A few posts back I said I’d give an update on my shoulder condition and my quest for the perfect keyboard. First, I’m not convinced there is such a thing as a perfect keyboard, because to make it truly perfect it would have to be custom made to your specifications. However, I am very happy to report that I am making progress with my rotator cuff injury and have found a keyboard/mouse combination that seems to work for me. I have had both installed for about a week. I am still attending massage therapy once a week, and I still can’t undo my bra behind my back (when I can do that again, I’ll know I’m healed), but I am no longer attending physiotherapy AND massage once a week. I am doing exercises to strengthen the supraspinatus muscle up the whazoo. If you check out the link, that’s the muscle responsible for lifting and the one in which I received a cortisone shot several weeks ago. I also learned I had what they call a cortisone flare, which is why I was in such pain for two days.

The keyboard that seems to be working for me is the Kinesis Freestyle keyboard with the VIP attachment. Here are a couple of photos from their website. The Freestyle Solo is the basic keyboard, and there are a number of ways you can adapt it (check out the website for more information). Basically, it comes in two pieces that you can arrange in the split design to suit your needs. It doesn’t have a number key pad on the right. There are still numbers on the top set of keys and there is a number key pad of sorts that you can access under the U, I, O letters and so forth, on the right hand side of the keyboard. You just have to hit the function key first. Take a look:

The advantage to not having an embedded number key pad is that: (1) I rarely use it because I rarely input data, so I don’t miss it, and (2) it helps with my mouse overreach issue, because with my traditional Microsoft ergonomic keyboard I had to reach OVER the number key pad to reach my mouse, which was on a little drawer that pulled out to the right of my keyboard drawer. Now, my mouse, which is a Logitech wireless trackball, sits just to the right of the keyboard, on the same shelf AS the keyboard, which is a lot better for my right shoulder.

I’m the sort who needs wrist pads, so I ordered the Freestyle VIP attachment. Here’s a photo, although not set up the way I have it. This photo is showing the maximum splay of 15 degrees:

I have the wrist pads attached and I have the legs on the back, but I only have them set up to 10 degrees, which works for me. My two keyboard halves are also attached at top (the tether you see there allows people to set up the keyboard in a variety of ways).

I’m pretty happy with the Logitech wireless trackball, too. The wireless receiver is super tiny, because it’s a trackball, I use my thumb instead of my finger, and because it’s a trackball I don’t have to move the unit around like I did with a traditional mouse. The only thing I’m missing is a little wrist pad, because I’m so used to having wrist pads and I really like them. I’ll have to pick one up for the mouse.

This system is good for me because I can work with a lot less discomfort. The trackball is a little tricky to get used to, but I can’t go back to a regular mouse so I’m giving it a good shot. At first it was really weird to use my thumb to move the ball, but I’m getting more accustomed to it.

Do you have ergonomic issues? What’s the best set-up for you?

After a July that was mostly, well, like March, summer has finally found its way to my neck of the woods. We can’t count on it hanging around for long, so I’m trying to make the best of it. Recently, I enjoyed two back-to-back long weekends, one with my dh at my parents’ lake house to celebrate our anniversary, and then last weekend we took the boys to Whistler (where the 2010 Winter Olympics were held). In between, I’ve been madly meeting deadlines for Penny.

The Whistler weekend was spur-of-the-moment, as Eldest Son is moving to the Middle East to teach school for a year. He’d just finished his summer job and Youngest Son had a few days off work, so we packed up and drove several hours to the mountain resort. I haven’t been to Whistler in over a decade, and we had a blast. Last time I visited, the group I was with went mountain-biking. This time, my family and I rode the Peak to Peak gondolas that travel between Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain, tried out ziplining for the first time, and E.S. went bungee jumping! My God, that kid is fearless.

I don’t have photos of the ziplining, but I did buy the bungee jumping CD. So here, in pictures, is a taste of my summer. How’s your summer going?

Out to dinner in Whistler, E.S. and Y.S. (left to right):

Whistler view from our hotel:

The husband et moi in the Whistler Mountain gondola:

At the Whistler summit (the chair lift ride from the gondola drop-off helped me kinda overcome my fear of heights…but not by much!)

View of Whistler as we’re descending in a Blackcomb chairlift after riding the Peak to Peak gondola:

Eldest Son bungee-jumping:

I asked what his thoughts were on the way down. He said, “Big river!”

Bungee-jumping is now on my Bucket List. I figure if I can zipline, I can bungee-jump. Except I need a couple more ziplining experiences to confirm it. And I don’t plan on repeating the experience any time soon! I was lucky I could manage a wave.

