2020 Hindsight

Yes, this was a difficult year. We all suffered from the pandemic with deaths and cases soaring and the need to practice new safety measures. We experienced a tumultuous election, economic problems, social unrest and schools turning to remote learning. As a writer, all my in-person events were cancelled after one day at the Left Coast Crime Conference in March. Our granddaughter had to forego an overseas college opportunity because of the pandemic.

On the bright side, members of our family have stayed healthy after one COVID-19 scare in June. I am now an experienced Zoom assistant for my grandson in kindergarten. I learned more about dinosaurs, sea creatures and the planets through my grandson’s curiosity. I published a novella titled, Coronavirus Daze, and my daughter published a children’s holiday book, The Jolly Effect.

I am looking forward to a calmer 2021 and wish the best to you and your families.

Holiday Season

This Christmas and Holiday Season will be much different from any before. For us, it will be very low key. We will celebrate with our pod: our daughter, 5-year-old grandson, my wife and me. Christmas dinner will be simple. We will have one opportunity to see our oldest son, daughter-in-law and two grandkids when we sit outdoors on our porch with masks on, ten feet apart. Our second son and his family will be visited in Iowa only through electronic links this year. We are grateful to be safe and healthy and wish all of you the same.

A Week of Good and Bad News

This has been an eventful week. First, the bad news. COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations are increasing. The good news includes the successful distribution of the first vaccine, the first vaccinations and the potential for additional approvals in the near future. On the political front, the good news is that the Electoral College has declared a winner. The bad news is that the current resident of the White House still can’t accept reality. Let’s focus on the good news and move forward while not letting our guard down.

The Stockdale Paradox and the Pandemic

With the current status of the pandemic, I’m reminded of the Stockdale Paradox. This is a concept advocated by Admiral James Stockdale who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. To paraphrase: when in a horrific situation, we must have faith in a positive outcome and do everything possible to make that happen while at the same time being brutally honest about how difficult our situation is. We are facing a critical time in the pandemic. There is hope on the horizon with the vaccines but we must not let down our guard. We need to get vaccinated when the vaccines are available but need to be brutally honest that the danger still exists for everyone, and we need to maintain our diligence to wear masks, socially distance and avoid large gatherings. Stay safe and healthy.

Uplifting holiday story for the whole family: The Jolly Effect

My daughter is the author of a just released book, The Jolly Effect, that is illustrated by my grandson.

‘Twas twenty days before Christmas, when all through the house everything was stirring, including a computer mouse. Even though nobody was home!

Something jolly and magical is causing Christmas decorations to spring to life. Which is nothing unusual for them until they discover a decoration from another holiday. Suddenly, everything is in question. What exactly is it that powers the decorations to awaken? Do they themselves have this power? Can they even stay awake until Christmas? Will the crotchety old nutcracker ruin the fun? Will Ugly Sweater ever stop singing her holiday opera?

This book is a whimsical journey into the heart, soul and magic of that elusive holiday spirit. Get ready to share the Jolly Effect.

The Jolly Effect is available in a print edition https://amzn.to/33npmQ0  and an e-book edition https://amzn.to/3meWmBt. For more information go to https://lbefeler9.wixsite.com/author

About the Author:

When not putting up or taking down holiday decorations with her son, Laura Befeler can be found dreaming up new book ideas and working at one ad agency or another. Originally from Boulder, CO, she misses the chance to wake up to a white Christmas. She now lives in a festive little house in Southern California, which currently has decorations up from two holidays ago. She has a nephew named Asher as well as a sister-in-law named Kasey and hopes to visit Iowa again soon.

About the Illustrators:

Asher and Kasey Befeler were both born and raised in Iowa, where Christmas is at least cold, if not white. Kasey works as a graphic artist and Asher has been a natural artist for as long as his aunt can remember. In addition to drawing, Asher loves fishing (and going on family trips to Southern California). He is currently in the 8^th grade.

Happy Thanksgiving

This has been a difficult year for all of us. We have been away from friends and family, faced health challenges in all of our families, dealt with political uncertainty and undergone stress. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for all we do have and wish you and your family a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

The Holiday Season

People are starting to make plans for Thanksgiving, the various religious holidays in December, and New Years. This will be a challenge given the spike in COVID-19 cases. Recently, I have spoken with friends in different parts of the country. Many of us are planning to forgo large family gatherings during the holiday season. This is important so that we will all be here to celebrate next year.

Election Results

This has been a long and trying election year. We’ve been exposed to tension, uncertainty, anger and heated rhetoric. Now is the time for our country to come together. Once the stubbornness to not admit a defeat is resolved and the claims of voter fraud are put to rest, we can move on. Otherwise, we need to be careful or France will ask us to return the Statue of Liberty.

