Dear Geist,

If you were an emerging YA romance writer whose first draft was almost finished, and that draft had sparked interest (but not a contract) (yet) from a respectable agent, and the world was suddenly plunged into a raging pandemic, and some high-profile YA authors were rejigging their current storylines, particularly the ones involving intimate touching, would you go back in and revise the romantic details?

—Eeny Meeny, in Cyberspace

Dear Eeny,

In a word, yes. The consensus among health professionals is that we’re not yet out of the pandemic woods, and it may be a long time before we can do any thoughtless touching, romantic or otherwise. We’re guessing that agents, publishers, educators and book buyers are welcoming these changes to young people’s literature.

And will we really miss the immediate touching scenes? Sexual tension without contact is quite compelling and memorable—even more so when life itself is on the line.

—The Editors