Technical Difficulties

So... I did some babysitting last night, and since part of that time would be after the granddaughter’s bedtime, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on this post.

So we played for a while and I put the baby to bed and I set my lap top up on the table and ... ran into some technical difficulties. Namely, with the wireless mouse. I could move it around, I could click on my document file and the cursor would go where I indicated, but I wasn’t able to type in it. I could play solitaire, but it wouldn’t connect to the internet.

I might point out at this juncture that I hate the track pads on lap tops, so the first thing I do is disable it, which is why I didn’t try that instead. Well, that and I only just thought of it now. And also, the way my lap top is set up, every time I start it up I have to make a new connection to the internet, and it takes forever, so normally I just leave my lap top on and let it hibernate when I’m not using it.

So, after changing the battery in the mouse didn’t help, I shut the laptop down completely, deciding to deal with it when I got home. Now obviously a simple re-booting fixed the problem, but it still begs the question of why it happened in the first place. Unfortunately, I’m not techy enough to figure it out.

In the meantime, I’ll be making sure I back everything up just in case it happens again. You do back up your own work, don’t you? Personally, I back up to several different USB keys and once in a while I’ll back everything up to a DVD.

You should always back up to two different sources, just to be on the safe side. The daughter had an external hard drive that she used for backing up and it failed, taking with it four years of documents and pictures. I’ve heard of this happening to others as well.

I’m not sure I absolutely trust the USB keys and DVDs for longevity, but given the daughter’s experience with the external hard drive, I’m not sure that’s the answer either. A lot of people back up via the internet - emailing themselves, using the Cloud or Dropbox, but then of course you have the worry of getting hacked.

I guess the only real solution is to write fast and get published. ;-)

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
3,2142 words total
Down by about 400 words from last week. Apparently I was a little more succinct with my posts. I have to admit though, a couple of them were a bit of a struggle which resulted in a few late nights. I keep saying I’m going to work on them earlier, but I never seem to.

Goodreads Reviews
325 words total
I manage to finish three books in the last couple of weeks - I know there was another one but I didn’t write down and I have no clue what it was. The one I’m currently reading on my Kindle is insanely long, which doesn’t necessarily make for a longer blog post next week - it’s not a particularly good one.

New Ideas
0 words total
Okay, I think I’m going to get rid of this category next week. It’s not that I wouldn’t like some new ideas, it’s more that I just don’t have time for them right now.

Editing
0 pages total
I have to tell you, I didn’t even crack Elemental Earth open last week. Technically there’s no rush, but I’d really like to get it done.

New Words
3,743 words total
Not bad, it was an average of around 500 words a day. This was split more or less evenly between Wandering Wizards and a story I pulled out of mothballs - a slightly humorous romantic fantasy about a magician’s assistant and a real wizard.

This Week’s Goals:
New words on Wandering Wizards
New words on Mercy
Figure out how to start Elemental Spirit
Bonus blog post

Again, I only met half of my goals from last week. While I got a few more words in on Wandering Wizards and I decided to trunk Dreamer for now, I’m no closer to figuring out how to start Elemental Spirit and I still haven’t written that bonus post I was all excited about.

This week’s excerpt is from my new story, Mercy For the Wizard:

Mercedes Latimer stood in front of the full length mirror and took a good look at herself. A sigh escaped before she could prevent it as she took in the full effect of the costume.

The white corset was a shade too tight, barely containing her generous breasts. But the white made a nice contrast to the black bottoms which were cut high on her hips. Instead of the typical fishnet stockings she wore just regular pantyhose, most of which were covered up by thigh high, spike heeled, vinyl boots. Around her neck was a white bowtie and topping her long dark curls was a top hat, set at a jaunty angle.

Taking a couple of steps in the boots she frowned as she wobbled. "Guess I should have taken the time to practice walking in these things." Although she enjoyed wearing high heels, these made her feel like she was walking on tip toe.

She walked across the room and back to the mirror again. "I cannot go out onto the stage looking like this," she said to her reflection. Her reflection seemed to agree.

Mercy, as her friends called her, enjoyed working as a magician's assistant. She loved the excitement and the glamour and she was pretty darned good at it. Granted the Fabulous Fernando was a bit of a tool, but no job was perfect.

Checking her watch she swore under her breath. She'd intended to get to the club early to show Fernando the tricks she'd been working on - she was angling for a bigger role in the show - but if she didn't get a move on she was going to be late.

Giving her reflection one last scowl, she picked up the tuxedo jacket that completed the outfit, brushing a stray piece of lint off of the tails and shrugging it on.

Not only were the boots uncomfortable to walk in, the vinyl was incredibly hot. She was going to be a mess by the end of the night.

"What the hell?"

There was some kind of blue smoke in her living room. Before she went into full panic mode, she gave an experimental sniff. She couldn't smell anything, it was more like a blue fog than smoke, but where was it coming from?

Turning in a circle, she frowned. The fog seemed to be spinning with her. No, it was spinning faster and faster around her. Mercy felt buoyant, weightless. All she could see around her was the blue fog and it was getting denser.

Mercy opened her mouth to scream as the whole world shifted.