I've been trying my best to stay out of twitter kerfluffles. Who has the energy?

Yet, I've been mulling something for days, and I think it's important we talk about romancing a pandemic.

Specifically, is it okay to monetize tragedy?

I know some folks will have a kneejerk answer. Whether it's an emphatic NO or a YES.

But it's not that simple. If it was, especially in my generation, there would never be a single story that ever mentioned or referenced 9/11.

There would never be stories about the enslaved.

There wouldn't be stories about the holocaust. Mass shootings. Rape. Domestic abuse. You get the gist.

But can someone write something and be absolutely exploitive? Yes. *gestures to Jefferson/Sally "romance"*

For some, there will never be the right time to tell these stories, especially if it's written in a ham-fisted way, which is kind insult to injury.

For some, it will be a safe way they can cope.

What I think is being missed is that we jokingly keep saying "In the Before Times"

Here's an example: I grew up on movies with the airport rom-com run.

It's strange because you simply can't do that now. You can't because 9/11 happened. Try to run past security to inside the airport where the gates are and get tased.

Reality has a direct impact on art. Most times it's a ripple and sometimes that may only be felt by a subset of people.

This pandemic is going to be a tsunami.

Many writers may not write a pandemic romance, but a first kiss is going to have a whole hell lot more impact.

Can you, right now, imagine kissing a stranger? Just because they made your loins tingly?

Even if we've flattened the curve, gotten some vaccines out in the world...I know I'm going to hesitate.

There will be a lot more romances about the pandemic. Even if it's just an excuse to have them "snowed in." There will be stories about ppl dealing w/unimaginable grief who had to do it alone. Who couldn't/didn't get to say goodbye.

It will be dark or fluff.

These stories will be written, for some, much too soon. Or way too late because you are tired of hearing about the time the world stopped. Or thinking about it gives you anxiety so you damn sure don't want to read it in your escapism.

We're never going to know a time before the pandemic. It's gone. It's going to seep into art. Be it the way you have to buy a plane ticket to make that airport rom-com run.

Or deciding to write an ordinary nurse in a small town who now has PTSD.

So...food for thought.