Time To Write

I looked at my writing log--the place where I record my goal totals for the day and actual words written--and saw that there have been nine days this month when I wrote nothing at all. Not good. I'll never reach my goal at this rate. Besides all the distractions there have been lately in my personal life, the internet and the social media are just too much of a temptation for this recluse to while away valuable time each day. So, I've decided to unplug until I get this book finished. I call it a book and it isn't even that yet and won't be unless I stick to the program.

Happy writing, all! See you on the other side.

Devon

Evil Computer Is Back

Yes, he's back and in fine form today.

The day started off fine. More than fine. We got the very good news that our house closing is scheduled for Wednesday. We haven't bought a new house, it's the same old one we've lived in for the past twenty-two years. We're just refinancing at less than half the interest rate we're paying now, which means lower monthly payments. Yay! And even with the lower payments, the term of the loan is the same as the remainder of the original, which means the house will be ours, OURS in just a few more years. But I get ahead of myself.

So, the morning started off great. What with the house news and our recent adoption having gone so smoothly, I was beginning to think maybe our rotten luck had started to turn. After hubby went to work this early afternnon, I came in here and sat down at the keyboard, jazzed to write. Yes, things were looking up!

I read through a few paragraphs I'd written yesterday to bring myself up to speed on where I left off, stopping now and then to change a word or add a line. I got to where I stopped last outing and I continued with the story. The writing was going fine, smooth even. I was making progress, getting the words down in the manuscript. Then, BLINK. My screen goes to black. The air stops running and an unearthly silence settles around me. But not before I hear the boom of a transformer blowing up somewhere down the road.

After a few choice words, I got up and set about doing something to pass the time, cause I got a bad feeling about this. And what is there to do when the lights are off except, ewww, housework. Resigned to waiting, I folded some towels and loaded hubby's lunch dishes into the dishwasher. After an hour, I ended up sitting in my armchair, staring out the window to see if I could spot the Jackson Energy truck.

The electric finally came back on at about a quarter til eight tonight. First thing I did was rush in here and boot up the computer to see if the additions to my document survived. They didn't. Vanished. The document looked the same as it did when I opened it earlier today. I thought Word had an autosave feature. In fact, I know it does, but it sure didn't save my work today. Must go check those settings.

I guess this is my comeuppance for bragging just yesterday to someone about how meticulous I am about saving my work.

Devon

p.s. - I just went and changed my setting in Word to autosave every 5 minutes.

Social Media and Politics

I'm straying from my comfort zone for this post but I feel this needs to be addressed. Actually, it should never have to be addressed. You'd think people would have a clue by now. Social media and politics, they just don't mix.

I'm sure it's been said thousands of time, but let me repeat it just once more. If you're an author, or any person who depends on the general public to buy your product, please don't get on a public forum like Facebook and spout off a bunch of political crap. Here's the thing. No matter what your political views are, no matter which way you swing, you're bound to piss off roughly half the people who see your message.

I have very strong political views. I keep abreast of what's going on in the political theater (and lately it's come down to that). I don't need or want to see posts from my "friends" that hit my buttons seven ways from Sunday. During the past several days, it's been especially bad for some reason. Maybe because we've had so much flirting with catastrophe during the past two weeks. If I want to know what's going on in the world of politics, I watch the news and I turn to my favorite political pundits, knowing they'll bring me up to speed. I go to Facebook to wind down, hopefully see a cute video or get a laugh from some comment. The last thing I want to see is a post from a friend that makes me not only question her intelligence, but also her sanity. It isn't funny, people. And please stop jumping on the latest, loudest bandwagon that shows up on the radar. Use your head. This is our future you're rolling the dice with.

End of rant. But let me end by saying that I came close to deleting a couple of people from my friends list today. I really didn't want to do that. Then I found that if you hover your mouse over the right hand side of their posts, you can "hide" them. Voila! Problem solved.

Peace,

Devon