February 26, 2026 has been circled on my calendar for quite a while. On that date is the Tasting with Friends at Benham’s Grove, a site in Centerville that is willing to host a group of local authors and a wine tasting. My books were ready, my signs were ready, and I was ready, or so I thought.

I woke up  Wednesday with abnormal pain in my hips. Since I’d had a scratchy throat and drippy nose for two days, I tested myself for Covid. And voila—the test was positive.

So I made another sign that read:

SORRY TO MISS YOU!

I regret to inform you that instead of appearing at this lovely author event in person, I will be appearing in spirit. And by “spirit,” I mean on my couch, wrapped in a blanket, aggressively hydrating and muttering about viral load.

Yes. I have COVID.

I initially assumed my symptoms were menopause doing what menopause does best: reinventing discomfort. Fatigue? Obviously hormones. Brain fog? Please. That’s just Tuesday now. Flushed face? I’ve been blaming that on estrogen since 2021. When the abnormal hip pain started, I thought, “Ah. A new and creative flourish.” It wasn’t until I tested positive that I realized this was not, in fact, a bold new chapter in hormonal chaos, but an actual infectious disease.

At this point, distinguishing between menopause and COVID feels like one of those logic puzzles:

If a woman is flushed, exhausted, can’t find her glasses (which are on her head), and is irrationally annoyed by the sound of someone chewing—

Is it a virus?
Is it declining estrogen?
Is it both?

Yes.

So while I am devastated to miss this gathering, I am taking this as a reminder that even authors occasionally need to lie down dramatically and let their immune systems handle the plot twist.

In the meantime: Wash your hands, get some rest, and if you’re a woman of a certain age, just go ahead and take the test. It might not be menopause this time. And feel free to buy a book!

All the best,
Christina Consolino (writing as Nika Stewart,
protagonist of The Marriage Debt)

Then I crawled into bed and took a nap.

Image of So Sorry by Alexas_Fotos at Pixabay.com.