Editors warn book writers not to include current events in works of fiction in progress, because by the time the work is finished the events will likely no longer be current. I am therefore not including anything about pandemics in the Masks story I'm working on. However, I planned months ago to have events in the story which lead to demonstrations against politician and police actions and inaction and those will still be there. There will also be at least one riot. However, all these will be due to events in the story. While those story elements are influenced by real-world factors, those are all long-term matters which will - unfortunately - most likely still be with us long after the story is posted.

Work is slow, in part because I have to do errands for my elderly Mother, who is largely self-isolating these days. Nearly 12k words out of a planned ~50k have been completed.