Tuesday Happenings

Currently Reading: Finished Demon Wind last night, and boy is it good! I had a private laugh, because one of the minor characters has the same name as one of the characters I invented last August! Fortunately, they bear no resemblance to each other:)

Print: I'm down to the last six books in the box! Read The Marcaboth Women, by Vina Delmar, and thoroughly enjoyed getting inside the four women's heads; I'm getting ready to start The Torch Bearers, by Bernard V. Dryer.


Found something interesting in one of the books I pulled out yesterday: An old letter to my then-soon-to-be-sophomore-in-high-school husband from his Audio-Visual instructor.

Talk about how technology has changed!

The letter is dated August 20, 1969, and talks about how the students will be 'mastering' the following A/V equipment:
-16mm projectors
-Record Players
-Filmstrip Projectors
-Tape Records (esp. RCA)
-Videotape Records, focusing on recordings and playback functions
-Thermofax copying

Are any of these still in use today?

I remember always wanting to be the one chosen to advance the filmstrip, and when I worked in the A/V part of the library, it was the thrill of knowing how to set up the projectors and the freedom of roaming the hallways to push the equipment to and from the classrooms. But when I got to high school, VCR's were used, or the TV/Radio dept would set up the movies.

I've never even heard of Thermofax copying!

Quiet Author Time
Attended my 2nd Writer's Guild meeting, and began a new wip. Yeah, yeah...I haven't even stepped out of chapter 1 of the new one! So why the hell am I starting something new? Because I Can! And so now I'm writing 3 new books at the same time, plus getting ready to perform major surgery on my 3rd finished book. Now I just need to get rid of all my kids for a week...or the summer...any takers? Oh wait...some of them disappear for a day or two, and I actually do manage to get some work finished...

Crash!
My body shut down last night at 10pm. I'd been awake since 3:30am, but felt as if I hadn't really slept at all. I woke up and tackled my kitchen, which the teens decided they would 'forget' about last night, and oh, I never actually said, 'Don't forget to do the dishes'...the only thing I did say was 'please bathe your little brother'. Mission accomplished. Darn kids...can't they read my mind for once? Or is that asking too much? How often does Mommy fall asleep on her feet, anyway? Don't answer that.

Jackie's coming to pick up the teens, so they can finish helping her landscape the yard. K has already gotten several admiring glances on his retaining wall, and Jackie said the traffic has picked up in front of their house. Apparently the wall is the new tourist attraction in town! I asked K if he'd had any offers by people wanting to hire him, but he said no. And then Jackie said the admirers were probably afraid of how much he would charge them!

What's everyone else up to on this first day of July? The authors at the Oh Get a Grip blog are talking about inaccuracies in the media. Yesterday Anny was talking about the mistakes in books; today Kelly's discussing the ones in movies. I personally haven't noticed any in movies, until they are pointed out. But I have spotted typos and names being changed in series' books, but blame them on the editors, not the writers! Of course, I admit I'm not perfect, and if you spot a glaring problem in one of my books, please drop me a polite line and bring it to my attention? The Space Shuttle mistake...not my fault. Other issues, such as the fact that Fort Ben in Indianapolis is an ARMY base, not Air Force...I'm already working on how to explain creative license when that book gets pubbed.