Business has started to tentatively reopen, but there is no end in sight to the covid crisis and the economic fallout has barely begun. Like millions of others, my professional future is deeply uncertain, but I will keep pursuing passion projects like music and writing regardless.
Output
My short story ‘Celeb’ will appear in an anthology by the Manchester-based Comma Press in the coming weeks. It will be my first published work of fiction to have no China connection. And the novel ‘Far from Strangers’ has nearly come to the end of another draft. I will be formally submitting it by the autumn.
I have also started trying my hand at sketch-writing. I have some scripts that I am happy with but will not be able to properly get going until outdoor gatherings are in full swing.
This month there are two new songs on YouTube, one Chinese
And one English
The latter mentions the late great Jack Charlton.
Activities
I am now a regular host on the Meetup app, a platform for finding kindred spirits. There is the Socially Awkward Sing-Song, which is held three times a month. And there is also the Mandarin Club, which I have just founded.
I am also trying t be as disciplined as possible in humour writing, but have little to show for it so far.
Wider World
This month I have been drafting an essay on-and-off that was set to take in the American election, China, Black Lives Matter, and other key issues of the day. It was more for the sake of getting my own bearings than for actual publication.
The most mentally unstable and morally unscrupulous man to have held the United States presidency since Andrew Jackson could be removed at the turn of the year. The only institution that can do this is the Democratic Party, an organisation that has fallen under the influence of a range of intellectually mediocre ideas, from ‘white fragility’ to what psychologist Gad Saad has called the DIE (diversity, inclusion, and equity) religion. In under a decade, these have gone from the fringes of academia to mainstream society.
It seems to be widely agreed now that Joe Biden is the favourite to win this November. The planned essay will not mention him at all, because, for all his faults, the fact that he is not lucifer is ample qualification.
Kevin McGeary 