I get the New Yorker’s Daily Humor email. I started getting this mid-pandemic and it provides a measure of comic relief every day. Plus a rabbit hole of other things to read. A recent email was a good example. It started with “A Lexicon for the Late Pandemic” with new vocab like (I suffer from these):

• P.C.S.D. (post-covid stress disorder): The nightmare we will have for the rest of our lives: you’re walking down the street when you suddenly realize that you’re naked, but it’s just your face.
• Covalgia: Nostalgia for certain aspects of the pandemic—e.g., reduced traffic, more birds, fewer mass shootings, no office birthday parties. Specifically for me – working from home – I love, love, loved it.

There are others, but we’re about writing. So at the bottom of this post under More Humor, I found a link to How Dating During a Pandemic Is Like Being in a Jane Austen Novel. Okay, not about writing, but most of us can appreciate this. So how is dating like being in a Jane Austen Novel? There are more than just these, but these are my favorites:

• It’s a long, drawn-out affair, composed of public meetings.
• The main characters lead quiet domestic lives.
• You regularly inquire about the health of each other’s family members.
• Strict manners and customs of the day, built around a moral duty to society, dictate your interactions and lead to amusing mishaps.
• Includes many brisk walks.
• Gossip helps edify listeners by determining what is and isn’t acceptable, and who has violated social conventions and decorum.
• Romantic encounters are very weather-dependent.

The recent spate of Jane Austen fan fiction can now take a big step back to the future. If there were to be a Jane Austen fanfic piece now, you could just change their names, give them cell phones and computers, have a couple zoom dates instead of tea in the parlor, and done.

Has anyone heard of new pandemic romantic fiction hitting the shelves?