‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch

This is me… this is you… this is all of us. This is THE BIG SELFIE!

Self-isolating on a global scale has changed the dynamic of home-sweet-home. It’s solitary confinement for some, group quarantine for others, but whether you‘re home alone or locked down with loved ones, or have no pets, forced confinement can be tricky. And by that I mean antsy. Cabin fever is a real challenge. I offer some advice below to resolve that issue.

MY SELFIE

Mole – ‘The Wind din the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame

As an author, I’m used to working for months at a time within a self-isolating bubble, listening to imaginary characters chatting and squabbling, lost in my work-in-progress, engrossed by the big picture forever unfolding in my brain. I’ve always emerged from these literary reveries the way a mole greets the sunlight, slightly disoriented. But I’m lucky. I live by the sea next to a serious wild wood, and the salty air soon revives me.

Suffice it to say, my day job (the one that used to pay my bills) is over for the time being. I have returned to the freelance world as a book coach and developmental editor. So, if you need help with these services, the internet is user-friendly with emails. I am open for business.

I write about paintings that refuse to stay on the canvas, sentient buildings, time-travel (both Y/A and adult) and cozy paranormal romance time-slip mysteries. I also blog about the eccentricities of art history delivered in cozy ghost stories.

YOUR SELFIE

Whatever your snapshot, take comfort that you’re not alone. Take a page out of Moley’s book. It takes time to adjust to a new day. Wherever and whenever you are able to venture outside, it’s the wild wood. Whatever the weather, sunshine, raindrops, and spring breezes feel wonderful on your face. Absorb birdsong, the scents of grass and flowers, wind and water, earth and rain. Nature is the essence of life. If you don’t have a garden, conjure one in your imagination. Be like Mole, visualize trees and riverbanks, and relive memories of green landscapes and blue seascapes. ‘E-scape’ online where there are no travel restrictions. And you can always time-travel in one of my cozy time-slip novels. https://www.amazon.com/V-Knox/e/B0094K0Q7Y

MY NEW NOVEL’S SELFIE

Launch date APRIL 6^th ***or available now as a Kindle pre-order for $2.99

‘DISAPP’EARRING TWICE’ – an historic fantasy of love, reincarnation, and sacrifice inspired by a true event.

Aurelia Marcus, a troubled high school student, is singled out by Jakobina, the dispirited spirit of a teenage girl trapped in a painting, in a hostage bid to resolve their mutual issues of mortality.

Jakobina, desperate to reincarnate with an old love, wants a second chance to live; Aurelia, faced with the curse of dementia that runs in her family, wants to avoid death altogether.

In 1965, their pact had seemed like a match made in heaven.

Fifty-years-on, still relentlessly shadowed by Jakobina, Aurelia rents an extraordinary castle by the sea, compelled to document her recurring dreams of a past life in a memoir of two lives she can’t quite remember.

But as the proposed year of transition approaches, Aurelia feels herself slowly disappearing into a 350 year-old-painting, one memory at a time, mourning the love she never lived with the disturbing realization that even immortality is life-threatening.

Driven to unlock an age old mystery of ill-fated lovers, and atone for betraying the boy she left behind, Aurelia summons help from an unlikely muse and spontaneously revisits her past and future in lucid dreams.

At the eleventh hour, only the ghost of a chance remains that Aurelia may remember her way home.

The preorder link for the $2.99 Kindle version of ‘DISAPP’EARRING TWICE’ is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085SYZPGG

THE WORLD’S SELFIE

Is the biggest picture of all. Our collective work-in-progress demands quarantine, common sense, and patience. Whether you work on the frontlines or wait on the sidelines, it must be a committed effort. If there was ever a time for ‘hands across the sea’, this is it.

If you’re not a writer, may I suggest you start now. Begin a diary, jot down ideas, dabble at a short story or the novel you were going to write in your spare time. I can attest to the fact that the art of composing words into sentences and sentences into story is centering.

Indie authors rarely make a living from sales of their books, so consider buying an e-book in your favorite genre and hunker down for an inspiring read. I also suggest you tune in to uplifting stories on the small screen. For the present, dystopian thrillers are a tad on the nose for light entertainment. Escape into a story that inspires…. That said, you could do no better than discover ‘The Wind in the Willows’. And never, ever, underestimate the wisdom of Winnie the Pooh.

‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by A.A. Milne