Pre-order!!! #New #Release This Is Lockdown #anthology #compilation #diaries #isolation #writers #poetry #flash #stories

Thrilled to announce that This Is Lockdown is now on pre-order via Amazon.

It is a compilation and anthology of diaries, writings (from the Isolation writers,) flash fiction, poetry and short stories.

Special Pre-order kindle purchase link – Amazon UK – Only £1.99

(Also available for free on Kindle Unlimited.)

and to purchase Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/This-Lockdown-COVID19-Diaries-Fiction-ebook/dp/B08CD1MCFB

It is set out in two parts:

Part one includes my personal diaries and poetry during lockdown, the ‘isolation writers’ discussing the impact of this extraordinarily stressful time on their lives, poems and writings from authors, bloggers and a piece from Jane Horwood and Melissa Santiago-Val about their fabulous fundraising mask venture for the NHS.

Look at these:

Part two continues with my writings during lockdown: poetry, short stories, (including my YA short story The Poet’s Club, and flash fiction plus a more mature Love Affair, (short piece set post virus.)

The wonderful contributors are:

Richard Dee, (Sci Fi , Steampunk, Amateur Detective author,) Catherine Fearns, (Amazon Bestselling Author of Police Procedural/Mysteries and Music Journalist,) Lynn Fraser, (Author,) Jackie Carreira, (Writer, musician, designer and aspiring philosopher,) Willow Willers, (Poet and writer,) Sharon Marchisello, (Murder Mystery, Financial non-fiction,) Fi Phillips , (Author, Copy Writer) Jeannie Wycherley, (dark stories, suspense, horror,) Chantelle Atkins, (urban fiction, teen/YA,) Tracie Barton-Barrett, (Speaker/author,) Peter Taylor Gooby, (Crime, Love Stories, Political Fiction,) Ritu Bhathal, (Chick Lit romance, poet,) Alice May , (Author, Artist and Speaker,) Miriam Owen, (Blogger and Doctural Researcher,) Drew Neary and Ceri Williams (Ghost Horror, Supernatural,) Katherine Mezzacappa, (Historical Fiction/Romance,) Sally Cronin, (huge supporter of indie community/blogger/author) Debby Gies (D G Kaye), (Memoirist/NonFiction,) Adele Marie Park, (Fantasy, horror, urban fantasy,) Marian Wood, (blogger, poet and writer.) Samantha Murdoch, (Writer, Blogger,) Beaton Mabaso (blogger, African storyteller.).Frank Prem (Poet, Author,) Anne Goodwin (Author, Book Blogger) Sherri Matthews (Writer, Photographer, Blogger,) and Jane Horwood and Melissa Santiago-Val – Community Masks 4 NHS

It has been quite a learning curve for me – my first compilation/anthology!

The formatting was a challenge. There are lots and lots of photographs in this collection. The majority are observational photos I’ve taken during allowed walks of all manner of things including concrete frogs hidden below bridges…. and my thoughts about why this fellow is there… So mysterious…

There are also lovely kitty photos from my good friend Samantha Murdoch… Now that’s a face! Poor Charlie, kitty, what is the matter?

As well as fetching author photos… and masked up photos from myself, Beaton, and the Masks4NHS venture.

Anyway, it is a true account of my observations, and the thoughts of authors, bloggers and creatives from the UK, US, Canada, Italy and Zimbabwe.

Wherever we are, we are all feeling it. This time unites us in a way that we could never have imagined.

Stay safe and well.

Authors Website: https://mjmallon.com
Authors Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-Mallon/e/B074CGNK4L
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/m-j-mallon Collaborative Group: https://www.facebook.com/pg/5SpiritualSisters/

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Marian Wood: Pandemic Poetry #Poetry #COVID19 #Isolation #Writers #Contributing #Author

Welcome to Marian Wood, a contributing writer in the forthcoming collection of diaries, short stories, flash fiction, writings and poetry: This Is Lockdown with her poem and thoughts on COVID19.

This Is Lockdown will feature a wide variety of authors, writers and bloggers from UK, USA, Italy and Canada.

Poetry from Marian Wood

© Marian Wood

The world is quiet, a new strange calm,
People staying indoors, scared of coming to harm.
Cars are now just sitting on drives,
As people now lead different lives.

