Lesley Smith

Locked down Bubbling up Lesley Smith

Short stories and poetry: written by three Irish writers, two living in Wexford and one in Dublin who worked together virtually during the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020. All writing is fictional, some relating to the virus and its effects, others reflecting different topics inspired during the time. Writing the book provided the writers with an escape and they took comfort in the task. We hope it provides insights into a unique time and living during a global pandemic but mostly that it's read and enjoyed in its own right. The topics covered range from love, war memorials, fear, resilience, people coming together, social media, information, running. Some are serious, some funny, some tongue in cheek and some thought-provoking. It hopes to provide both a record of living through the early part of a Pandemic and goes from first understanding to reality setting in, to restrictions and containment phase to Lockdown, partial reopening and then into the second wave. We lived through Lockdown, Re-opening and in October 2020 heading into the second wave lockdown Our second Lockdown with colder weather and grey skies is so different from the first which had blue skies and sun. Fatigue is setting in and we are all hoping for a vaccine or that this will magically disappear. The things we did during lockdown to aid us ranged from baking, walking, running, praying and gardening. It was a strange time and we hope you enjoy the contents of this book. Some Covid 19 related stories, some not but all original stories and poetry from 2020. We hope we have given a clear Irish context. We included quotations in the hope to be inspired ourselves but also to inspire you the reader and also in places to provide the context of what was being said by the Irish government. Other things of major importance were happening at the time that this book was being written, Black Lives Matter, Climate change, USA election, Forest Fires, Planned Brexit but we have not intentionally commented on these in any meaningful way. We hope we have indicated what it is like to be living alone versus living in a family unit during a Pandemic. Enjoy and if you like this please search for other works by the individual authors. We would really appreciate it if you would take the time to write a review. Thank you