Hey, lovely humans who follow this blog! As of this date, the City of Ottawa is pretty much slowed right down. It’s weird: while I’m typing, I can hear birds singing their flirty songs. The air is getting warmer, and the snow is melting. It seems so peaceful.

You’d never guess there was a pandemic pretty much all around our world.

As a disabled person who manages chronic illness and asthma and who is over 50, it’s been…interesting. My husband and I were not the ones who shopped until we scoured out the stores. I’m a Spoonie—I pretty much realized it was important weeks ago to add a little more here and there to our grocery orders. We have not overbought one thing. Well, Bruce mistook paper towels for toilet paper, so I guess we’re going to have super clean windows soon. Oops.

I can’t tell you how sickened I was to discover the greed and selfishness in my neighbourhood. There was absolutely no reason to raid the shops and buy all the toilet paper you’d ever need in a lifetime. Ya know, there are people on fixed incomes like seniors and/or disabled folks that don’t have (1) the money or (2) the room to stockpile. My word, have we become so self-centred? (That would be yes, I reckon.)

On the plus side, I now get a strong feeling a lot of people are following the #StayTheFuckHome principal. That’s great because only going out when absolutely necessary can slow down the rate of infection. I tip my hat to all the people who work in grocery stores and pharmacies. In my opinion, they are as much front-line workers as doctors and nurses. You people are heroes, and don’t let anyone tell you differently! ❤

But how am I really? Well, as a person who’s often housebound, I can’t say my daily life has changed drastically. However, I feel a constant state of disquiet in my soul. Most days, I am pretty calm. The other day, though, whooo, I went to a really dark place. I’m out of that state, thank goodness. I’m autistic and manage an anxiety disorder. For some reason, I feel this puts me at a bit of an advantage since I pull out Coping Method #145™ or Coping Method #128™ to get through things. I routinely have to initiate “anxiety kits” in my mind anyway, so this is just another reason to do it.

Being a disability advocate makes things a bit tough, to be honest. I have a wonderful community of friends of all ages whose cages are rattled right now. And who can blame them when all the messages we’ve heard for weeks sounded like, “Oh, don’t worry. It’s only seniors and chronically ill people.” Um…hello? That’s us!

This week, I gathered a few of my Spoonie Author Network contributors, and we made this video about #FlatteningTheCurve. (Please share because we are people, not statistics.)

Reducing the rate of infection is so important. What got my goat were the “healthier” people complaining they couldn’t see their favourite show or dress up for a con they liked. Holy moly, can we maybe care about not letting people needlessly die? After we get through this pandemic, I’m sure we’ll be going out for entertainment again!

Although, economically, things might not be so great for small businesses who rely on events for revenue. I’m going to shamelessly mention my publisher, Renaissance. They are an extremely ethical small press whose mandate is to elevate diverse voices. With all the creepy publishers doing creepy things in 2019, we marginalized authors cannot afford to lose Renaissance. So, here’s their current 25% off your cart campaign. I really encourage you to browse their catalogue. You’ll be helping them and you’ll also have books! Win-win!

As for keeping busy, I did try writing the other day. Not many words came out, but I was happy with the ones that did! I have a bi-weekly online writing group, so that’ll help motivate me to keep on with Iris and the Crew Tear Space a New One. I also have a book to edit, but my lovely Spoonie client is telling me to relax and breathe, so I am just taking a few days to get my head straight.

I might have also baked a very chocolatey cake. I think #StayTheFuckHome cake is important, don’t you? We do what we can for self-care!

Anyway, I’m okay for the time being. The husband unit is working from home as well, so that also reduces the risk for us.

I thought I’d be spending most of 2020 promoting The Stealth Lovers and Nothing Without Us at cons and events, too. But like many authors with recent or new releases, that will have to wait. In the meantime, if you’d like to support this author, please check out my catalogue. (Also, please consider buying my Renaissance titles directly from the publisher instead of Amazon. Thank you!)

Keep well, everyone! Be wise, and stay safe!

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Cait Gordon is a disability advocate and the author of Life in the ’Cosm and The Stealth Lovers. When she’s not writing, Cait’s editing manuscripts and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors manage disabilities and/or chronic conditions. She also teamed up with Kohenet Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the Nothing Without Us anthology in an attempt to take over the world. Narf.