Political Unrest

The night before the election, the City Manager of Lakewood, CA, where I live sent out a message describing the steps the city and the sheriff’s office were taking to prevent and contain any civil unrest as a result of the election. It’s unfortunate that in this modern age, we would have to be on alert for such an event, but it’s best to be prepared for the eventuality.

I look forward to the day we can voice our political differences while working for the common good of all of our country.

Baseball, the Dodgers and Reading

The Dodgers winning the World Series brings back memories of my childhood when I was a rabid fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I listened to games on the radio and just happened to be home sick when they won the World Series in 1955. In 1956 the Dodgers went on an exhibition tour to Japan and I watched them play an exhibition in Honolulu where I grew up. I also collected a number of autographs when they arrived at the Honolulu airport.

How does all of this connect with reading? As a reluctant reader, one time in the school library I was fooling around rather than reading. The librarian approached me and asked what interested me. I said, “baseball.”  She took me over to a section of the library that contained books about baseball. From then on I became hooked on reading.

More About Leadership

As I continue to read and think about leadership, I came across a statement attributed to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. To paraphrase, the attributes of effective Presidents in times of turbulence include: empathy, humility, resilience, willingness to acknowledge errors, and self-reflection.  I would add to this list: listening.

Leadership: Power, Love and Truth

With an election in progress, I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership. I’m also reading a book, which I highly recommend: How to Lead, Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David Rubenstein. This book is thirty interviews with people such as Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Anthony Fauci and  Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussing what makes an effective leader.

I’d also like to share here a post from my friend Minh Le who makes a compelling argument about the need to balance poser, love and truth as a leader:

 The love-power-truth triangle in leadership, and how it applies to our national election this year.One of the most fundamental requirements of principled leadership is a thoughtful balance between love, power and truth in its treatment of people. Love without power is wishy washy and weak, but power without love is abusive and sadistic, advised great leaders over the centuries. Love and power without truth will cause a leader to follow a wrong path and bring their followers to disaster, as many cultish leaders have demonstrated in the past. Truth without power will be ineffective as scientists and public health officials repeat recommendations to be safe from Covid-19 while watching the country become a hotbed of infections because the people in power choose to make mask wearing or social distancing a political issue instead.

Our election process is really about all three elements. To be elected in a principled way, a leader must be seen as caring/loving toward citizens, courageous in the use of power in pursuit of worthwhile outcomes, and a model for truth and integrity in his/her day-to-day conduct.

When a party is stuck with a leader whose entire life has been about the pursuit of power at the total expense of love or truth, its members become frantic and desperate as the polls indicate that they are going to lose in a big way, a landslide. That leader’s tactics become more frantic and desperate and his/her followers tend to follow down the same path. Unfortunately the electorate is much better informed and more thoughtful than the party would like and these tactics backfire, causing the party to be in downward spiral.

 I empathize with some of my family members and friends who are in despair because they think their side is losing and the country is going down the wrong path. I understand that anxiety and will remind these family members and friends that to cling to power while showing zero compassion and a total disregard of truth is simply not sustainable. Having had power for so long makes it hard to see it taken away from you, but it is not a total loss, only a chance to re-examine the errors in your thinking and learn from them.

 I will make them this personal promise. I will not gloat when I see this country move in the opposite direction of the last four years. I will be present and paying attention and will continue to urge the people in charge to use power wisely, without abandoning love and truth. I will remind them that our society’s priorities like a pendulum will swing back and forth over time in search of balance. I will remind everyone that a great society tries very hard to meet the needs of all of its citizens and if we are out to destroy all of our enemies we will eventually have no friends left.

 To those of you belonging to a group with a single agenda I would advise that it cannot be the only one that matters for the entire society. When it conflicts with the agendas of other groups of people, care must be exercised by a skilled leader to find win-win or compromise solutions to resolve the issue in an intelligent way. Beware of manipulative con artists who promise that they alone can fix the problem because they are the smartest and most powerful. Beware of promises of simple solutions that allow you to win while large numbers of others must lose, Choose instead someone who has learned humility by life’s challenges, who recognizes that the best solution comes from gathering together many different points of view and working through the apparent diversity to find a unity in a most coherent solution. Look for proven commitment and skills in leadership, as it is a difficult job which cannot be done successfully by amateurs or reality-TV stars.

 Lastly I would say that the younger generations deserve a great deal more admiration and respect. They have much more at stake with a more uncertain future, and they are now better educated and informed than we were in the past. The older folks (my generation) continue to have an enormous control over society, even as we lose touch with the world as to how it really shows up for the younger generations. As much as many of us older folks have tried to be open and flexible, I suspect there is much more we can do to seek to understand and continue in thoughtful ways to empower them. I predict the best turnout this year in a long time for the younger voters among us, and I will celebrate that as a great sign for the future of this country.

Vote

We face an extremely important election this November. No matter what your political persuasion or beliefs, I urge you to vote. We need to have a large turnout to show how the country as a whole  feels about the two candidates.

