Writing in these times as proven to be an interesting challenge. In some ways, the days are quieter. Working from home has its perks: no commute and I can get laundry the laundry washed (folding is another story!) by the end of the work day. I’ve caught up on long overdue chores and having some of that off my mental list of stuff to do is nice. But sparking the creative juices has also meant processing all the fears and worries about the situation we are in at this moment.

I had to pause — to assess and do the things I could while the brain worked through all the stutters of “should I” and “how do I” — all while helping the rest of the family cope with similar issues, including missing friends and opportunities. We also lost a loved one during this time and it’s been a challenge to move through the processes of grieving without the usual events that can help that along.

It’s only in the past few days that I’ve been able to pick up the metaphorical pen to write the stories that have started playing in my head at last.

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Stay safe.

Always yours,

Annika Steele

About The Author

Annika began writing in third grade: an illustrated fanfic of the Atari game “Defender.” After filling notebooks, utterly unaware that she was a writer at heart, she abandoned her stories somewhere around her third year of college, probably when the typewriter/word processor died and was replaced by the roommate’s new 386. A ridiculous number of years later, she stumbled across a fanfic site, put fingers to keyboard, and hasn’t stopped writing since.