Burn-It-Down Fever Dreams

At last, after two and a half years of dread and anguish, it is my family's turn to wrestle with the corona! It's hot. It's extra. It's unhealthy. It's miserable. Kinda like a bourgeois boor from a Luchino Visconti film, which turns out to be the perfect accompaniment to a Covid fever. Molto bene! Also recommended: anything by Federico Fellini. You don't have to follow the plot at all, just behold the Dante's-inferno-themed-bordello vibe sets!

It's such a relief that we made it through the pandemic to the point when our whole family could be fully vaccinated and boosted. After that, I managed to hold a couple of outdoor author events at local bookstores before pulling back on committing to in-person events again as infections surged through our area. 

After that surge eased up, I refocused my priorities on having a fun summer with my family and getting out there to do things we had put on hold for years, like a little bit of traveling, going out to restaurants, and visiting with a wider circle of friends, family, and acquaintances.

We completed all the best things on our summer bucket list before the virus took us down like a Lake Michigan boulder to the kneecap on a windy day. Brutal, but worth it!

My daughter and I are on track to achieve super immunity just in time for the start of the new school year, which is awfully convenient. 

Once I recover fully, I might even gather up the courage to try to organize at least one more in-person event to promote my books and simultaneously support another local bookstore while the weather still permits outdoor events.

Right now, though, all I can do is lie around and let the fever burn out all my years-long pandemic anxiety and dread, which I hope will feel like a superb mental cleanse when it's over. 

I just need to be careful about how hard I laugh at the tears of Visconti's self-sabotaging Italian noblemen. I have to admit that it's kind of fun to feel a little bit stupid and easily amused for once. I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.

🔥🔥🔥

Jean Michelle Miernik is the author of literary fever dreams Leirah and the Wild Man and The Grove of Thorismud.