The month of April has brought showers and storms in our area that brought down a number of old pine trees. We had our tree which was over 70 years old, get blown down with straight line winds. It took out the telephone pole in our backyard, snapping it in half, impaling the transformer in a shed and catching the neighbor’s grass on fire. My wheelbarrow was completely flat, half buried under the trunk. This happened on a Friday night and we were without power until Monday night, and without internet until Tuesday.

When things like this happen you go into a survival mode. A hundred questions swirling in your head about keeping safe (power lines everywhere, fire) and about damage, keeping warm, lighting up the house, losing all of the food in the fridge and freezer, the list goes on. 

This has me thinking about when you write characters in crisis. They respond to a crisis differently depending on who they are. Some take charge, doing the necessary things to protect and respond. Some spiral out of fear, become frozen, not sure what to do. Others help but need to be told what to do. 

It wasn’t quite the zombie apocalypse, but I feel like we went through an experience as a family. Trying to keep warm and living with a teenager deprived of wifi for three days was definitely something to remember. 

Our next meetup is April 15th 1:30 at the Oregon Library. Keep writing, hope you can join us soon!

The next screening of Old West End is at the Adrian Film Festival April 22nd at the Croswell Opera House in downtown Adrian, Michigan.