave it out?
What do you, as readers, want? I’m still struggling with what I want.
My last book, LIES THAT BIND: A Logan McKenna Mystery Book 6, was set on the cusp of the COVID crisis—January/February of 2020. Wavering on the teeter totter for a split second, I opted to leave the pandemic out of my storyline. The action wraps up in the Spring of 2020—so it was doable. I figured most readers had enough of reality in their every day lives and were seeking something of a reassuring escape in Mystery/Thriller fiction. And the timeline fit.
But now….I’m brainstorming Book 7, Logan’s next adventure, which will take place squarely in mid/late 2020, smack dab in the middle of our mask-mandated, quarantined, temperature-taking, politicized immediate lives. How do I leave this reality out of Logan’s world?
I’d like to hear your opinion. What would you like to read? A time without COVID, one referred to only in passing, or one that deals with all its gritty realities for Logan, law-enforcement and whatever other characters make it into Book 7? And what about politics? Do you want me to write in the 2020 election?
Comment, email, message…I’d like to know how much YOU want to know about the elephants in the room.
A self-admitted book addict, Valerie was the kid with the flashlight under her pillow. A life of travel with exposure to many different cultures led to a pervasive interest in people, with degrees & teaching credentials in Cultural Anthropology & English.