Introducing myself . . .

This is just a first post to start the ball rolling. My plan is to post something (anything that comes to mind) about once a month. If you have a question to ask, ask it! and I'll do my best to answer it in this blog. I've decided to do a blog instead of a newsletter. This first post is about how I write. Future posts will go into other topics like, inspiration, insights, outlining, etc.

You may picture an author in your mind, something like Hemingway, secreted away in an attic garret under a bare bulb, pounding on an old Remington, making the floor shake, an overflowing ashtray at one elbow and a glass of scotch at the other. Nothing could be further from the truth! (Well, sometimes there is a scotch.) I do all my writing on an old Hewlett Packard Probook 6470b laptop I bought secondhand. Sometimes I carry this down to my local coffeehouse for an hour or two. And, as for "pounding away": I'm a hunt-and-peck typist. Yes, one finger at a time! Very slow.

I was "forcibly" retired the last day of 2009. I started writing in earnest in May of 2018, if I recall correctly, but had been thinking about my first novel for some years previous.

Writing is a lonely endeavor. I don't know any other writers. I have tried to search out writers groups but since Covid hit they've all migrated to be online and it's just not the same. Those I've attended in person are usually focused on dissecting poetry and I am not into poetry.

Software? I write using OpenOffice Writer. It's "open source" based on Linux (but most importantly it's free). If someone needs a MS document, OO will output that, and read it too. When my manuscript is nearing completion, I upload it to "Reedsy" and polish it there. They also will typeset the novel, for free, and it takes mere minutes. They do a fantastic job! Can't beat that!

Next month: how I outline.

Ryan