“[During the pandemic] my older themes have been coming back into my work” (artist Eddie Martinez, The New York Times). That’s not true for me as a writer. However, I’ve always been drawn to writing about the elderly, due in part to growing up with my grandmother and also working as a Junior Red Cross volunteer at a “home for the aged and infirm” in high school. This year’s losses from COVID-19 have spurred reflections on aging and mortality. I started a new novel set in an old age home in the 1960s. Although the idea has been percolating for a while, I believe the pandemic made me choose to write this book now. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.
