For eight or nine months I wrote one zilch!, stopping it in March 2020, when the first ‘lock-down’ to control the spread of the Covid virus was imposed in Greece. And, after a respite of one-month-summer holiday by the sea, through the second lock-down to Christmas, and then, to the middle of January 2021.

You may ask why I stopped writing for so long.
Well, some people may see home confinement as an opportunity. Wholeheartedly, would pour down thoughts and feelings on paper, for which, they would perhaps struggle finding time to do, at evenings and after work, household tasks, etc.

Others, like me, a pensioner on a fixed income, the quarantine had the opposite effect both on my spirits and my concentration. It has brought up a lot of pondering about old age, the loneliness, the fragility of life, and the eventuality of passing away. What has mainly troubled me was not so much of being on my own, or being limited within my own home, but the feeling of imprisonment and the fear that life, being so precious, would be just like this for a long, sad time. Perhaps forever? I thought.

Then reason prevailed. I cooked a lot, I read more, I watched films on the Netflix, and talked on the phone to persons I had not spoken with for years; and, last May, I had the jab, the Moderna vaccine, which, in effect, boosted my optimism and the sense of having guarded myself from illness.

Now, here I am; August 2021, in good form and cheerful; have almost finished my second novel, (need to finalise the last chapter and edit it for a third time) and ready to continue with my life.

Best of wishes to all my actual and potential readers. D.