Recommended: Pro Writing Software

I love MS Word.

This love comes out because I just endured several days of Mac people bashing MS / pc people as if the Apple world is divine.

It's good. Sometimes it's even great. Divine? Nyah.

Try 25 years with MS Word.

First "computer" I ever used for word processing had DOS. Remember DOS? DIR to find your files. C: and the blinking cursor on a black screen. Yeah. Those days.

Then came Windows! And the world never looked back.

I’ve used MS Word about 25 years and changed as it changed. Mac, didn’t love so much in the early days. Once I shifted to pc, I never returned to Mac (except for the iPhone, which I hate for its planned obsolescence [which intuitive spelling keeps changing to “insolence”—is that telling me something?] and box-tight control of what it wants me to do.)

Over the years with Microsoft and other electronic devices I learned to avoid the shiny new and wait for later iterations. I avoided Vista and all of its crashes. Since I had to buy a new system around ‘10, I jumped past that issue. Not having Vista on the system prevented the crashes that most people had with it that continued to 8.

I also learned, from watching people trying to bring work from home that wasn’t compatible with the work software programs as well as listening to people complain, that anything labeled “Home” wasn’t worth the price. I’ve purchased professional- or work-level software from that point.

You get what you pay for. 

Last year, with all the viruses and malware and ransom ware and more that was going on, I took a hard look at keeping my security and programs updated. That’s the primary reason that I subscribed to Windows Office 365. I didn’t want the constant hassle.

I’m not a lover of any big corporate entity. I hate monopolies. I hate algorithms that try to shove me into one box when I’ve got fingers in 10 different ones and toes into a few others. But MS treats its products and customers professionally, and that’s what I want. (And I certainly don’t want any entity adding things I didn’t ask for—the way Apple added that U2 album without my permission to iTunes on my computer.) 

I can make Word and PowerPoint do pretty much everything I ask them to do. It’s easy to flip between the programs using the task bar at the bottom of the screen. I lust after those widescreen monitors that allow two screens (3! even) to be open at once. But I’m too thrifty to add the monitor when my magnified glasses and laptop work fine 

.

Remember Windows 3.1.0.2? Loved that program. Loved the mouse interface that beat keyboard commands (CTRL + C). Loved the advent of wysiwyg printers (what you see is what you get).

Change is always happening. Who said that? Herodotus?

Okay. Rant over. Only it’s more like the homily for the day. :) 

Incredible

August is never a month that I love.

It's still summer. I really hate the heat.

It was formerly the start of the school year. I worked as a teacher for 29.88888 years and was imprisoned in a classroom for 12 + 4 then 3 more getting my master's degree.  I really, really didn't want to be there.

About halfway through my teaching career I stumbled upon Alice in Wonderland. Yes, I know.

I had read snippets from Lewis Carroll's famous book for years. I've seen the cute Disney version. (NOT the one ruined by Johnny Depp. Sorry if I have offended his fans. I don't find him aesthetically pleasing.) I did indeed like the cute Disney version.

But I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s.  It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It was filled with so many truths about life--disguised cleverly.

Here's one that guides me still and certainly for many years of check-box evaluations and students who like me didn't want to be there (and as you read, substitute insane for mad):

"But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here."

So here we are, and occasionally I still feel like Alice among the mad people, especially when I'm working my volunteer desk and the phone is ringing off the hook and people are coming in and more people act like they want to talk to me and I don't want to talk and--well. "We're all mad here." I mean, it's madness.  The mountains are 30 minutes away, and I'm sitting behind a desk?

But--.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." That's Sharon Begley, a former science editor for Newsweek magazine and likely much much more than that, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Because--

The important thing is that the incredible is right before us. It's God. It's all of his creation. It's the miracle of Christ, in his sacrifice and his resurrection. It's the joy of living. It's people.

And people offer the incredible with every word, every smile. Just like the miracles of nature and family that loves you no matter what and babies being born and little dogs with huge hearts and words that come when you think all the ideas have died and oh so very much.