No longer racing for the morning bus,
Now staying at home, with lap top, no fuss.
The children are now home from school,
And mum is trying to set the rules.

Sitting working, but watching the kids,
A parent can be successful at this.
With the help of a maths app and a cool pc,
The children can be kept calm and busy.

It was March that this change came to the UK,
And now it’s here, it’s not going away.
Never before have people been told to stay at home,
I’m so glad for social media and our telephones.

Our children are growing up right now,
They will forever remember what happened and how.
The Chinese Wet Market in Wuhan,
Was that really where this all began?

The children

The children are now drawing rainbows,
All part of our memories and makes our hearts glow.
All our praises go to our NHS and keyworkers,
They are all working hard in an effort to save us.

So, everyone now please look after your families,
Stay indoors, obey lock down, care for your babies.
Maybe have a picnic in your front room,
Or make the chairs into a rocket and fly to the moon.

Trying to think of ways to pass the day,
Bringing in inventive ways for creativity and play.
Make the most of this time that’s been given to us,
It’s not going soon, this Corona virus is in no rush.

We are not sure when the lock down will end,
But on one thing you really can depend.
The NHS workers are fighting for you,
There’s not enough clapping that we can do.

For they will continue to fight to the finish,
Brave and steadfast, their care won’t diminish.
This corona virus has become our life’s big feature,
However, we need to see the bigger picture.

Our world around us

Whilst the NHS and Keyworkers are caring for us,
Our planet is loving the difference, loving the less rush.
The effects of planes, ships and of the many cars,
Earth’s destruction had gone too far.

Looking up now the sky is deep blue,
It’s beautiful, lock down was a good thing to do.
Throughout this disaster we need to see the positive,
Reflect on the good, no longer on the negative.

So, hug your children and play your games,
Home school and work, we will never live this again.
Keep your scrapbooks and write your diaries,
And look after your families, and try not to worry.

© Marian Wood

Bio:

I am a happily married, working mum to two children aged seven and nine. I write two blogs featuring my children, poetry and short stories. I’m currently working on my first novel. I have reached about 80 000 words and I’m stuck with the ending. I stopped writing it in October 2019 and now I’m struggling to get back into it.

Confidence and COVID 19 are not helping to motivate me.

I’ve learnt If you are writing a novel, don’t stop writing it until it’s finished. If you stop and take a break it might take longer. I’d have completed it if I hadn’t stopped.

For us, COVID 19 has meant isolation. My husband is being shielded so we are all shielding. It is hard not going anywhere and not seeing friends in person.

In March we were both ill and suspected that we had the virus. However, the swab test showed a negative result. This test may not be accurate, so we don’t know if we have had it, but we were ill for weeks.

Tesco are delivering our food, Morrison’s my husband’s prescriptions. I’m working for the NHS from home. It’s nice to roll out of bed and go to work in my pyjamas and I love Microsoft Teams. It’s better than coping with the school run and a stressful drive to the morning meeting.

The environment has loved the relief from the pollution. There are positives to this awful situation. I try not to focus on the state of our economy or the mistakes made. The UK is in a sorry state right now. People are still dying daily, and I fear going to the supermarket. Despite an NHS discount, I prefer to order online where there is no NHS perk. My Amazon shopping has increased as I’m too scared to go to the shops. Plus, we are shielding.

New rules in June in the UK might change the goalposts for shielders. For me, hiding from the world is the better option. However, this is really not fair on my kids who are desperate to get out. As well as working, I am home schooling. The school sends a weekly timetable with web links and information sheets. I do my best to work through them with the children and tick off what we have done.

I work three days a week but due to home-schooling I am working six days. I am exhausted, I’m enjoying it but I’m tired. This week my nine-year-old and I have been learning about the oceans and explorers. It is an interesting subject. So, COVID 19 has brought great change to our lives. Home school, can’t go anywhere and mum no longer gets time alone. It has affected my writing as I’m more stressed and I have less time. I’m struggling to keep up with my blogs.

I’m hoping that the rate of infection in the UK keeps coming down. At the moment the figures are still high and we don’t even know if the children are going back to school in September, or whether it will be a phased return. At the moment, we can only guess.

This virus has come and messed with all our lives; I’m hoping that it is soon something in the past. Someday I hope for a vaccine. A time that we will no longer worry about it and the world will feel safe again.

