Viral Ideas

As fellow Killer Hobbies blogger Betty Hechtman said, these are strange times.  This COVID-19 corona virus is affecting all of us, including those who haven't caught it and hopefully won't.  That group includes me.

But I'm a writer, so it can affect me without making me ill.  My mind is always working on ideas for new stories, and though I haven't considered writing a thriller for a long time, I admit my mind is nudging me to think about it now.  One in which there's a pandemic, of course, although it might be a different virus.  Or the same one.  I don't know yet.

I believe plotting and thinking help to keep stress levels down a bit when reality is rather difficult.  And I certainly have time to think about it all since, though we're not under quarantine, we're staying home a lot, as strongly suggested by those in charge.  I live in L.A., and group get-togethers are now limited in size.  Theaters are closed, and so are restaurants except for take-out and delivery.  Markets are open, and I had the wise experience today, when I went out looking for some essentials, of being met at the door of a Trader Joe's by an employee offering a spritz of hand sanitizer, then waiting in a short line to get inside since the number of patrons was limited, and so were the numbers of items we could buy--no more than two of any product, and no more than one cart-full of stuff.  Not that we wanted that much.  But I'd tried a different store a few days ago and it was chaos!  No control like that, and long lines.

So... well, yes, my mind is swirling on this and what I could do with it in a story.  Will I ever write it?  Probably not, but at least, as I indicated, a small amount of stress is being dealt with by adding a touch of plotting fiction to reality.