An Excerpt from Apocalypse Noun, a Quarantine Memoir

As a result of the shutdown we are forced to temporarily lay off a certain number of employees as of the day the studio closed. If you are receiving this email you are one of the people being laid off with the exception of the leadership team on the email.

Hm.

Let’s just say – I didn’t fall under the umbrella of “leadership team.”

I took a few seconds to ruminate. 

And then I started writing.

/

Five weeks later, that writing is a published memoir. An accidental memoir set in the time of COVID-19.

It’s not the only one, but it’s one of the first.

So – here we are, and I’m channeling every scrap of energy into giving this shrieking, writhing oops-baby a chance of surviving in the publishing world.

The plan of attack is as-yet unknown, but if you’d like to follow along – to borrow a phrase from my dear motherland – cor, blimey, I’d love to have your help.

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3/18/20

Today’s date is red, then white, then orange.

That seems like a good starting point.

That also wouldn’t make sense to anyone else reading this, other than me. No one else marries the number three with red, or the number one with white, or the number eight with orange. 

But I do. And I’m not really sure what to write about at the moment because the world seems to be going up in flames  – but I do know that it makes sense to start somewhere familiar.

I like that today’s date is all fire colors. 

I like that it’s raining in Phoenix.

I like that the construction men outside know that they can ask me for coffee or snacks if they need them.

And I like that I have some time away from work for a bit. I like that I have some time to write for a bit. And I like that the plan is to get me back to Twentynine Palms for a bit.

I’d like to say I don’t like being stuck in Phoenix and out of work for the time being. But it all makes sense. I came to Phoenix to be Elsewhere, just like how I came to America to be Elsewhere, and now I’m here, square in the middle of Elsewhere, and as it turns out, I’m stuck – and the only way to make it okay is to make it into something beautiful. 

And I know I can do that. 

I also know the word apocalypse is a lot of colors all at once.

So that’s roughly the plan here. The rough course of action, as Killian would have said. Although – well, I’m not sure courses of action are allowed to be rough. 

But this is real life, and it is not the Marine Corps, so I’m saying it anyway.

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Apocalypse Noun can be purchased on Amazon in a Kindle edition with a paperback release coming soon.