Writing at any time can be daunting, sometimes rewarding, sometimes eminently frustrating. But what about writing in a pandemic with all the accompanying social, economic, political, and weather distractions in addition to health concerns?

The Daily Dragon asked authors participating in the first virtual Dragon Con how they faced and survived these particular challenges and kept on writing—or not.

Daily Dragon (DD): Dr. Charles E. Gannon’s ending makes a good introduction to his interview response which fell outside of the specific questions posed (but answered them nonetheless)—

Charles E. Gannon: If you can or want to use any of [this], please feel free. But it seemed to be wide of the kind of experience that you were hoping to show up in the interview questions—

Actually, I just don’t have anything to report. Not related to the pandemic anyhow. In fact, if anything, the pandemic made me far more productive, because all the time that usually gets consumed by traveling to cons did not occur, and I didn’t have to manage all the details of ticketing and hotel arrangements and et cetera.

Also, with schools shut down and the kids learning at home, that actually meant fewer time costs because there was no shoveling them back-and-forth to doctors or events or games or all that stuff. So I was able to work with far more focus then my home life usually allows me to do.

And although I really like being around people, I also really like my own time. I did not suffer the least bit of isolation or any psychological effect from working at home. This is probably assisted because I have a studio that is separate from the actual house, so I’m not always underfoot and can get my own space and privacy. But, in general, it just reconfirmed my self-assessment that while I am in no way an introvert, I really don’t find isolation and a socially restrictive environment difficult. In fact, I really enjoyed the amount of focus I was able to devote to my work during this period of time.

The only difficult thing was that the pandemic and its stresses on the medical system made it very difficult when we had a dear family friend who wound up having to be quarantined with us because she could not go back to New York. She died in hospice here. That was difficult because the normal support mechanisms that are usually quite available in the community were simply not to be had and it was a pretty tough go.

DD: Charles E. Gannon’s latest and pending releases are:

• June: Marque of Caine, mass market reprint
• July: At the End of the World (Black Tide Rising)
• November: 1637: No Peace Beyond the Line
• November: Murphy’s Lawless (Caineverse)
• March 2021: At the End of the World (Black Tide Rising)
• March 2021: 1636: Calabar’s War

Read more about Charles E. Gannon, his writing, and his fictional worlds at www.charlesegannon.com.