Authors and Technology: A Match Made in . . . File Not Found

Technology . . . Love or hate it, we have to use it.  I’m not talking about social media only here, but the hardware that we utilize as authors.  We have laptops, desktops, iPads, smartphones, typewriters, Macs, and various apps.  Not to mention Wifi being needed for research, especially on the fly.  Even the advancement has amazed me at times because I remember the days of floppy discs and zip drives.  Now we have on-line folders and thumb drives.

One has to wonder what comes next for authors and technology.  That and if it will work for us personally.  I know some authors who work off iPads and smartphones, which I can’t do.  My love is desktops and laptops.  For some reason, I need a specific size of screen and keyboard to be comfortable.  Probably because I started in the 80’s with the bigger machines.  Funny addition here is that I’ve only had two laptops because I didn’t see a point in having one until I moved to Florida.  So I think every author has their own technology system with slight variations.

With this comes problems too.  How many authors have lost work because of a computer crash?  Ever save a file and then have no idea where it went?  Those are common ones too, so you can imagine the ridiculous headaches.  I once had a desktop computer that crashed and had to be rebuilt every two or three weeks.  After a few months, I learned that it was given to me with a cracked hard drive.  Once, I forgot the floppy disk with all of the Windemere information in a college computer lab.  Never got it back and had to rewrite everything while studying for finals.  My current ‘fun’ is that this laptop’s hard drive isn’t secured and will ejected itself from time to time.  This resembles a computer crash like I had with the previous hard drive.  A heart attack every time.

So, how well do you get along with technology?  What’s the most humorous/embarrassing/frustrating thing that has ever happened to you with a machine?

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New Release: The Amulet, a Supernatural Romantic Comedy by Effrosyni Moschoudi

When Katie loses her Athens office job, a gypsy woman hands her an amulet for good luck. Next, she gets hired as hotel receptionist on the Greek island of Sifnos and everything seems perfect, excep…

Source: New Release: The Amulet, a Supernatural Romantic Comedy by Effrosyni Moschoudi

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Advice for Writers from a Reader Who Loves to Support Writers: Guest Chris Graham (TSRA)

Rachael Ritchey's avatarRachael Ritchey

Hey all! Happy day! I’m so excited to introduce to you (and you to) Chris Graham aka The Story Reading Ape as a guest on the blog. Chris is a super supporter of authors and if you haven’t you’d do well to swing over and follow his blog. Chris offers so many free services to authors as well as helping with book design. He’s encouraging and helpful, scowering the world of blogs for worthwhile information to share too. I appreciate his hard work and his dedication, not to mention his insights. And today he’s here to answer some questions and offer some helpful advice.

Thanks for coming over Chris!


Chris Graham, Guest to the blog:

My thanks to Rachael for her kind offer to post an article from me – also for the challenge she set me for the topic:

  • From a reader standpoint, offer some advice, maybe something…

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Christmas Reading – Beginning of a Hero – Book 1 Legends of Windemere by Charles Yallowitz

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New Release and Free Books: Dragons and Magic and a Fantasy Giveaway

Dragons & Magic Dragons & Magic is a new humorous fantasy series by Dave Higgins and Simon Cantan. It is set in a world where role-playing game attributes and statistics are real. At birth,…

Source: New Release and Free Books: Dragons and Magic and a Fantasy Giveaway

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Our Justice (John J. Cannon Series, #3) by John W. Howell

Karen's avatarMy train of thoughts on...

our_justice

The author sent me an ARC of this book (mobi format) in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Plot
(by Goodreads)

The terrorist leader and financier Matt Jacobs has figured out a way to eliminate the President. He believes he has come up with the ultimate weapon and needs help in getting close enough to the president to use it. He is relying on John Cannon’s stature as a hero to help him carry it off by providing the entry into the Oval Office. When confronted by Matt, John finds himself walking the fine line of pretending to help Matt while trying to figure out a countermeasure to the plan.

The action begins with John fearing for his life. John is forced to run from his house to avoid a killer. Clearly, whoever is trying to get him has a mission to accomplish, and…

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A Very Long Short Week

I didn’t get much done this week.  A little on Monday after the dentist and some on Thursday.  My son was home Tuesday and Friday, which negated those days.  I couldn’t find the urge to write on Wednesday due to the chapter.  It involved one of the champions struggling to find hope to carry on or they’ll become massively self-destructive.  Not a good thing in the final hour of a world-saving adventure.  Seeing the emotions I’d need to access get spread over the Internet along with a constant rejection of these emotions being genuine, I couldn’t get my mojo running.

Not much else happened too.  One of the Bedlam stories has to be junked or rewritten because of current events.  I came up with another story to add into the superhero stuff, but it doesn’t make my decisions on those any easier.  More about that on Thursday, but some of it is the same.  Windemere or Earth?  Can I balance two multi-series worlds that world up to a grand finale series/book?  Bedlam doesn’t count in there because that’s one series and the finale doesn’t have to bring in multiple stories and characters.  Just Lloyd and Cassidy doing what they do best.