Should Authors Make Political Statements or Not?

I have writer friends who constantly make political statements on social media and others who avoid political statements completely. I’m in the middle. When I see or hear something egregious, I call it out on Facebook. But many of my social media posts are about writing and my grandchildren. I feel it’s important to take a stand and point out issues and solutions, some of which will not be popular with people who are extremely polarized. I will continue to do this, but I will not resort to only political statements.

Bouchercon Conference

Bouchercon is the largest conference for fans and writers of the mystery/crime/thriller genres with typically 1500 to 2000 attendees. This October it was scheduled to be in Sacramento, CA. but because of the pandemic, it has become a virtual conference taking place on Friday and Saturday October 16-17. I will be on a panel on Friday, titled "With a Little Help from My Friends" with Fleur Brandley, Carrie Voorhis, TK Thorne and Eileen Rendahl. This will focus on characters who help the protagonist sleuth.

Are People Basically Good or Bad

I pose this question for all of you to think about and answer for yourselves: are people basically good or bad? We see human-caused disasters and these are balanced by the unselfish acts of people. How do you come down on this basic question about human nature? I did an informal poll on Facebook a few weeks ago and the majority of responses came back that people are basically good. These were from mainly author friends who tend to be liberal thinkers. From my own conclusion, people of a more conservative bent tend to see people as bad: you can’t give poor people money because they’ll spend it on booze and they’re lazy. I know it’s hard to answer this black and white question. I believe that people are basically good but there are clearly exceptions and we can’t be naïve. We need to have a police force to protect us from predators and psychopaths. Still, I think most people want what’s right for their family and society. I will continue to think positively while paying attention to the exceptions.

The World of Zoom

How quickly things change. Back in February of this year, I hadn’t even heard of Zoom. Now I’m using it almost daily. I had used Skype but now find Zoom much more user friendly and easier to use. I’ve used Zoom to give author presentations to service organizations and book groups, to meet with family members, to get together with friends, to have a virtual play date for our grandson, to participate in a remote funeral service, to attend writers events and to allow our grandson to attend first pre-school and now kindergarten. It’s become an important tool during the pandemic.

Zoom kindergarten

My grandson started zoom kindergarten this week. He had a chance to get used to zoom classes with zoom preschool in May and June. The school had a drive-by for the kids to wave to the teachers the day before school started. Now he is learning remotely for at least the next month.

More About Zoom Author Events

In the past I have done a number of remote presentations to book groups through Skype or phone conference calls. All of these were with me on one end and a group of people on the other. Last week I gave my first Zoom presentation where everyone was online from different locations. Once I started, it felt natural to be talking to people, as I could see some of the faces on my screen. Since my presentation relies on humor, it was more difficult to get a reading on the audience’s reaction to my speech. With two more presentations scheduled in the near future, I’ll continue to monitor how this process works.

Humankind – A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

I want to recommend a book called Humankind – A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. It presents an optimistic view that people tend to be good. This flies in the face of much common cynicism about human nature. It is well worth reading and ends with ten rules to live by: 1. When in doubt, assume the best. 2. Think in win-win scenarios. 3. Ask more questions. 4. Temper your empathy, train your compassion. 5. Try to understand the others, even if you don’t get where they’re coming from. 6. Love your own as others love their own. 7. Avoid the news. 8. Don’t punch Nazis. 9. Come out of the closet; don’t be ashamed to do good. 10. Be realistic. Some of these rules may seem idealistic or counter-intuitive, but their logic is laid out in the book.

Zoom Author Events

Although authors aren’t doing live events right now, there are opportunities to connect with readers through Zoom meetings. Service organizations and book groups continue to meet through Zoom, and, as a result, I’ve been invited to speak to two Rotary clubs and one book club over the next month. I will give a twenty minute presentation followed by questions and answers. While not as good as face-to-face presentations where readers can buy books that I bring, these types of events offer the opportunity to reach and connect with new readers. If you are interested in having me meet with one of your groups, send an email message to mikebef@aol.com

Exercise During Pandemic

I try to exercise every day. This goes back to when I was a kid and in college playing competitive tennis. As I got older I replaced tennis with platform tennis and then pickleball. I also had a hip and a knee replacement and went through physical therapy after these surgeries. I suffer from arthritis so it’s important for me to keep my joints moving. At the present time I’m not playing pickleball, but I’ve been suffering through golf once a week and doing daily stretches and exercises. What works for me is doing this in the morning right after breakfast. I have a number of stretches and exercises for back, hips and knees. Then I ride the stationary bike for twenty minutes. During week days I also get exercise with my 5-year-old grandson who keeps me moving. On weekends I take a walk for approximately 50 minutes. All of this keeps me mobile and definitely helps maintain a positive mental outlook.