"Something Incredible."

Look for something today. It won't be a "flash-bang" fireworks display. It's the quiet things. Find them, and celebrate.

What I'm Reading Now: The Redeeming

A Christian Romance set in Medieval Times

The Redeeming is the third in Tamara Leigh's Age of Faith series, and is the best, IMHO. Both H/H are strong and realize they can choose to act or react in such a way to control their future happiness.

Christian, especially, is an extremely attractive protagonist, much more so than Garr or D'Arcy from the first two books in the series. Garr is more of a strong Alpha and allowed to be so. D'Arcy seems to be a Gamma with Alpha tendencies; Christian is an Alpha who had to suppress that trait for years--he is tempered like a fine steel (whereas Garr is like iron. Don't get me wrong; iron is good.).

Gaenor her heroine grows from a reactive girl to a woman who pursues her destiny.

As with all the books in this series, the Christian element is woven into the story so as to be inseparable from it but not so "in your face" as to be proselytizing. The Redeeming is the story of people struggling with faith, just as we modern people do. In this, I praise Tamara Leigh for both her insight and her light and deft touch.

I eagerly await the next book in the series, about Abel and the healer Helene. I have already fallen in love with Everard, and I cannot imagine the situation Leigh will place him in or the woman who will be worthy of him. That is one of the great hallmarks of this series: I cannot anticipate what Leigh will have occur during her stories. (So many of the books that I read can be tracked from first event along every step in the plot and subplots. Thank you, Tamara Leigh, for actually plotting.)

The HEA is guaranteed, thank the good Lord. Too much in our world is unresolved tragedy; I read to escape that.

Here's a link:  it's not an affiliate link.

Do you need Hermione's Purse? Try this instead.

In the Harry Potter series, Hermione had this little purse with capacious capacity.  She could get a TENT in there.  A lovely tent, not the kind I go camping in, BTW.

As a writer, I used to think hauling around a huge tote bag was a necessity.  My shoulder finally convinced me that huge bags are essential.

I do have a dedicated writing area, however, and everything writing related goes into that spot.  (At tax time, I can count that writing area off on my taxes.  That's a good thing.)

The key to working a writing area is ORGANIZATION.

Writing a book is a hugely sprawling project.  You have character information, setting information, plot plans, snippets of ideas, all that has to be located in an instant.

If you're like me, you have a focus project as well as other projects that are on-going, having to be picked up once a week.  Then we have those ideas that come and have to be put somewhere.

And we have ideas that we sketched out for 30 or 40 pages, realized it wasn't quite working, and backed out of the story.

AND we also have sketches that we wrote for seminars or courses, sketches that are quite good and would build into stories.

If we only had the time to write all that.

Time's not the enemy, not if we manage to keep everything ORGANIZED.

Losing things, that's the enemy of writers.  Losing ideas.  Losing worked-out information.  Losing snippets.  Having time to explore an sketch but not being able to find it.

Here's an organization help:  poly envelopes in multiple colors.

I love this poly envelopes with the string closure. I have used a set of these for several years, and only now are they starting to give up. They hold just enough to gather up all the diversely sized elements for a project. I prefer the string/button clasp as the snap version tore up faster (even with my careful holding at the clasp to prevent just that event).

The tinted colors makes organizing "at a glance", and the see-through helps my confirmation that "yes, I picked up the correct envelope". These two aspects make these poly envelopes preferable to paper / pressboard / "red rope" versions.

Whether you prefer horizontal or vertical, these are great little organizers.

Here's a link:  it's not an affiliate link.

What I'm Reading Now: Essie Summers . . . Again

Season of Forgetfulness

I kept Essie Summers on my shelves when I trashed a lot of other Harlequins and HPresents and Mira and other similar books.

Summers inspired in me a desire to see New Zealand. She writes strong honorable heroes and spunky joyful heroines who have classic misunderstandings or hidden secrets or black sheep relatives who taint reputations far and wide (as Lizzie Bennett realizes her little sister has done in Pride and Prejudice).

