coronavirus 4

Over 1 million cases, 62,000 deaths world wide; 300,000 cases, 8,000 deaths in the U.S.; 11,000 cases, 250 deaths in California (75 in the Bay Area). They're hoping the California deaths will peak at the end of April, so there's worse to come. The news from Italy, and now from New York City, is heartbreaking.

Feeling low level anxiety most of the time, but I only had one near meltdown, when our weekly meal kit from HelloFresh was delayed and looked like it wouldn't come at all this week because UPS didn't have enough drivers. We've been setting up online alternatives to food shopping (HelloFresh, Instacart for Sprouts, another one for Safeway) and everything seemed to be in place, and for a couple of hours I glimpsed the possibility that everything would fall apart. The restrictions for our shelter in place in California have heightened. Really I'm hoping that we won't go out at all, except for walks (and Ben is running). Guidelines are in place until May 3, but everyone expects them to be extended, perhaps for months.

My concentration is very poor, not good enough for sustained reading, certainly not good enough for writing. Steve and Ben and I have been cooking great dinners and I'm enjoying that. Right now we're watching a zany seven-part documentary on Netflix, The Tiger King, and enjoying that. Ben's working hard at his job. I'm sort of doing my online class, not very well. I've pared down their requirements, which I'll announce tomorrow. They have one more essay due. (If I can't write, how much can I expect from them?)

It's Spring Break this week. Steve and I were supposed to be in a beautiful Airbnb on Wilderness Lake in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains outside Seattle. (Airbnb charged us something, but the hosts refunded all of our money. Delta Airlines gave us an e-credit good for two years, even though we had a non-cancellable economy ticket.)

Because of quasi-deadlines, I managed some revisions on two short essays yesterday and the day before. Feeling good about that.

And today I got my contract from FOURTH GENRE, which is still such a thrill, though I've known about the acceptance for a couple of months. It's not at the very top of the Clifford Garstang CNF rankings, it doesn't pay either (which GETTYSBURG REVIEW did, NEW OHIO REVIEW did), but it's at the top of my dream CNF pub list. Steve and I have had a subscription for years. It doesn't look like they plan to edit "On Being Told That Her First Husband," which I half hoped they would. It's coming out in August.

And my flash in the special flash issue of LITTLE FICTION/BIG TRUTHS comes out in May. It's great to have something to look forward to, since it feels like the world is ending.

SONORA REVIEW (also a journal I tried to get into for a long time) will be my remaining forthcoming pub, and I don't know when that will be.  It's a print journal, and I think it usually comes out in the spring.