For Day 20 of the Open Mic Creativity and COVID-19 Special Project, I briefly check in with Chicago-based thriller/mystery author Libby Fischer Hellman, who is definitely taking advantage of the ongoing lockdown to get some work done. Because when you have two books in the works, neither rain nor snow nor pandemic stays a writer from their appointed page count.
OM: How has this pandemic impacted you?
Hellman: It hasn’t affected me all that much. I work from home anyway, and I love to be home. I have to confess that I’m enjoying NOT having to go to the exercise studio, NOT having to go to Starbucks for lattes, and NOT having to meet friends for lunch, dinner or dates. I’m fine.
OM: Has it been hard to maintain your creativity during this time?
Hellman: I’m on deadline for a book coming out in late June, so I can’t afford to be. It’s three-pages-a-day whether I like it or not.
OM: Do you see yourself using anything from all this in a future storyline?
Hellman: Maybe. Who knows?
OM: Anything new you are working on or that is coming out soon?
Hellman: Two things:
— Virtually Undetectable, a short novel in a new series of linked books called High-Tech Crime Solvers, will be out June 26.
— The novel I’ve spent over a year on, “A Bend In The River,” is about two Vietnamese sisters who deal with the Vietnam war in polar opposite ways. This one captured my heart. I’ll bring it out this fall.
