coronavirus

SO FAR, SO GOOD – IN A LIMITED EDITION OF 100 COPIES

/ Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

So Far, So Good is the title of our latest book. It’s the culmination of a year’s work, started during lockdown as a celebration of sixty years of marriage. The party we arranged for our diamond wedding anniversary in June 2020 couldn’t take place. The anniversary card Peter painted for me is now the cover of the book – the story of our life in words and pictures.

AVAILABLE NOW! SIGNED AND NUMBERED COPIES IN A LIMITED EDTION OF 100

SO FAR, SO GOOD  Peter and Susan Barrett

Sixty years together in words and pictures

A 152-page softback book (240 x 270 cm) with 365 illustrations composed during the first months of the pandemic describing our life over eight decades, pre-covid, as artist and writer

£18 incl p&p, by cheque or BACS sort code 30-98-45 A/c 01330952

or £15 by hand.  For postage abroad, please enquire.

P J and S M Barrett, Little Penn, Hemyock Devon EX153 SR, tel 01823.680192

The impact of Covid on fiction writing

/ Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

I know it seems beside the point to be talking about fiction in the face of the appalling pandemic. But Covid is having its deadly impact on every aspect of our present day life, no matter how we earn (or don’t earn) our living.

As I have begun writing a new novel, a problem has become apparent. The fiction I write is usually set in the present and the plots are wound around contemporary dilemmas and characters. How can I, and writers like me who like to create a credible reality, treat the pandemic? Do we take it into account? Or do we pretend it doesn’t exist in our “real” world?

This is not a dilemma for writers of genre novels set in the past or future – fantasy, sci-fi, historical or crime novels. Nor is it a difficulty if you want to write a story with Covid as the driving force. There will be lots of stories that deal with the pandemic. My puzzle is akin to those situations which prompt the expression “the elephant in the room,” that is, any subject too big to mention.

Should my fictitious characters, living in the present, be affected by the pandemic? Or should I let them live happily without a mention of it?

A NOVEL ON LOCKDOWN

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A NOVEL FOR LOCKDOWN

One of the hardest things about writing a novel, I find, is describing it in a few short sentences.  With Covid 19 this is particularly hard. It seems such a frivolous waste of time to be writing fiction in a pandemic.

I didn’t realise when I started writing my present novel in 2019 how apposite it would turn out to be in 2020. Its underlying theme is the balance of power in relationships, and imprisonment of various kinds, in life, work and love. This theme echoes the effects of the virus.

Covid 19 has come along and taken us by surprise. Its immediate effect around the world has been, and will continue to be, tragic. But its lasting effect may turn out to be good rather than bad. There may be a re-balancing of power in the relationship between the poor and the rich, and the underdeveloped and developed regions of the world. Humanity may pay greater respect to, and take greater care of, the natural world we depend on. The virus, in its containment measures, has caused a kind of imprisonment in life, work and love. But it has also brought joy and happiness, companionship and emotional proximity.

It seems heartless to be writing fiction at such a time. But I bet there are thousands doing it. Judging by the flood of inventive and clever videos on YouTube, created by talented people usually employed outside the home, I expect there will be an increased flood of novels hunting for agents and publishers. Very few people don’t believe that they have a novel within them. They’ve heard it often enough. The men will be bashing out science fiction and thrillers; the women, romance. They will be thrilled with the completion of their work and expect fame and fortune pretty well at once.  Some will self-publish. A few will find publishers. There will be readers who will be entertained, whose minds will be stimulated. Does creative work add to the world’s well-being? Yes, it does, as much for its providers as for its recipients.

So here’s the blurb for my just-completed novel ELFRIDA NEXT DOOR:

Taking coercive control to its limits, Nicolas keeps his wife in a hermit’s cell in the ruins of a priory at the bottom of his garden. Rachel, his new neighbour, becomes interested in the legend of Elfrida, the cell’s first occupant. This leads her into danger and gives Nicolas a new problem to solve.  The balance of power in relationships, and imprisonment of various kinds in life, love and work, provide the underlying themes of this light, dark novel. Or is it a dark, light novel.

Despair and hope

/ Susan Barrett / Leave a comment

It’s so good to be reminded that, as Hamlet said in Act 2 Scene 2, “There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
We’ve been despairing about the way we humans have been destroying the natural world we depend on. We are a dangerous species. Out of our reckless greed has come the present pandemic. And out of the pandemic has come some extraodinarily good things. It has evoked the best sides of human nature. (I won’t mention the way it’s also evoked the worst sides of a minority). There ae some marvellously cheering videos going around. The most joyous I’ve seen was one made by African children, dancing a covid-avoiding message. Then there’s a very funny one, The Sound of Music scene on the mountain top but with new words. Self-isolation seems to bring out the creativity in people who usually don’t have the time for it. My study feels suddenly crowded with digital warmth and companionship from a host of unknown people who are usually out at work.

Let’s celebrate the best in human nature. Today two good Chinese friends brought us a cooked meal which they left in our porch. I had flowers from the garden ready to put there before they came, but they were too quick and silent. So I’ve taken in the fried duck and photographed the bouquet which I’ve sent them as an email attachment. Were it not for my eagerness to eat the fried duck and trimmings, I would add the photo here in thanks, not just to Lansi and Amie but to everyone who is cheering everyone else on – thanks to the virus!