Hi!

I don't know about you, but this time living through the pandemic has had a really strange effect on our creativity.

We have always been creative, though I've never actually had anything published outside of a couple of club newsletters of organizations that I once belonged to (glider club, high power model rocketry) at the time.

Before the pandemic hit, like a lot of writers, I was working on three novels(!) and a couple of short stories at different stages of development.

Really!

Then the pandemic hit.

One thing that Birdy and I realized right off the bat is that all long-term projects (novels, even the short stories!) went to a screeching halt.

But, the one thing that never stopped was the poetry - or, in my case, started.

Personally, I have never been much of a poetry guy. I remember doing haiku in grade school. And when Birdy and I lived in Frederick, Maryland; we used to go to a place where they did a poetry jam once a week. That is where I did my first real poetry.

Then I set it aside after we moved away from there.

Birdy kept writing poetry along with her other many creative passions.

Then coinciding with the beginnings of the pandemic, one of the business coaching groups Birdy belongs to started an online poetry jam Zoom call every Thursday morning.

That jumpstarted the poetry for the both of us.

So, we jumped in with both feet. Birdy is also into mewsic (as she spells it) so some of her poetry got set to mewsic.

Be on the lookout for singles and even an album coming soon!

A couple of weeks ago, we did a virtual sci-fi con, PenguiCon 2021, and were exposed to speculative poetry and scifaiku. So, we are both writing chapbooks. Or, in Birdy's case, multiple chapbooks!

It is only very recently that I picked up one of my short stories and started working on it, though poetry is still the emphasis.

For those other creatives out there, I am curious; how has the pandemic affected your creativity?

No change? Major change? What?

Let us know, we are very curious!

Mike.

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