Like millions of other people, I suddenly find myself working from home.
You’d think this was no change from the usual since I’m an author, and you’d be correct in assuming I’ve always done the bulk of my writing at home. It’s a major shift nonetheless. For one thing, I have a day job as a university professor, but now I’m teaching from my house rather than on campus. For another, I usually travel a lot, and I write when I do, but now of course my calendar has been cleared. And the other change is that now my entire family is also working and studying at home with me.
In some ways this has been really difficult. We all have varying schedules, and it can be hard when one person is participating in class via Zoom while another is nearby trying to concentrate. My husband’s job requires him to get up at 6am, while I prefer to do my writing in the wee hours, and one of my daughters—who has mostly night classes this semester—is nearly nocturnal and also tends to bake late at night (although we’re out of flour and having trouble finding more, so that’s on hold for the time being).
The interruptions and distractions are also an issue. I’ve been recording lectures via Zoom, and although I have a nice room to lock myself in, things still happen. To date, my lectures have been interrupted because:
- My husband turned off the power and thus the wifi
- My husband started drilling on the other side of the wall
- My daughter, whose bathroom is above my study, took a shower
- The neighbor, who’s rebuilding his fence, used a saw right at the property line
- The neighbors’ dogs barked a lot
- My cat got locked in with me, walked back and forth in front of my camera, and then got in a fight with her reflection in the mirror
- The weekly yard service guys arrived with a leaf-blower
- The Roomba started up
- My husband banged things in the laundry room, which is adjacent to my study
Don’t get me wrong. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have two jobs I can continue from the safety of my home, and I’m grateful to have my family with me—and to have a big house. I’m also lucky to live literally at the edge of town, with orchards and fields as my neighbors, which means I can take long walks without too much worry about social distancing.
Still, I haven’t found this the easiest atmosphere in which to work. And the general sense of uncertainty and existential dread isn’t helping anyone either. I’m doing my best, though, because what else can we do?
What adjustments have you had to make to our new reality?
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Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.
After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.
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