I recently returned from a holiday to Newfoundland. My husband and I had a great time. I took along my netbook and had intended to blog during the trip and post pictures, but it didn’t work out that way. Now I’m digging myself out from under the 4.5 hour time change and ensuing jet lag while preparing for the RWA National Conference in New York City that begins in a couple of weeks. I’m flying in a few days early (cross your fingers for me, because Air Canada is on strike, and I have no idea how it will affect travel in ten days), so I’m also in “conference prep” mode.

I will eventually post pictures of our trip and share some storiees, but I need to get my focus back first. While we were gone, I received the cover for WHERE SHE BELONGS, my December release from Five Star Expressions. I love it. It totally captures the mood, and the photo the art department found for the waterfall that’s featured in the story looks very much like the real waterfall on which I based my fictional waterfall (if that makes sense).

I’ll post the cover in a day or two.

I wasn’t the only one to receive a cover. Penny also received the cover for the electronic release of A LITTLE WILD, coming from Samhain Publishing in November. The original release date was for early October, but because I’m gone twice during June I asked for a postponement. This cover is amazing, too! Both covers feature the heroines only—not a hero in sight! I find that rather amusing that art departments of two separate publishers interpreted my Art Fact Sheets to create heroine-only covers, but both these stories are heroine-centric, as in the story is more the heroine’s than the hero’s. In each book, she has the most baggage and issues to work through.

Again, when I have time, I’ll post Penny’s cover, too.

Even though Penny’s release date has been postponed, I just received edits from my editor and want to work through them and have them back to her before I leave for NYC. I also received back the blurbs and tag lines and need to give them another look. So I’ll pop in here when I can, posting covers (for which I expect much oohing and ahhing) and pictures and stories about Newfoundland and Labrador while prepping for Conference and working through my edits.

More soon, promise!

Er, make that “round up.”

In the I Can’t Find Enough Hours In The Day department, otherwise known as What Have I Been Up To?, I thought I’d pop in with the following:

Paint colors aren’t nearly as exciting as recent TV advertising would have one believe. At least, if you’re painting the interior of a mud room closet white, they aren’t. White is white, and such a delight. But, in the end, it’s just white.

I’ve decided it’s The Summer of White. I hereby pledge to paint every white room and piece of white wainscoting and white trim in the shared areas of the house (ie. the mud room and one hall, plus the kitchen wainscoting and trim. Okay, and some outside of doors. The parts that face into the hall). It’s way overude. I mean overdue. (Overude sounds over-rude). I figure if I only paint something white every couple of weeks, I won’t aggravate the bicep injury I created in the fall doing too much outdoor painting.

Nearly ALL the white sundeck trim I painted last summer has peeled off! White is a complete PITA sometimes! Or maybe it’s the rain/roast days of summer we “enjoy” that’s the PITA.

Come to think of it, where’s the summer? Okay, summer technically doesn’t start until June 21st, but this is ridiculous. One day it’s hot enough for air conditioning, the next I want My Liege to light a fire.

And none of this has anything to do with writing.

So, in the Writing Department, Penny has received a tentative release date for her erotic romance single title (sometime in the fall. I actually have a more precise idea of when in the fall, but I’m  not ready to announce it yet. Things are “in the works,” as they say). Because Penny loves to sit around on her lazy duff all day, this means I have to fill out her Cover Art Information Forms and write her cover blurb. I’m doing that this week.

As for Cindy, I’ve been working on my romantic comedy short story series and doing a lot of E.S. Just Moved Out post-cleaning.

I overindulged in peanut butter cups while awaiting the Rapture.

And I’ve been serving as a mentor for the ChickLit RWA on-line chapter. Me! A mentor. Imagine that.

I’m working with a writer on the other side of the pond. So far it’s been a pretty cool experience. I just hope I’m not piling too much “help” on her. I just figure, we only have two months to do this (May and June), and I’ll be out of town twice in June (I employ big, burly housesitters), so we don’t have as much time to work together as we should. So I’m giving it. And hopefully it’s helping her.

I would have loved a mentorship program like this when I was first starting out (I wonder if there’s such a thing as “when I was lastly starting out”?). But that was in pre-Internet days. I remember joining the RWA Outreach Chapter, which conducted all its business through the mail. That’s how I connected with my first critique partners. I still critique with one of them from time to time. My critique partners were my “mentors,” and I acted in the same capacity for them. I guess we were peer mentoring, because none of us were published at the time.

