Ch-ch-ch-changes!

  My six weeks of job training came to an end today, and not a moment too soon! All during class, I kept thinking the teacher would run out of things to learn about cell phones, but noooooooo! He kept finding more. Now new facts will, hopefully, build on what I’ve already learned. I passed a four-hour test with flying colors, posed for the class photo, and breathed a big sigh of relief. In about a month, Verizon is going to revamp the interface, and I’ll be right back into re-training. But they say the new system will be simpler, so I’m all for it.

Today was also the last day of iUniverse Publishing in Nebraska. For those of you who don’t know, that was my last job, and I loved it until the company got sold. After the announcement, some of my friends hung on to the bitter end of the transition to Indiana, but the doors finally closed today at 5:00. I bet tears were shed, and it’s good I wasn’t there to see it. My friends and I are keeping in touch.

Funny how life changes so fast. Just when you think you’ve settled down into a nice calm status quo, the unexpected comes along to shake things up. Keeps things interesting! To quote one of my mother’s favorite expressions, there’s “never a dull moment.”

Romance Novels on Cell Phones

  ON    

Now that I’m working with cell phones as well as writing, I’m starting to notice new things. The latest was an article about Harlequin publishing romance novels on cell phones!

Harlequin says: “We chunk down stories so you’re getting about 500 words per day. In Japan, a lot of authors actually write their stories on their mobile phones. In 2007, five of the top 10 bestselling books in Japan were written on a mobile phone.”  I don’t see how this is humanly possible, but whatever . . .

Harlequin urges all of us to get involved: “Embrace digital. There is fear of digital in publishing and in entertainment. It’s fear of the unknown. But digital is not going away. Burying your head in the sand is not a strategy. You need to embrace this and figure out how it can work for you.”

They also say that nowadays we’re always in “perpetual beta”:  “It’s the idea that nothing is ever a finished product. Technology is changing so quickly that you can call yourself finished but a technology will come along to make your site, your blog, or what have you, better. Even when you do have success, the speed at which technology changes means the success might not be sustainable for a decade like in the previous world. It can be a very short-term win. You have to move forward.”

Wow! Writing and publishing at the speed of light. And love-on-the-go!

  

The Phone and I

Since starting my new job at Verizon Wireless, I now know more than I ever wanted to know about cell phones. Still don’t have one of my own, because every time I get my hands on a new training phone, I want it! Just can’t make up my mind.

I started out thinking I’d go with the cheap and functional Samsung 410 which I can get for free:  It’s a nice little serviceable clam-shell.

Then the Motorola Q caught my eye. It has the Internet, music, and my beloved Bubble Breaker game:  

But wait! On the Voyager, you can even watch TV!   It does everything but cook dinner.

My favorite, though, is the LG Chocolate. You just slide it open and lightly tap the controls with your finger:  It’s so sweet in navy blue.

I feel so fickle. Why, oh why, can’t I settle down with one phone and be faithful? But then, I haven’t even begun to explore the tons of choices in cell phones. The mind boggles.

I keep remembering the phone I grew up with. Phones then could be any color, as long as they were black. It was a heavy clunky thing situated on the desk in my parents’ house in Hooper, and there it stayed. We didn’t even dial–you asked the operator to “Please ring R22.” 

Not to mention when Dh was a salesman, he would memorize the locations of phone kiosks along the road. It was so convenient to be able to pull up beside one, reach out the window, and dial–all without leaving the comfort of one’s car. Would wonders never cease?

I love all the new tech things I’m learning on the job. 

The Curse of the Ram’s Head

  “He slammed the ram’s head on the desk. He gripped the horns in both hands. He was reading straight from Tim’s notes. He shouted out the phrase. Am I even pronouncing it correctly? He shouted it again. One more time. This is it. It’ll all be over after this, he believed with his entire heart and mind. He was completely convinced about the curse and the cure. He held onto the horns with all his might. He lifted his head and shouted the phrase one last time. The tempest was trying to drown him out but his deep voice carried above it all. The ram’s head arced pure red and he fell backwards and landed on Tim’s bed. He was blinded and then mercifully, he passed out. “

I’m proud to report that my nephew, Thomas Graham, in Winnipeg, Canada, is an up-and-coming author. He writes novels for young adults and publishes them on Lulu.com. His latest offering is a suspense story, The Curse of the Ram’s Head.

What do you do when bad things happen to good people? Especially when a family is tortured by a spooky curse from a ram’s head that the young son bought on vacation? This novel is fun to read. Suspenseful hooks at the end of each chapter keep you turning pages. I especially liked the trust built up between father and son.

You can buy this and other books by Thomas Graham at Lulu.com or download them for free.

Good going, Tom!

Mount Everest

  Lately, I’ve been fascinated by Mount Everest, specifically the people who climb it, and the tragedy of 1996 when twelve people died trying. I’ve read Mountain Madness about Scott Fischer, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev. You could be the best mountain climber and have reached the summit many times before, but if a storm blows in, or a mistake is made, or you get altitude sickness — nothing can save you. You can’t be rescued because the air is so thin, a helicopter can’t fly. Friends can’t even carry the dead bodies of their friends down from the mountain, because it’s all they can do to save themselves. Climbers simply step around frozen dead bodies and keep pressing upward.

Why do they do it? It’s sheer mental and physical torture to climb the tallest mountain in the world. Krakauer says that mountain climbers are, by their very nature, obsessed and beyond reason. I think part of it is the way it forces them to be in the moment. Every second counts, every step can mean sudden death, and there’s no room for the petty worries of the workaday world. It is a clear, pure experience. That kind of willpower and focus fascinate me.

I know I could never climb mountains. Occasionally when visiting Colorado, I’ll look up at the peaks and think, “I wonder what it would feel like to climb that mountain and be up there?” But Krakauer says after he came down alive from Mount Everest, the simple act of walking barefoot to a warm bathroom made him ecstatic. Yep, I’m content to read about it, not do it.