You’ve probably seen the memes and articles. Great artists and scientists who produced masterpieces while in quarantine or otherwise constrained. Shakespeare wrote King Lear during lockdown in a plague outbreak. Isaac Newton spent 18 months in retreat from another plague outbreak, and came up with the theory of gravity. Victor Hugo finished Les Misérables during a political exile. Frida Kahlo painted her first self portrait while in recovery from a serious injury. Simone de Beauvoir wrote the play Les Bouches Inutiles (the useless mouths) during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

What did I do during Covid19 lockdown in New Zealand in 2020?

I read a lot of books, played more than 100,000 games of WordScapes (which probably makes that my master work), slept a lot, seldom managed a daily word count of 500 words (far from my usual 2,000 goal) and most days far fewer, and was altogether a wash-out as a lockdown genius. In my own defense, I also packed up my house, moved as soon as the lockdown lifted, bought a new house, and am now doing renovations—but truly, people? An amazing surge of creativity caused by isolation was never going to happen.

Be kind

And that’s okay. The slogan used persistently by New Zealand’s government during the lockdown was Stay Home, Stay Safe, Be Kind. One of the great balancing acts that many of us take a lifetime to learn is being as kind to ourselves as we are to others—and not kinder.

I’m consoling to anyone else who finds that anxiety sends their plot elves into hibernation. ‘Write a little a day if you can’, I would say, ‘and don’t worry about it. It’ll all come right in the end.’

So that’s what I did. I didn’t manage to finish To Heal the Broken Hearted by the end of April, as I’d planned. But I wrote another 15,000 words between February and the end of May. In June and July, I wrote a few blog posts and some unrelated scenes as they came to me, and began the novella for the Bluestocking Blues next box set.

In August, the deadline for the box set got me steaming ahead, and I’m now back on the novels. Nearly 1,000 words a day, most days of September.

You’re the first to hear that I’m setting a new publishing timetable for next year. I’ve blown off the goal of publishing the first four books in the series The Children of the Mountain King before Christmas 2020. To Wed a Proper Lady is still sitting there, first in series, all by itself.

But I’ve switched things around, dropped a couple of intended projects, and set up the new plan to put all six books on the shelves no later than August next year, just three months late.

And if something else goes wrong and I can’t? I’ll try to be kind.

What are your master works?

Have you been in lockdown or quarantine? How have you coped? What have you been doing to get by?

An excerpt from A Dream Come True, my novella for the Bluestocking Belles’ box set

Behave, Barney told himself, as Theo landed so close that her thigh brushed his and her delectable mouth, open in surprise, was within kissing distance, if he just leaned a little sideways and bent his head.

He could see her collect herself. She closed her mouth, swallowed, and looked down at her hand, still trapped in his. “I have overstepped,” she admitted. “I should have sent Daniel to ask you.”

“No!” He reached for her other hand and captured it. “You did exactly right. Theo, darling Theo, don’t you know how we feel about you? Daniel has adopted you as his aunt. Annie prefers you even to Daniel when she has a bruise or is tired. And I love you.”

Theo looked up at that. “You love me?”

His heart sank at the note of surprise, but he carried on. She needed to know how little he had to offer. “I am not much of a bargain. I am only my father’s curate, with a very poor income, and once my father finds out that I have taken in my sister’s children, I am likely to lose even that. I will have to find another position, perhaps tutoring, or secretarial work, or assisting a physician. Will you wait for me until I have an income to support a wife? Will you be the children’s aunt in truth?”

Theo was silent, tears welling in her eyes and trickling disregarded down her cheeks.

Barney’s heart landed in his boots and kept falling. “My turn to overstep.” He let go of her hands and shifted a few inches away from her along the sofa. “I am sorry I upset you. I thought you… Never mind. We shall pretend all of that unsaid, shall we?”

A smile was spreading across Theo’s beloved face, and she retrieved Barney’s hands. “Foolish man,” she scolded, fondly. “Don’t you know that I love you, too? I am just surprised because I never believed that dreams could come true.” With that, she moved closer and tilted her head for a kiss, and brought into reality one of his most cherished dreams of the weeks since he’d met her.

Meet Jude Knight

Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The past 5 years have brought 8 novels, 13 novellas, 3 awards and several more nominations, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.

Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/

Subscribe to newsletter: http://judeknightauthor.com/newsletter/

Bookshop: https://judeknight.selz.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudeKnightAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudeKnightBooks

Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/jknight1033/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jude-knight

Books + Main Bites: https://bookandmainbites.com/JudeKnightAuthor

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Jude-Knight/e/B00RG3SG7I

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8603586.Jude_Knight

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jude-knight-465557166/