I’ve hooked up with other critique partners over the years. A couple of CP’ships lasted several years and were profitable for both sides. I still consider some of these writers very good friends. But sometimes “Real Life” interferes, family needs change, careers take off, and one or both partners needs to take a step back. Deadline Pressure is a real killer.

What else?

I haven’t had time to blog-hop the way I used to. It’s far easier to keep up with people on Facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, I’m thinking of canceling my MySpace account. I never go over there anymore, so why bother? Penny is thinking of having me cancel her account as well.

Eldest Son is now fully moved out but Youngest Son’s summer job doesn’t start until June. So May continues to be an “in flux” month, much as April was. So, lest any of you think the reason I haven’t been blogging is because I went back to South America, no such luck, I’m here. Just wound up from trying to find time to wind down.

All aboard the Get ‘Er Done! train. Leaving the station… Now!

My 2007 Golden Heart finalist book, WHERE SHE BELONGS, won’t be out for another year. Except there’s another way to look at that. My Golden Heart finalist book will be out in a year! December 2011. It’s a long “engagement,” but the day WILL arrive.

Waiting for the release date reminds me of when My Liege and I got engaged. It was on the sixth anniversary of our first date (except we didn’t call them “dates” in the Eighties—Americans might have “dated,” but Canadians just “went out.”). (We also had a thing against cheerleaders). M.L. and I had a long engagement, about 15 months.

The night of the “one year countdown” to our wedding, I was attending a staff party with my BFF, Claudia, A.K.A. Sandorf Verster. Her staff party, not mine. We were sitting around a fire (it was summer), and she looked at me and said, “Procter, in one year you’ll be married. Only one more year of freedom.” (Or something like that). And she cackled. Like a witch.

I looked at my engagement ring, which had been a half-size too small when M.L. placed it on my finger in Stanley Park after a romantic dinner in downtown Vancouver, and it seemed to shrink again. I gulped. One year. One last year of unmarried life. Nerves ran rampant throughout my body. Then I thought, “What the hell,” and reminded Claudia that her chances of marrying before 30 were slim to slim (not that she cared).

As a release date approaches, writerly anxiety sets in. What if everyone hates my book? (What if the marriage doesn’t work out?)

What if everyone loves it? (What if we make it to our 25th? Oh, wait, we did, this summer).

What if people merely “like” the book? What if, what if, what if?

If you’re a writer, do you get nervous come release time? Or are you bubbling over with excitement? A neurotic mess? Overflowing with confidence?

If you’re not a writer, I’m not sure how to compare the release of a book to another life event. It’s weird to work on a book for months, sometimes years, strive for publication (which takes a cast-iron stomach, let me tell you), then suddenly an editor loves the story. She doesn’t think you suck! Twelve other editors before her might have thought you sucked, but THIS editor knows better! This editor is brilliant! YOU are brilliant! You are remarkably clever at fooling yourself, at any rate. And, not to worry, tomorrow you’ll think you’re the worst writer who ever existed.

Up and down, up and down. Being an author is an emotional roller-coaster. To survive, you need to embrace rejection. Whether that’s from editors, agents, or readers. Preferably readers you don’t personally “know.”

When I have a book release, I tell everyone I know, “Buy my book. You don’t have to read it. Just buy it and support me. Because Mama craves a new case of Kraft Dinner. If you hate the book, DON’T TELL ME. If you love it, or ‘enjoy’ it, by all means, tell me that! But if you hate it, just never mention having read it, and I won’t ask.”

There’s nothing worse than a well-meaning friend critiquing your book AFTER it’s been published. When it’s too late to do anything about it. Coming from a stranger? No problem. Having a buddy tell you your kid is ugly? Um, NO.

Done like dinner. Done like dirt. Done like a rusted doorknob that’s fallen off and smacked the floorboards.

I’ve finished the revisions on my single title.

I am so happy, I could spit. There, I did. Now I have to clean up the computer screen.

If I weren’t sicker than the proverbial dog right now, I would do a Snoopy dance. But my headache would just get worse. I’ll leave the dancing to my beagle.

This summer, I suffered a fair bit of writerly anxiety about EVER finishing this book. I love this book. But it’s been my “between projects” book. You know, the book you want to work on, the one you want to give priority, but every time you begin working on it, you get a request for another work you’ve stupidly queried (and you manage to sell it, so then you have publisher-stuff to do—I know, cry me a river, right?). Or you have to do page proofs, or some insane person got ahold of your brain and made you decide to take on three outside painting projects in one summer. Plus, you suffered through some really bad Empty Nest Syndrome and had to deal with the accompanying motherhood tasks that led to the ENS.

