Technology Rant

First of all, I want to thank Erika, Debbie, Stephanie, Darla, Angel, Charlotte, Lauren, Melva, and Tina for their kind words about my books. Luv ya. Special shout out to Michele for keeping the faith. And sorry, Cindy, but I guess I’m still on your wall of blogger shame.

Warning, rant ahead. A few weeks ago I had some heavy revising to do on my January book, ONE BITE STAND. A day after I got the call from my editor telling me about her concerns, my laptop crashed. Figures. Since it would be about a week before I got the laptop back, I ran out to buy a new computer. Surprise, surprise, all the ones I looked at had the new Vista program on them. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that stuff, so I bought one. Arrgh! I hadn’t a clue what to do with the new version of Word, so I did the revisions on an old NEC computer I have that doesn’t have online capability anymore. Then I had to put everything on a floppy disk and transfer it to my new computer to send to my editor. She must’ve been able to open it because she said the revisions were fine, but my critique partners complained they couldn’t open work I sent from the new computer. Luckily, one of them showed me how to convert my chapters back to the old version of Word. And now no one seems able to figure out what’s wrong with my laptop–which is not old and was expensive–so I have to learn the new Word. Oh, and a minor aside, Vista won’t talk to my laser printer. Question, why fix it if it isn’t broke? My old Windows was fine. I loved the old version of Word. I know. MONEY.

Taking a deep calming breath. Ahhh. What I’m doing now. I just sent my editor the proposal for the book after ONE BITE STAND. No title yet. It takes place at the Woo Woo Inn, but we’ll meet a few familiar faces from the Castle of Dark Dreams (Edge, Holgarth, and possibly one other). There will be a new wrinkle in this book, though. Ganymede won’t be in it, and Sparkle will only be heard from in phone calls. In their places they’ve sent Edge (cosmic troublemaker in charge of death) and Rainbow (cosmic troublemaker in charge of emotions). Ganymede and Sparkle get pretty intense in ONE BITE STAND so I thought it might be time to give them a rest, at least for one book. What do you think?

What I’m reading. I’m in the middle of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s DEVIL MAY CRY. I’m pathetic. I keep saying I won’t buy hardbacks, that I’ll wait for the books to come out in paperback, but I have absolutely no self-control. As soon as I hit the bookstore, the hardbacks pop into my hands. Anyway, I can’t keep away from Sherrilyn’s Dark Hunter series. My bad. And for those who answered my question about Lara Adrian, I did read KISS OF CRIMSON and really enjoyed it.

Well, guess I’m all ranted out, so I’ll get back to my wip. Oh, and if anyone knows how to find all underlines in a document and then replace them with italics, please let me know. I knew how to do this with my old Word, but the new version is different.

Take care,

Nina the frustrated