I bought a new computer several months ago. I was sharing one with my three kids and my youngest had this really bad habit of deleting everything. After he had done this twice to my current WIP, I figured it would be easier to have a computer for just my writing. No games to tempt the children allowed on it. It would be my own personal computer (like the other was before the kids discovered it.) It is the greatest idea I've had in a long time. A long time, like the last time I bought a computer.
I had been typing away on Microsoft Works Word Processor. I knew how to do nothing on it but type. If I needed formatting done, I was on the phone with my sister while she talked me through it. And then I got my new computer!!! It was love. No more calling my sister to format, because Word was so easy to use. No more wondering, 'Did I save that before closing it?', because Word automatically saved it for me. I was in love. I was in heaven. I wrote the complete first draft of my current wip on Word in three months. Please, remember that three month comment, because it is important.
I started revising my wip. I wrote up my synopsis' on Word and saved them. Heck, I was so in love with Word, I transferred all of my wips to it! Halfway into my revisions, as in I was on page 216, I log on one morning, open my book and HELLO! what is this message? I am using a trial version of Word, not the full. Oh, okay. So I click the button to go to their homepage and get a product number to make it a full version. (Let me interrupt here to tell you all that I am a tightwad. There is always someone in my family (hello, Sis) making fun of me for my motto, If it ain't on sale, I don't need it.) I about died. They wanted a lot for this kit, just so I could have Word to write on. Hmm, no thank you, I say. I have yet to sale a book and this was just an expense I couldn't justify to myself. I wrote on Works for years, I could go back to it and finish there. WRONG.
So, I pop open my wip. It comes up with the link to Word, wanting me to buy it. Not happening, I say. So I decide, and even told my crit group, that I would just retype everything into Works and work on it there. Unfortunately, everything I saved, went to Word format. I could not work on anything. So, being the genius that I am not, I decide Word is the problem and need to get rid of it. I removed the program off of the computer. For all of you out there wondering, this was a BIG mistake. Because my documents were made by Word, I could no longer access them. At all.
I cried. I raged. I was deciding to give up writing altogether because if I am dumb enough to screw up typing, I don't need to be doing it. As I am sitting there staring forlornly at my document folder, planning the post to my group that the resident idiot has shot herself in the foot one too many times, my 12 year old daughter walks over, looks over my shoulder, and says, "Open it in Wordpad, Mom."
I gape at her. "What? What in the (deleted) is Wordpad?"
She rolls her eyes, tells me to move and proceeds to open all of my documents up in this mysterious Wordpad. I am happy, until I have to format. I ask daughter, she shrugs, "I don't know what format means." I pull the earbuds out of older sons ears and ask him. "God, Mom, just buy the program." And sticks the earbuds back in. Hubby arrives home, well, he is no help because he knows less about computers than me. But he catches on to my current mood and demands that I just buy the (deleted) program so the family can have some peace and quiet. Humph. I slink off to the computer and go to ebay, surely I can buy it cheaper there. Two weeks of auctions, and I am still losing every one of them. I finally broke down and go to Amazon. I ended up paying the same price as Microsoft, BUT that included shipping. So, I feel like I got a deal, even though all I done was stress everyone around me out for three weeks and ended up paying the equivalent of the full price for the download.
So, I am back to revising. I now own Word, which I am back in love with. Oh, and I discovered that I can scrapbook in PowerPoint (thanks to my kids, who totally freaked out when they discovered it was on the disk), so I am currently loving spending my evenings relaxing and making cute layouts on the computer. Not sure where they go when I save them, but I am sure I can talk one of the kids into telling me. Someday.
Do any of you miss the days of the typewriter? During this past month, I often found myself wishing that I had kept my old electric typewriter, I knew how to work it.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
A Tribute to My Mom
This post is all about Patsy McGlothlin, my mom.
Things I associate with Mom. Jontue perfume. Whenever I smell this perfume, I think of Mom. She has worn this perfume from earliest memory and continues wearing it to this day. I recall my sister giving her a different perfume one year, and I believe it was an expensive bottle, but I know for a fact that it is still sitting, unused, on her bathroom counter alongside a nearly empty bottle of Jontue.
Reading I have always associated with Mom. She taught me to read on a book of mouse stories, which influenced one of the greatest activities I do with my own kids. The mouse lies on the ground and stares at the clouds, seeing pictures in it. I can remember reading that story and making my Mom come outside and picture clouds with me. And when my kids were little we done the same thing, with my mom right beside of us staring up at the sky.
Cooking is always something I associate with Mom, after all she had five kids and it seemed to me that she was always cooking. Imagine my surprise when just a mere few months ago, I mentioned to her how much I hate cooking and she told me that she did too! But, Mom, I sputtered, you were always cooking. Yes, and you kids were always hungry, she replied. I sat there after the phone conversation thinking, How simple. She never complained about the hours in front of the stove (people in this house would love it if I took that gene from her, but I complain long and loud over hating to cook), and I reached the ripe old age of 35 before she ever said a word about not liking it, let alone hating it as passionately as I do. Amazing.
