Covid19 means that it is a writer’s life for all of us

These are strange and troubling times for sure.

Here in Dún na nGall we’re not doing well at all.

The current restrictions mean that we cannot leave the county, and that strikes me as very sensible.

Now, the Irish government is introducing new measures to try and limit the spread of the virus.

Candidly, the main reason for this spike is Darwin Award house parties.

The situation in the Six Counties is also grim.

So, it is a time to hunker down.

However, as the bean chéile recently observed, I’ve been in lockdown for years, and she reckons that it suits me!

Thankfully, technology means that we are only physically distant from those we are about.

There is no such thing as a new old friend, and so last night I checked up on the Faloorie Man.

I was glad to hear that he’s still getting about Howth Head for his daily dander.

His email to me this morning said that he had received the manuscript we had talked about on the phone and I would be hearing from him.

The last time we had actually sat down together as in the foyer of the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.

My buddy didn’t know the story of Mick and his Castle spy David Nelligan.

So, I had a Tan War yarn to regale him with as we were in the very building.

That sit down in the capital was only two years ago, but in these pandemic times, it seems like a decade or more has passed.

Over the tae, I gave him a copy of The Squad.

Last night he told me that I had “done a good job on it”.

Praise is always a nice thing to receive, but from someone you admire and respect, then it means so much more.

He was smashing it as a novelist before I ever thought that I would one day have at it go myself.

Sop, he is an ideal person to be reading the sequel to my debut.

Being a writer is to sign up to a life in solitary confinement.

Given that it is a voluntary arrangement, then perhaps some of us are predisposed to that life from the start.

I would like to see research on how many writers grew up as an only child.

This research from China is interesting.

Of course, they had a state-enforced One Child Policy for many years.

The law of unintended consequences usually comes into play.

Whatever the truth of the matter, being a writer isn’t for you if you cannot abide being by yourself for long periods of time.

Therefore, during this pandemic, there are folk forced to endure the solitude of the novelist against their will.

That has to be tough for anyone who craves the company of others.

However, this isn’t a drill.

We’ve already seen more Covid deaths here in Ireland this week.

So, please stay safe wherever you are and ignore the bloviations of dangerous idiots.

Beating this virus is a job for all of us, and we all have a part to play.

We can win this, even if you have to live like a writer for a while.