Links:

www.justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk

Www.marianwood.com

Www.facebook.com/marianwood76/

Www.twitter.com/MarianEWood

Thank you so much to Marian for being a contributing author in the forthcoming anthology and collection of diaries, short stories, flash fiction and poems: This Is Lockdown.

I am so excited how this is all taking shape!!!

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Coronavirus: #COVID19 #Epidemics #Polio #Thoughts #My #Week #Writer’sUnite #Writing

Photo by **Suzy Hazelwood** from **Pexels**

My week… well, those glasses look just like mine. Thank you Suzy Hazelwood for the lovely free image!

15^th April

Not been feeling too good myself today. I had a strange stomach ache and the shivers. But good news a new review today from Willow about my poetry, prose, photography collection Mr. Sagittarius.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R3MH2KY5PXN0GX

I felt a bit better later on in the day and wrote about two swans that my daughter Tasha and I had seen on the river yesterday. I wrote a short haiku poem about the swans for Colleen’s Chesebro’s poetry challenge.

Here’s Mr. Swan.

https://mjmallon.com/2020/04/15/colleens-2020-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-173-synonymsonly-haiku/

16^th April 16, 2020

Across the UK, 12,868 people have died, up by 761 on Tuesday.

Such a shocking headline. In my heart I believe if we had locked down earlier the death toll would have been so much smaller. One has to look at Greece to see that their swift decision to lockdown early on resulted in very few deaths.

Coronavirus Cases: Greece 17th April

2,207

Deaths:

105

Recovered:

269

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/how-greece-is-beating-coronavirus-despite-a-decade-of-debt

Sadly, we were not sensible in the UK. We should have paid attention to what was happening around the world.

Now, our lockdown in the UK is to be extended for another three weeks as we flatten the curve.

17th April

I slept badly, which I have been doing a lot. The lockdown is beginning to get to me. So, rather than lie in bed I dragged myself out of bed, started writing and drafted this blog post.

Coronavirus isn’t the first epidemic that the human race have suffered and sadly it won’t be the last. But for many, it is our first real experience of an epidemic and that in itself is frightening. I’ve been thinking about previous epidemics, particularly Polio which has been around for thousands of years. There are interesting comparisons between the two. Both are highly infectious, some Polio patients had no symptoms, most people did recover but a proportion died. Rather than mention all the statistics with regard to the two I’d just like to reiterate we’ve struggled through these trying times before and we will do so again. Most hospitals in the 1950s had limited access to iron lungs for Polio patients unable to breathe without mechanical assistance and now we have amazing advances in medicine but sadly there are shortages of equipment and PPE due to the vast numbers involved in some countries.

Polio struck at the young mainly. Can you imagine? Conversely, Coronavirus seems to be more dangerous for the elderly and those with underlying health issues. Which again is terrifying for people with elderly parents and relatives. One striking difference between the two epidemics is our modern ability to travel, allowing viruses to be transferred to different parts of the world. In the 1940’s outbreak of polio there were no cruise ships, or aircraft to take people to worldwide destinations.

It gives some comfort to know that there will be a solution and it should come quicker. Scientific research and expertise has advanced massively since the Polio epidemics. Intensive care medicine has its origin in the fight against polio.^[145]The first polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s by Jonas Salk.^[9] (Wikipedia.)

So sit tight, and stay safe. We will get through this. A vaccine will come.

In the meantime do check out this link regarding a breathing technique that helped J K Rowling recover from Coronavirus.

Links:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/07/doctor-reveals-breathing-technique-helped-jk-rowling-recover-coronavirus-12519

19th April

I am submitting a 300 word piece to Writer’s Unite see link below

In twenty years, what will you tell your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones about your experience during the COVID-19 pandemic? Submission deadline Midnight ET on Friday, April 24, 2020 – https://writersuniteweb.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/covid-19-reflections-on-quarantine-invitation-to-essay/

And some links I discovered on the Facebook group Book Connectors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1466353170351020/

From Lisa Lowell – The World is Closed So Open A Book – https://magicinthelandlisalowell.wordpress.com/

From Kate Jayr – https://bubbitybooks.blogspot.com/2020/03/tips-from-natural-self-isolater.html/

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