Feeling bizarrely worn down lately too.  Oh yeah, there was good news from the dentist visit.  You see, I haven’t actually seen one in years because of insurance issues and then just never getting around to it.  One would expect my teeth to be a wreck, especially after the recent debacles.  Apparently, they’re not that bad.  Look, I’ll take ‘the gums didn’t bleed as much as I expected’ as a victory after the extractions.  My son might have to get his extra tooth out before the end of the year though.  We’re not looking forward to that insurance fight.

I’m going to be testing out The Spirit Well blurbs tomorrow, so I hope to get some responses before I delete them Monday morning.  This means reblogs and a lot of the connectivity of the blog will be removed.  Goodkindles and AskDavid.com require personalized, unique blurbs and it’s hard to write 3 of the dang things.  Now, to do the list and lie down with a manga:

  1. Write more of Warlord of the Forgotten Age.
  2. Biking
  3. Sleeping
  4. Yawning way through parts of the day.
  5. Dream about having a hot chocolate dispenser in the house.  Just hit one button and you get a cup.  Somebody really needs to invent those food making machines from Star Trek.  That could really change the world.
  6. Eventually go to Dunkin Donuts to get as close to the dream as possible.
  7. Point at random objects and tell them they’re not the boss of me.
  8. Learn to stop lying on the bed with my ear an inch from the phone.  OWWWWW!
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Smorgasbord Autumn Reading – Revenge by Stevie Turner – FREE 12th – 16th November

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10 Statements – Jessica Hernandez

Karen's avatarMy train of thoughts on...

jessica-hernandez

Jessica Hernandez was born and raised in the beautiful, sunny state of Florida (USA). She attended the University of Miami, where she spent more time than she cares to admit daydreaming of a faraway land called Acu. Upon graduating with a degree in English and Political Science in 2014, Jessica put pen to paper and brought Acu to life—so was born the Hawk of Stone duology.

Find me…

Blog:  https://jessthestoryteller.wordpress.com/
YouTube: 
http://bit.ly/2fGt7bG
Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/jessymarieee77/
Goodreads: 
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14235885.Jessica_Hernandez
Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/jessy_marie77

My personal motto:

“If you try, you might. If you don’t, you won’t.”

10 statements
  1. A typical work day begins with…begging for five more minutes of sleep before carefully crawling out of bed to check my emails. I say carefully because I must make sure that I don’t wake my roommate, Suzy. She shoots the most menacing of glares at me whenever I disrupt her rest. I won’t lie, she’s…

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The Forbidden Spell Cafe: The Best of the Banned

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Yahoo Image Search

You’re not a priest, are you?  We have to ask because that would get us in a lot of trouble since we aren’t dealing in regular spells.  There’s a small market for forbidden magic, but it’s still very lucrative.  First, I need you to sign this wavier that says we will not be held responsible for how you use this spell. Any mention of this store, employees, or deal will be met with magical repercussions.  To be very clear, I mean you’ll explode and take out everyone who heard you.  Don’t try to write it down either because that will cause your hands to melt.  Funny how these curses are allowed while these others are sealed for eternity.  At least the gods think they are.  So, what are you looking for?

Forbidden healing spells are rare, but we have a few on the books.  Most of them are banned because they create an environmental imbalance or something.  Take this one that wipes out a disease.  Sounds good on the surface, but there’s a side-effect that something worse appears to replace it.  This puppy was sealed after one of the ancient kingdoms fell to a series of diseases until only a small boy survived.  Rumors have it that he’s still in the ruins because the sickness refuses to let him die.  Yeah, I wouldn’t want to touch anything like this either.

It would help to know what you need this for and why a normal spell won’t work.  War injuries on a massive scale?  That’s tough and I can guess why regular healing spells aren’t enough.  People will die because you run out of energy or you wait too long.  I should tell you that you have to accept such a fate, but you wouldn’t believe it since your’e here.  To be honest, I don’t know of much that will help you.  Your heart’s in the right place, which is why I’ll help you.  Give me a minute.

This is a forbidden spell that will allow you to heal an entire army at once.  Covers bruises, broken bones, lost limbs, open wounds, and whatever else is earned on the battlefield.  It ignores anything that happened outside of battle, but it sounds like you don’t need to worry about that.  Yeah, it’s hard to understand why this one is banned.  Well, there’s a side-effect that the gods don’t like.  It’s a strange one too.  Whoever is healed by this spell will be healed without any lasting pain or effect from the injury.  In return for another chance at life, they will become wandering spirits upon death.  There is no path to the afterlife for them and even worse for the caster.  You will lose your life as a man and become something else.  No idea what that is.  Guess you’ll have to find out the hard way if you’re still interested.

Okay then sign here and pay at the front desk.  Nice doing business with you and I hope it all works out.  Shame to see a goodhearted kid go down a road like this.  On the plus side, we’ll get to figure out what the side-effect is.  Hey, I didn’t say it was good for you.

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