Niceness has always been an intergral part of my mom. She raised two handicapped daughters and taught the other three of us to not only tolerate, but to accept everyone for who and what they are. She was the mom in the Ford Escort with her own five kids, and numerous additions of the neighbors, taking us to cheerleading, football, Special Olympics, and various other activities. With a smile, singing along with the music on the radio, which was loud by neccessity and settling arguments that were bound to break out in an Escort full of teenage kids. And the only kid she ever forgot to pick up was me. She had the neighbors kids all home when I called and asked her if she forgot anyone. You could hear the confusion in her voice when she asked where I was. At school, I answered. What are you doing there? she asked. Waiting to go home, I said. She laughed, even if I wasn't amused and still won't let her forget it.
Strength of character comes to mind after that post, because the good Lord knows she had every reason not to be nice. She was abused. Some of my earliest memories are of the beatings my own dad inflicted on her. Her second marriage wasn't much better, except the abuse was mental instead of physical, which in some ways I think was harder to deal with. But she didn't let that make her mean and violent, she always encouraged and loved us and I think that says more about my Mom than anything ever could. She is a survivor. She survived life and I believe she has come through with flying colors. I pray that I come through it as well as she has.
Mom, I love you. You've been the one sure thing in my life and my biggest supporter in all things and words can never tell you how much I love and respect everything about you. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
Things I associate with Mom. Jontue perfume. Whenever I smell this perfume, I think of Mom. She has worn this perfume from earliest memory and continues wearing it to this day. I recall my sister giving her a different perfume one year, and I believe it was an expensive bottle, but I know for a fact that it is still sitting, unused, on her bathroom counter alongside a nearly empty bottle of Jontue.
Reading I have always associated with Mom. She taught me to read on a book of mouse stories, which influenced one of the greatest activities I do with my own kids. The mouse lies on the ground and stares at the clouds, seeing pictures in it. I can remember reading that story and making my Mom come outside and picture clouds with me. And when my kids were little we done the same thing, with my mom right beside of us staring up at the sky.
Cooking is always something I associate with Mom, after all she had five kids and it seemed to me that she was always cooking. Imagine my surprise when just a mere few months ago, I mentioned to her how much I hate cooking and she told me that she did too! But, Mom, I sputtered, you were always cooking. Yes, and you kids were always hungry, she replied. I sat there after the phone conversation thinking, How simple. She never complained about the hours in front of the stove (people in this house would love it if I took that gene from her, but I complain long and loud over hating to cook), and I reached the ripe old age of 35 before she ever said a word about not liking it, let alone hating it as passionately as I do. Amazing.
Niceness has always been an intergral part of my mom. She raised two handicapped daughters and taught the other three of us to not only tolerate, but to accept everyone for who and what they are. She was the mom in the Ford Escort with her own five kids, and numerous additions of the neighbors, taking us to cheerleading, football, Special Olympics, and various other activities. With a smile, singing along with the music on the radio, which was loud by neccessity and settling arguments that were bound to break out in an Escort full of teenage kids. And the only kid she ever forgot to pick up was me. She had the neighbors kids all home when I called and asked her if she forgot anyone. You could hear the confusion in her voice when she asked where I was. At school, I answered. What are you doing there? she asked. Waiting to go home, I said. She laughed, even if I wasn't amused and still won't let her forget it.
Strength of character comes to mind after that post, because the good Lord knows she had every reason not to be nice. She was abused. Some of my earliest memories are of the beatings my own dad inflicted on her. Her second marriage wasn't much better, except the abuse was mental instead of physical, which in some ways I think was harder to deal with. But she didn't let that make her mean and violent, she always encouraged and loved us and I think that says more about my Mom than anything ever could. She is a survivor. She survived life and I believe she has come through with flying colors. I pray that I come through it as well as she has.
Mom, I love you. You've been the one sure thing in my life and my biggest supporter in all things and words can never tell you how much I love and respect everything about you. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Firsts
Today I feel as if I am actually making headway on becoming an author. In a weird way. I got my first rejection from an agent and although I should probably be disappointed, I'm not. I am actually pretty excited to get it. It was my first query and I know that it stunk and they probably rolled their eyes and said, "God, save us from such enthusiastic amatuers." But I thought the rejection was very polite and it made me feel goood that I had actually tried.
Also today, I mailed out my first contest submission. I should have tried entering contests before submitting, I believe, but I never really knew they were out there. No one's fault but my own as everything is on the internet and you just need to find it. I really need to thank my critique group for this one. They read, and reread, and reread again for me as I switched this and changed that. What a great bunch of Ladies to have in my corner!
While both of those things probably aren't big steps, to me they are. I am showing myself that I am dedicated to this and striving for it. So, I look forward to the next rejection letter. And the next. After that, I might start to get discouraged. Have any of you made any small steps lately that felt like giant leaps forward?
Also today, I mailed out my first contest submission. I should have tried entering contests before submitting, I believe, but I never really knew they were out there. No one's fault but my own as everything is on the internet and you just need to find it. I really need to thank my critique group for this one. They read, and reread, and reread again for me as I switched this and changed that. What a great bunch of Ladies to have in my corner!
While both of those things probably aren't big steps, to me they are. I am showing myself that I am dedicated to this and striving for it. So, I look forward to the next rejection letter. And the next. After that, I might start to get discouraged. Have any of you made any small steps lately that felt like giant leaps forward?
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