I should mention that these are self-induced revisions. I queried agents on the manuscript in question several months ago and received partial requests that unfortunately did not proceed to full manuscript requests. I sat there and pondered, do I keep going down the list of agents to query or do I figure out what’s wrong with the damn manuscript and get back to work?

I chose the latter route. Got some fine writers to critique the partial/full, realized what was missing and realized that the market had changed since I began writing the book and putting it aside, and working on it, and putting it aside. So what might have worked for the market back then no longer did. Then I did a whole lot of brainstorming with a former critique partner, based on the commonality I discovered in the critiques. Then I got back to work.

All in the life of a writer.

What comes next? I’m setting aside the manuscript for a couple of weeks. I’ve worked on the query letter pitch and am now revamping the synopsis. I need to update both this website and Penny’s (my nickname for my erotic romance pen name). I need to finish the damn outdoor painting (please, sun, that appeared this week, stay!!). And I want to edit an erotic romance single title for Penny and begin marketing it. THEN I’ll polish up the cindypk ST and begin the (usually) loooooooooooong process of querying agents.

Wish me luck.

I fully intended to blog about something other than nothing today, but we had a storm last night and the lights kept dimming so I shut down my computer (I usually write my blogs in advance and schedule them to appear on a designated day). Also, my father had knee replacement surgery yesterday. Lots of hospital visits are on the schedule until he gets out. Can’t have him expiring of boredom.

I had an incredibly busy August. I thought I’d be deep into revisions on my cindypk ST by now, but I consider myself lucky that I’m finding time to brainstorm those revisions. Making excellent headway, too! However, the last two weeks in particular have offered up one big life circumstance after another, some bad, some not as bad. And here I thought that by not attending the RWA National conference this year, I’d have way more writing time. Now I’m beginning to realize that August is pretty much a write-off in that area in the same way December is. If I plan not to have much writing time in both those months, things motor along okay. If I don’t allow myself enough leeway, if I plan to actually write a lot during those times, I get frantic. Because it doesn’t happen. I need to remember to work my deadlines around August and December so I can enjoy one of those things I’ve heard referred to as “A Life.”

The problem with being a writer is it’s a never-ending job. There’s always something to do. If you’re not actually writing, you’re plotting or brainstorming or promoting or working on your website. Like any small business, I suppose. It calls to you when you’re making dinner, when you’re supposed to be doing housework or relaxing in front of the TV. I don’t know the true meaning of weekends. If I’m deep in writing a book, to me the weekends are for catching up on the biz of writing. Not that I’m complaining. I love what I do. But it’s definitely not a nine-to-five lifestyle, and I think sometimes we writers are bad at recognizing that. We can’t work 14 hours a day and expect not to get burnt out. We aren’t super human. We need to learn to schedule breaks…or sorta breaks. If that means August and December are write-offs for getting much accomplished, then so be it.

Well, whaddyaknow? I think I just blogged about something.

My fellow 007 GH finalist sister, Trish Milburn, has just opened Healthy Writer, a blog devoted to encouraging sedentary individuals to get in shape (you know, those of us who sit in front of a computer all day). What a great idea, Trish. Check it out!

I admit, I am pretty sedentary in nature. Look under Athlete in the dictionary and you won’t find a picture of moi, that’s for sure. I walk every day, sometimes twice a day, thanks to my dog, however. I don’t know if I’d adhere to my schedule without the dog… When you have a dog and you’ve trained them to expect two walks a day, unless one of your kids (like mine) is responsible for the afternoon walks, you’re going on two walks a day whether you like it or not. Dogs are personal trainers in a hair suit.

Every other day, the day we aren’t going on a short (15-20 minute) morning walk, the McBeag and I go for what I call a “run/walk.” It doesn’t qualify as a “run,” because we don’t run all the way. We run about 10-15 minutes to the dog park, then she gets to sniff or attempt to drown herself in the creek (depending on how hot it is), or play with other dogs, then we walk the rest of the way home (about another half hour). If I have to walk her again in the afternoon (every Monday while both kids are home, then two or three times a week once Eldest Son hies himself back to university), then she only gets the short 15-20 minute walk again.

As for the running, I’d try to extend the duration—but the dog park’s in the middle, what can I do? And I can only stand so much torture. I’m not a running fiend, never have been. It’s easier with the dog. Her attempts to sniff everything along the road keep my mind occupied. Without her, I Hate Running. It’s good for my heart, which is why I do it, but it makes my back ache. Oh, well, that’s what massage therapists are for. I could not run every other day without my twice-monthly massage.

How do you cope with the sedentary nature of a writer’s life?