Historical mystery, sports mystery and Coronavirus story now in trade paperback editions

I've released trade paperback editions of two mystery novels and a novella in addition to earlier e-book editions. I'm also available to give Zoom presentations to libraries, book groups and service organizations.

In Murder on the Switzerland Trail, a Sunday excursion in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado, in 1919 leads to murder as intertwined lives play out a mystery on the Switzerland Trail railroad. Policeman Harry McBride must figure out who the murderer is before the train reaches the Boulder station on the return trip. This is now available in a print edition https://amzn.to/3hwHo76  as well as an earlier e-book edition.

In Court Trouble Mark Yeager’s friend is bludgeoned to death in the dark on a platform tennis court, Mark becomes an amateur sleuth to find which of the four suspects is the murderer. Avoiding attempts on his life, he must crack the case and figure out how to save the courts from being shut down by the city while waiting for doctor’s results on whether he is cancer-free after his bout with prostate cancer. This is now available in a print edition

Coronavirus Daze,https://amzn.to/2CE1uNF is now available in a print edition as well as an earlier e-book edition. Tad, a middle school student in Southern California, must deal with the boredom of being stuck at home with his parents during the Coronavirus pandemic and has a life transforming experience when he makes an unexpected discovery. Readers may shed a tear and will certainly have some chuckles as Tad recounts his adventures in a time of chaos and uncertainty.

Challenge of Publishers Going Out of Business

Over my writing career, I’ve had published seventeen books through six publishers. Of these publishers, five have discontinued my genre or gone out of business. The good news is that I have the rights back from all the books published by the defunct publishers. I’ve been in the process of republishing on my own these books. All are now available in e-book format and all but two in print format. I’ll be getting these last two print editions completed in the near future. I’ll highlight here the most recent book to be republished. It’s my non-fiction book, The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe.

The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe is the biography of a frontline soldier, fighting the Germans in World War II. Extraordinary are his experiences leading up to joining the army, his “kill or be killed” decisions in combat, the struggle to survive in a prisoner of war camp and the opportunity to meet Russians behind their lines at the beginning of the Cold War. On the night of New Years Eve 1944, Ed undertook the assignment of being a forward observer, only to be bombarded by the last German initiative on the Western Front, Operation North Wind. Throughout his life he continued to be a forward observer, connecting his experiences in the past with the unfolding future. His was not an easy life, struggling through the Depression years, losing 40% of his body weight while a prisoner, suffering what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder, losing custody of his first son, but bouncing back from his traumas to have a successful second marriage and to run a profitable small business. His life was full of dichotomies: His early education at an anarchist school set the stage for his inquiring mind; even without completing college, he developed a wealth of knowledge about history though his avid reading; although he hated Germans, he became the greatest chicken thief in all of Europe to support four German refugees; and throughout his life, in spite of the stress and trauma, he retained an impish sense of humor. Get ready to laugh and cry as Ed’s life plays out in The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe.

The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe (ISBN 979-8667338550), is now available in print (https://amzn.to/2OM5gHw) and e-book (https://amzn.to/32yzRA9) editions.

Life or Death Decisions

With many of us staying home these days, I’ve read and heard many comments about boredom. Fortunately, this hasn’t been a problem for me since we take care of our five-year-old grandson each weekday, and he keeps us hopping. My concern is the life and death decisions that we are faced with. There is always risk in our lives, but currently even the most innocuous events pose risk. My one essential outing in public each week is masking up to go to the grocery store. I don’t take this event casually as I once did. Should I keep routine doctor’s appointments or not? What about getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist? Should our grandson return to preschool and then go on to kindergarten in September? All these normal decision now how a life or death implication that I have never experienced previously. These are trying times, and we all need to follow the basic safety steps of wearing masks, social distancing and maintaining sanitary standards. Stay healthy.

Uncertainty in Uncertain Times

So many things remain uncertain at this time. Will schools reopen and if so how will safety be managed? Will people take serious the need to wear masks and social distance? How can we balance the economy with the protection of our population? We need leadership from the top of government on down, but unfortunately we have a fractured system with lack of national leadership and too many conflicting statements being made. I fear that the pandemic will only get worse. Having recently been tested for COVID-19, I feel fortunate that the test came back negative. But that’s a snapshot in time. Given the number of people who are not taking precautions, I could have been infected the day after I took the test. There are no guarantees, and it’s not possible to eliminate all risk. We still need to take the necessary precautions to minimize the risk.

Difficulty in Getting COVID-19 Testing

I live in a state that supports COVID-19 testing, yet I found it very difficult to get a testing appointment last week. Here’s the situation. Four of us were exposed to someone who tested positive. I went online to schedule a test and after trying over twenty-five locations that had no appointments available, my primary care physician’s office came through with an appointment. Unfortunately, there was no way for the four of us to be tested at the same time. I can understand that appointments have become more difficult because of the recent spike in cases, but it was disconcerting at how difficult it was to navigate through the system. The good news is that the test went quickly and painlessly. My son who lives in another state got tested recently before surgery and had to suffer through a long probe up his nostril. Mine was a short swab that I rubbed in both nostrils. The whole process of waiting in my car and getting tested took less time than driving to the site and back. The test results aren’t in yet, so I am awaiting the outcome.

