Can you ‘write’ rollercoaster of COVID? A book awaits.
Author Lynda Simmons is asking for stories of the pandemic for book called “Writing the Rollercoaster”
I don’t think anyone would question that THE story of the past 12 months has been the pandemic.
That’s saying a lot, given it’s a period which also saw the United States, a fairly notable world power, sit up startled on Jan. 6, like Tweety Bird on its perch, and say, “I taut I taw a coup d’état!”
No, COVID-19 has made a bigger splash than even that. It has run through everyone’s lives, all over world (and here, too), ongoingthe ly, not so much like a freight train, Lynda Simmons might say, as a roller-coaster. It has left us (when we’re not screaming or throwing up) comparing rides, telling tales of the ups and downs, debriefing ourselves and recounting the passing scenery ... and vaccine-ry.
It is so top of mind and tip of tongue for almost everyone that Lynda thought, “Let’s bottle that.”
So, on the strength of a Burlington Community Support Foundation grant and help from the Burlington Public Library, she has put out a call for stories which she is assembling into a book — stories, from everyday people in Burlington and area, about their experiences and histories with COVID-19, both lighthearted, inspiring, heavy and in between.
Lynda, writer, teacher, author of more than seven novels including “Charmed I’m Sure,” has already eceived many submissions. She would like many more. In connection with the project, which is called “Writing the Rollercoaster,” she is putting on writer workshops at the BPL to help people shape their COVID stories.
Fifty of the submissions will make it into the book, which she expects/ hopes to come out in the spring. The 50 will all be professionally edited.
She would like stories, she says, “from all age groups and every corner of this city. A moment that made your heart soar or break, things lost and found, lessons learned about yourself and others, whatever has shaped your view of the pandemic, giving you hope or stealing it, telling your story helps make sense of everything you’ve been through. Sharing it gives others assurance that they are not alone in what they’re feeling.”
The workshops, Lynda explains, are done by Zoom through the library and can accommodate up to about 15 participants at a time. There have already been two and more upcoming.
“There are wait lists already,” she says, encouraged by the interest in the project. Coverage of “Writing the Rollercoaster” on Global TV with Susan Hay certainly gave it a boost, Lynda adds.
The book will come out as a trade paperback and also as an ebook.
“I’m hoping to make it a little jewel of a thing,” a lasting souvenir of a moment/moments in history. “Moments that made us laugh and made us cry.”
She says people can submit short stories, poetry, even plays — they can be written alone or collaboratively and even anonymously.
Lynda Simmons has been published by Penguin, Kensington, Harlquin and more. She has been a writing instructor at Sheridan College and Ryerson University for more than 20 years.
There is also a children’s/young person component to “Writing the Rollercoaster,” edited and led by Burlington author, Sylvia McNicoll.