by Bennett Gates
If you’re here, you’re probably a reader, a writer, or both. Maybe you read a story in last fall’s Ground Fiction. Maybe you even read mine. Hopefully, you’ll keep reading as the editions come out every spring and fall.
When reading a story, most of us wonder, where did that idea come from? Well, just for fun, here’s my answer for Love in The Time of Covid.
Years ago, my wife and I were interns, living in San Francisco’s Marina District, across from the Marina Safeway. Around the corner was Chestnut Street, a vibrant, easy place to go—if we had the energy after a long day—for a walk, maybe a beer in a bar, a chance to talk to healthy people. In the daytime, to stay in business, the bars of Chestnut Street pandered to tourists. At night, they filled with locals, drawn to the cozy, pub-like atmosphere. Couples on stools rubbed shoulders, chatted with the bartender. Later, for the story, I named him Joe.
Now we live in Silicon Valley. Down the hill, a couple we know is in the middle of an angry, inevitable divorce, COVID-trapped with their three little girls. A nightmare. Will they recover enough to find love again? For now, neither wants anything to do with the opposite sex. Later, for the story, they became Walter and Ellie.
Meanwhile, my writing group decided to publish a biannual collection of stories. Someone mentioned a theme, another suggested COVID. And, with one of those mysterious, subconscious finger-snaps, everything fell in place. Love in The Time of COVID was born. If you’ve read it, you’ll understand. If not, you can find it on Amazon, Ground Fiction, Volume 1.
Enjoy.
For those of you interested in the writing process, there was an epilogue. Fifty years later, the virus has mutated, totally aerosolized, living symbiotically on the spores thrown into the air by global wildfires. Walter’s son is flying his P3 Orion around the bay, taking air samples, confirming lethal levels of COVID; his wife waits, a prisoner in their air-locked home. “Too cute,” my fellow writers said. “And too depressing.” A snip and the epilogue vanished. Kill your darlings. Writers’ groups are wonderful.
If you’re a writer at any stage, with questions or in need of a nudge, let me recommend Seth Harwood, editor of Ground Fiction. He a writing coach par excellence. See details on this site. Thanks for reading. And write on! Bennett Gates