Quickie: A Sign the Pandemic May At Last Be Ending!

Or, well, maybe not really ending, whatever it is that pandemics do. That is, even with vaccinations the viruses are still out there somewhere, aren’t they? Skulking, sneaking. Planning their next move. But the thing is, with vaccinations, masking when needed, trying to keep one’s distance from others when conditions dictated, by putting up with it all for a year and more . . . well, some things are starting to ease back to normal. And one of the things I’ve missed a lot are Bloomington Writers Guild activities.

That is, there have been virtual meetings — but the cave computer doesn’t do well with Zoom. There are the Third Sunday Write sharings of ultra-short stories and essays. What I’ve missed, though, are the live get-togethers, the readings of poetry and fiction before an on-the-spot audience, granted some larger, some smaller. But there’s a thrill there, still, a sharing of reactions reciprocally. Laughter, silence. . . .

Not to mention for those not featured, the “open mic” sessions after the break with time enough for a couple of poems or a piece of flash fiction.

And thus, today’s email from coordinator Joan Hawkins, that “First Sunday Prose Reading” should be resuming on August 1. It will return! The venue most likely will be a new bookstore, Morgenstern’s (actually an old locally owned one that had closed many years before, but now in the process of staging a comeback), or, should that fall through, the also re-opening Monroe County Library. And not only that, would I be available to be one of the featured readers?

I emailed back not many minutes ago: You bet!