Author Events in Limbo

I was scheduled for a number of author events in April, but these were all cancelled. My last in-person contact with readers was the one day at the Left Coast Crime Conference in March before the remaining days were cancelled. I also planned to go to Bouchercon this fall, but it is now a virtual event. Men of Mystery in November in Long Beach, CA, is the only event still on my calendar, and I haven’t heard if it will take place or not. Usually, I have a number of speaking engagements scheduled with libraries, book groups and service organizations, but these are all on hold. We’ll have to see what is practical and when these types of events can be held again.

Lessons Learned With a Four-Year-Old

I continue to enjoy my time with our four year old grandson. We are learning together. One of the things that strikes me is that although he can’t go to school in person, go to the playground or play with his friends, he has handled himself amazingly well during the pandemic isolation. He gets enthusiastic about so many different topics. In addition to planets, dinosaurs, trucks and blocks, he has become interested in flowers. Each weekday when he comes over to our house, he asks to go on a tour of the flowers in our yard. Whenever he spots a new rose bud, he shouts for me to come see it. There’s a tree growing in the planter in our backyard. We have no clue what it is, but it’s tall and skinny. Our grandson calls it a palm tree and gets excited every day at how tall it’s growing. He’s an inspiration to me: his enthusiasm and his desire to soak up new learning.

Learning Together with a Four-year-old (redux)

My grandson and I had an interesting conversation recently. He had received a packet of material for his Zoom pre-school that included punch-outs of the planets in the solar system, one of his favorite topics. The circle for Uranus was smaller than the circle for Neptune. In a discussion about the size of planets, he stated that Neptune was larger than Uranus. I told him that my recollection was that Uranus was the larger of the two. He became very insistent that he was right and I was wrong by pointing to the size of the punched out circles. We then went on the Internet to settle the debate. I also reminded him that when we did the planet walk at the El Dorado park, the written description accompanying the sidewalk image of the planets stated that Uranus was four times the size of Earth and Neptune was slightly less than four times the size of Earth. What we finally concluded from our research was that Uranus was slightly larger in size but Neptune was heavier. I was proud that after reading several credible sources together, he changed his viewpoint. He then told me that his teacher was wrong. I said she wasn’t wrong, but the company that made the punch-outs had not scaled the circles to the respective sizes. As another example, the circle for Mars was the same size as the one for Earth and he knew that Mars was smaller. All in all an informative discussion for both of us.

Learning Together with a Four-year-old (continued)

I continue  to learn new things along with my 4-year-old grandson. He’s very interested in the solar system. He knows all the planets, and together we visit a sidewalk in El Dorado Park, Long Beach, where we walk from the sun to Neptune in a scale representation of one foot being a million miles. Here he is with Saturn:

 We’ve also learned together about dwarf planets. He’s particularly intrigued that Pluto got demoted from a regular planet to a dwarf planet. Other large dwarf planets are Eris, Ceres, Makemake and Haumea. Our favorite is Makemake. It makes a great chant.

Learning Together with a Four-year-old

I’ve not been bored during the stay-at-home period. The reason: my wife and I take care of our four-year-old grandson every weekday while his parents work. His preschool got cancelled in March, but he now meets with his teacher on Zoom three mornings a week for an hour or so to practice reading, writing, arithmetic and geography. What I have particularly enjoyed is his insatiable curiosity and the fascinating questions he asks. One major area of his interest lately has been large sea creatures. One topic has been whales with a focus on blue whales since they are the largest. He also heard about the megaladon, an ancient large shark. Together we do research on the Internet to answer his questions. I may not have all the answers, but I can find them. At the beach last week, he found a whale-shaped rock. This is now a prominent part of his rock collection.  

Reactions to Health Directives

Once again, our country seems locked into polarized reactions to something that should not be controversial. In this case, it’s health directives. Suddenly, wearing a face mask or not becomes a political statement.

One side says wearing a mask is important for protecting the health of everyone, and the other side says it’s not needed and don’t want to be told to do it.

I’ve heard the statement to act like we have the virus (wear a face mask to protect others) and act like we don’t have the virus (social distance, wash hands, etc.) to protect ourselves. This is what I’m trying to do

Author Events

Needless to say, it’s challenging to have author events currently. My last event was one day of the Left Coast Crime Conference in March. Since then, all events I was scheduled to participate in through May have been cancelled. I have one presentation still on my calendar for June, but doubt that it will take place. I enjoy the opportunity to meet with readers, give presentations and mingle with other writers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be possible for the near term. I have spoken with book groups on conference and Skype calls and may do more of these in the future. We’ll see how things unfold.