The humor arises from situation, as it does in life. I can guarantee at least one good cry per book.  If you read a lot of Summers, the stories can get repetitive and some of the early editions had errors that can drop you out of the story. However, I recommend any of her books.

This is one of a broken heart healed, and Summers does that best.

Besides this I recommend ~ 
Not By Appointment
House on Gregor's Brae
Beyond the Foothills
One More River to Cross

If you tire of sex for no reason, a h/h you know won't stay together very long, long titles with babies or supposedly exotic heroes who are only arrogant spoiled brats, and a heroine who is a doormat because one event in a 24 hour day controls who she is, then Essie Summers is for you.

Here's a link:  it's not an affiliate link.

Recommended: Dame Agatha Christie's Postern of Fate

This is an old Amazon review of mine that I decided to share with you.  I hope it gives you a book to read and an author you've not explored yet.

The reviews here (on Amazon) do not quite reflect the essence of the story Postern of Fate. It is Tommy and Tuppence, not Poirot or Marple, which means it is a lot of talk, a lot of piffle, fun bits with T & T, a dog, a mystery, a lot of here and there, and all of a sudden an end.

And it is Dame Agatha's farewell to the couple who charmed us with their idealized romance and their happy (albeit a little dangerous at times) investigations.

Read it for the fun. Read it also for the investigative method when nothing strange is expected but little things keep cropping up. Only Tuppence and Tommy would have started stringing the bits together then persisted in continuing to look for more bits.

Yes, sometimes it seems irritating, but you also cannot walk away from the story without wanting to discover more. In that respect, the readers become T & T who cannot walk away from strange bits of information without wanting to discover more.  And in that we are still compelled by the octogenarian Dame Agatha to finish her book.

Recommended (not an affiliate link)

What I'm Reading Now: Christianna Brand

Christianna Brand's Death in High Heels

Actually, I just finished this book.  And I have to recommend it.  It's well worth your time and money.

I love a good mystery.  A good snarky voice is not a must while an excellent puzzle IS.  I especially love a local well-drawn setting that is necessary to the story.

Last October I purchased a first book by one of our classic mystery writers Christianna Brand.  My mission for 2019 is to read the first outings by writers who became great.  Brand authored two dozen mystery novels.

I hope that reading the first outings by major writers will help me understand their career trajectory:  how they launched themselves into the marketplace, what set them as distinct from other books in the marketplace, how they developed their puzzle.  Soon I plan to read a later book for these successful writers, somewhere about 10 years into their career, to see how their writing and puzzle-making matured.

I keep reminding myself that the other writers currently in the marketplace aren't my only competition.  I guarantee that my greater competition for longevity as a writer will be the writers with established names.

So, in my search for mystery writers, I stumbled across Christianna Brand.

Death in High Heels was Brand's first mystery, inspired by an irritating co-worker that she dreamed about killing.  No lie!  It's in the biography.

I didn't get to this book until New Year's, and I've just finished it.  And I was surprised--pleasantly so.  Why?

Well, for a book that was dreamed up as a fantasy about killing a co-worker, it was hilarious!

The puzzle was even better.  For most mysteries, I can figure out the puzzle before the first third of the book is complete.  I figured out this one, too, but I kept reading for the snarky voice of the protagonist.  Then Brand cleverly re-wrapped the puzzle before she unraveled it all over again.  Surprised me!

Here it is:  Death in High Heels, well worth the $7.99 price tag.  Enjoy!

While the link takes you to Amazon, I don't receive any monies or anything else from my recommendations.  I never do.  I'm just recommending what I enjoy.  Someday I might recommend against purchasing a product.  Not yet, though.

Transformation is the Goal for 2019

A Planned Transformation?  Easy enough . . . with the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle Planner.

7 cover versions:  Mountain River, Woodland, Meadow, Floral, Teatime, English Cottage, and Cityscape.

The Mountain River cover

Need more information? 

Available exclusively on Amazon, $1.-- for each month for a total price of $12.00.  What a bargain!