What I’ve Learned During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This has been a tough time for all of us. As someone in the at-risk age group, I’ve stayed at home except to go to the food store and take occasional walks. Along the way I’ve learned a number of lessons:

1.      It’s hard to give up old habits. Just before the stay-at-home began, I was doing a speaking event at a library. I had promised myself I would not shake hands with anyone. When I arrived and the librarian greeted me, my first reaction was to stick out my hand. Then I said whoops and pulled it back. After attending one day of the Left Coast Crime Conference before it was cancelled, I had adapted to not shaking hands. It is now a permanent part of my behavior.

2.      Boredom is a challenge to many people stuck at home but it can be dealt with. I thought I would be bored but fortunately it has been the opposite. My wife and I take care of our 4-yeart-old grandson on weekdays while his parents work. This is a full time job and has kept me hopping with Zoom preschool calls for him, playing and inventing new games, reading, doing puzzles, building block creations, using sidewalk chalk. By the end of the day when his parents pick him up, I am tired and have had lots of exercise. We have a break on weekends, and I recharge with reading, walking and napping. During this stay-at-home time, I also wrote and self-published a story titled, Coronavirus Daze about a boy keeping a journal during the pandemic and making an amazing discovery. I have not been bored after the first few days of having to give up pickleball and other activities.

3.      People have different reactions to the pandemic. My son who works in a hospital instilled in me early-on the necessity to stay at home for our protection but also to help flatten the curve because he knew hospitals could be overwhelmed if we allowed the cases to rise too quickly. Other people have the reaction that it’s not going to happen to them and even if they get sick it won’t be very serious.

4.      The pandemic has led to a debate of health versus the economy. Both are important. We need to protect our citizens and have sensible policies and over time we need to take intelligent and planned steps to restart the economy.

5.      We’re all in this together. The pandemic has reinforced the interconnectivity of the world, our local communities and our families. At all levels it provides challenges that we need to think through and address.

Stay healthy.

Maintaining a Schedule During Stay-at-Home

I’ve read comments recently about the importance of maintaining a schedule while we remain in our homes during the Coronavirus pandemic. Here’s how my schedule has evolved. I’m a morning person so I tend to get up between five a.m. and six a.m. anyway. I have my bowl of cereal and orange juice while checking the news, and them I’m ready for activities of the day. First, I do a number of exercises. This routine has resulted from past hip and knee replacement surgeries, as well as needing some light weight work to keep my arms in shape. Then I ride the stationary bike for twenty minutes.

Since my wife and I take care of our four-year-old grandson during the work week, the rest of my day is focused on activities with him. He arrives between 8:30 and 9:30, so my day is filled with building blocks, cars and trucks, art projects, games, stories and indoor adventures. Recently added is three Zoom calls a week with his preschool teacher for online interaction. We also periodically do Zoom calls with his cousins and friends.

During the first month of staying at home, I also carved out time to write my story, Coronavirus Daze, which I reported on in my last post. I wrote this in near real time, a fourteen day journal of a middle school boy during the pandemic. I completed this writing project, got it edited and self-published it as an e-book all within a month.

After our grandson is picked up in the late afternoon, I shower, fix dinner and then we watch movies on television for a while before I crash between 9 pm and 10 pm.

Weekends are my down time. I take an hour walk both days, catch up on reading, and even enjoy a little nap time.

I know many people are suffering from boredom, but I’ve been fortunate to have been kept very busy with this schedule. What has been your experience during the pandemic?

Coronavirus Daze story available free on Amazon Kindle

I’ve published an uplifting and humorous story about a boy keeping a journal during the Coronavirus outbreak titled, Coronavirus Daze.

Tad, a middle school student in Southern California, must deal with the boredom of being stuck at home with his parents during the Coronavirus pandemic and has a life transforming experience when he makes an unexpected discovery. Readers may shed a tear and will certainly have some chuckles as Tad recounts his adventures in a time of chaos and uncertainty.

You can get it on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/2KgFIA3 free beginning Monday April 20, 2020, through Friday April 24 or email me (mikebef@aol.com) and I’ll send you a free copy. If you enjoy this story pass it along to your family and friends.

 

Writing During Coronavirus Times

Many people are complaining about boredom and/or stress during this Coronavirus stay-at-home time. As I’ve posted recently, much of my time has been spent with our four-year-old grandson who has kept me occupied during the workweek.

Over the last few weeks, I have also squeezed in a writing project: a story about a middle school boy who keeps a journal for a school assignment. Stay tuned, as I will let you know when this is available.

Coronavirus Days with a Four-Year-Old

My wife and I take care of our four-year-old grandson during the week while his parents work. This week we’ve had needed rain, but that meant we stayed inside all the time. With that in mind, we’ve been inventing and playing a number of games. Here are a few:

We gave him an empty soap container that is shaped like a fish. He named it RoboFish and then decided that RoboFish needed to move things from his bedroom to the living room. I’d tell him to have RoboFish get a toy, such as a red car, and to go in turbo mode. Then he’d run into the bedroom with RoboFish to retrieve the requested item. He kept this up for half an hour and got a good workout.

We also played balloon volleyball. Sometimes we see how many consecutive times we can hit it in the air before it hits the ground, but this week he wanted to count to a hundred times with the balloon hitting the ground. He was more interested in letting the balloon hit the ground so he could say the next number than in keeping it in the air.

He also put on a birthday party for his police car, and invited other cars to attend. With a cake made out of blocks, he served the pieces of cake and we sang happy birthday.

These were just a few of the activities at Grandma and Grandpa pre-school this week.

Coronavirus Days Continued

In the last two week, I’ve only gone outside to go to the food store and pharmacy and to take walks on the weekend. I look at the food in the refrigerator and calculate how long I can put off going to the store again. There is some risk with each trip, so I want to make as few trips as possible.

Our four-year-old grandson has been a real trooper. He’s with us every weekday, and now he can’t go to preschool to be with his friends. We have done several Zoom calls with his cousins and neighborhood friends to give him a chance to speak with other kids. We have a small sand box in our back patio that he plays in some days, but other than that he’s inside with us. We have a white board easel and erasable markers which he has enjoyed drawing with. Even more than the drawing, he enjoys erasing. This has kept him occupied for hours the last few days. We’ve come up with some new games, treasure hunts and board games. So far so good.

Stay healthy.

Coronavirus Days

My wife and I are staying home during this phase of the Coronavirus pandemic. Our four-year-old grandson is spending the weekdays at our house while his parents work. Last weekend I took walks by myself and maintained the six foot social distance recommendation. Here are a few pictures from my walk.

First, the playground in our neighborhood is closed.

 

Next, the sidewalk says it all:

 

 

Stay safe and healthy.

Socialization and Social Distancing

I’ve been struggling with the dichotomy of socialization and social distancing. My wife and I take care of our four-year-old grandson during the day when his parents are working. Even though our daughter has now started to work from home, she can’t do her job from home and take care of a four-year-old. Our grandson’s preschool has been cancelled for the rest of the month. This was necessary for social distancing, but it is bad for his socialization as he loved being with other kids. He likes his grandparents and we love him, but he also needs to interact with kids his age and not just us. He enjoys play dates with kids in the neighborhood, but this begs the question of social distancing versus socialization.

What are you doing to achieve the balance between socialization and social distancing during the Coronavirus?

Corona Virus and Conferences

I will be at the Left Coast Crime Conference this week unless it is cancelled at the last minute. As of now it is still being held. As the moderator of the Meet the New Authors Breakfast, I have had two of nineteen new authors cancel. On the panel I’ll be participating in, Writing Older Characters, none of the panelists has cancelled. I have given up shaking hands and will be washing my hands regularly.

Final Preparation for The Left Coast Crime Conference

The Left Coast Crime Conference takes place in San Diego from Thursday March 12 through Sunday March 15. I’m in final preparation for several events at the conference.

I have the honor of moderating the Meet the New Authors Breakfast on Friday March 13. This is the thirteenth year of this breakfast event in which new mystery authors speak for one minute on the most important thing readers should know about their debut novel, and I have moderated for twelve of the thirteen years having only missed one for a family commitment. Currently, we have eighteen new authors presenting.

I will be on a panel Friday afternoon on Writing Older Characters, a subject I’m looking forward to since most of my seventeen published books feature older characters.

Also, I will be participating in the Author Speed dating on Thursday morning. Fellow author, James L’Etoile, and I will team up to speak to eighteen tables of readers for two minutes each. We move from table to table during the morning.

In a future post I’ll discuss highlights of the conference.

Book Groups

I belong to three book groups Two of these read a variety of books, and one is a mystery book group for which we each select a book to report on. I have had the opportunity to speak to a number of book groups both in person and through conference calls or Skype calls.

On Thursday March 5, I’ll be speaking to a book group at the Foothills Ranch Library, 27002 Cabriole, Foothills Ranch, CA, at 10:30 am. The title of my presentation is, “Becoming an Author Has No Expiration Date” about my experience starting to write later in life and writing about older characters.

A Story for Our Time

Once upon a time, there was a guy who wanted to be king of his country. He thought he was perfect, and he thought everything he did was perfect, but he also hated people who were different, and he especially hated anyone who disagreed with him. Now in this country, there were three groups of people who supported this guy. One group hated those who were different or felt they had been taken advantage of. A second group comprised rich people getting richer. A third group was made up of people scared they would lose their jobs if they disagreed with this guy. Some other people wanted to limit the power of this guy, but the third group did nothing to prevent this guy from doing whatever he wanted.

What’s the end of this story? Stay tuned for November 2020

Writing Older Characters Panel at The Left Coast Crime Conference

It’s always an honor to be selected for a panel at mystery conferences. I will be on the panel, Writing Older Characters: The Pros and Cons of Writing Senior Sleuths, on Friday, March 13, at The Left Coast Crime Conference (LCC2020) in San Diego. This is one of my favorite topics because the majority of my mystery novels feature older characters. This all began with my first published mystery, Retirement Homes Are Murder, which takes place in a retirement community with a protagonist, Paul Jacobson, who is in his mid-eighties and suffers from short-term memory loss. Even though he can’t remember the day before, he becomes an amateur sleuth and even has a romance with a young chick in her seventies. Thanks to fellow author, Christine Goff who introduced me to the term geezer-lit, I affectionately tag most of my novels as geezer-lit mysteries.

This panel at LCC2020 will be moderated by Rochelle Staab. Rochelle and I have worked together for a number of years to host The Meet the New Authors Breakfast at LCC, The panelists include Barbara Barrett, Janet Finsilver and Lisa Q. Matthews. I look forward to an interesting and entertaining panel.

American Dirt

The recently published book, American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins has created a firestorm of opinions, both positive and negative. Full disclosure. I have not yet read the book. My comments here refer to the reactions to the book and author. My main concern is the author being attacked because she is non-Mexican writing about a Mexican migrant. People rightfully can have widely different reactions to any book. Even the most popular book will receive one-star ratings from some readers. Why? Because all readers are different. The thing I object to is that opposition to this book has reached a level of threats being issued. As a writer, I can appreciate the advice of writing what you know. Equally important is to write what you don’t know. This entails research and learning. Most of my books have male protagonist, but I have also written female protagonists. As a man should I not write about women? No. In my case, I received excellent suggestions from my wife and women in my critique group about improving my female protagonist. Many women mystery writers used to use initials to disguise that they were women authors. I like reading good stories no matter the sex, race or political persuasion of the author. The beauty of fiction writing is to explore characters, situations and stories. Writers should not be chastised for tackling difficult issues and writing characters different than they are. Valid criticism can be given about inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the writing.

Mystery Author Luncheon

I’m honored to be one of the mystery authors who will be on a panel for a luncheon sponsored by the Anaheim, CA, library in April. The moderator is Allison Brennan and the other panelists are Timothy Hallinan and Catriona McPherson. I’m particularly looking forward to this event because Tim, Catriona and I have all written humorous mystery novels among our published books, In preparation, I’ve read books by each of the participants to be current on their writing.

Writers Groups

Since I began writing in 2001, I’ve participated in a number of writers groups. This has included in-person and online critique groups as well as formal organizations such as Rocky Mountain Fictions Writers, Pikes Peak Writers and Northern Colorado Writers, all when I lived in Colorado. I have been an attendee at meeting and conferences as well as a speaker and panel member. It was a result of pitching to an editor at the annual Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference that I sold my first book, Retirement Homes Are Murder.

On Friday, January 31, I will be presenting to the Whittier Writers Workshop here in Southern California. I look forward to answering questions about my writing journey.

Left Coast Crime Conference

This is the time of the year I prepare of one if of my favorite mystery conferences, Left Coast Crime Conference. This year it takes place in San Diego from March 12 through March 15. Typically, 300 to 500 mystery writers and readers attend.

One of my regular activities is to host the Meet the New Authors Breakfast, where this year I have the opportunity to introduce authors who have published their debut mystery novel between Jan. 1, 2019 and March 15, 2020. Each new author will have one minute to tell the audience the most important thing they should know about the debut mystery. So far we have fifteen new authors who will present.

For those of you attending the conference, come enjoy the enthusiasm exhibited by the new authors.

Revisions to a Self Published Book

Sixteen of my books have been published by traditional publishers. Of these, one, The V V Agency, is now self-published after the original publisher went out of business. The Tesla Legacy, a thriller based upon inventions of eccentric genius, Nikola Tesla, was originally self-published. The beauty of self-published books is that the author gets all the royalties and has complete control over the book.

Last fall I taught a fiction writing course through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at California State University at Long Beach. This program is for older adults. I enjoyed the experience of sharing what I have learned about the writing process. A side benefit for me was that one of my students purchased a copy of The Tesla Legacy. It turns out that he is an excellent copy editor and he sent me a number of corrections for the book. Given that this is self-published, I have gone in and made the necessary changes for both the print and e-book editions, a simple process that allows the revised book to be available within days.

Happy New Year

It’s that time of the decade when the faithful argue over what is the start of a new decade. I’m not a purist for either school of thought. More important to me is remembering to write the correct year on checks. (Yes, I still write checks.) We celebrated New Years Eve with our 4-year-old grandson. He and I were both asleep by 9 PM. Have a Happy New Year.