The Little Computer That Could

I think I can! I think I can! My computer has been down for a couple weeks now. It's in one of its cooperative moods, so I have to take advantage of it when I can. It crashed and I had to reinstall from the recovery disks, which wiped everything I had. Luckily this is par for the course with this lemon of a computer, so everything but my newest story I had backed up on thumb drives, and the newest was only a rough draft. Still, I liked it, and it was enough to make me crabby. And now I've had to recover the stupid thing 4 times already. It keeps completely and totally freezing. Ugh. It might be time to break down and buy a new one.

Anyway, since we're taking a small writing break, I have to share my news! It's been a few weeks since I've seen everyone, and I was waiting to do it in a group setting. This weekend in Chicago is the annual Printer's Ball. I hadn't heard of it until a few weeks ago, when I was contacted by Bound Off. Bound Off is a wonderful little digital journal that publishes via podcast. A few years ago I had a story called "Down There" published through them. They're one of the magazines being featured at this Printer's Ball, and they were looking for contributors to turn their audio files into multimedia pieces. I have a friend who does photography, and he made my story into a video with some still photos in the background. I love it, and it's one of a handful of stories that will be playing on a loop throughout the ball through Bound Off. I believe they'll also be posting the video to You Tube, but don't quote me on that one. So I'm off to Chicago this weekend to see the video but also to attend the Printer's Ball. It should be a great opportunity to see some lit mags and meet some editors, including Kelly Shriver (the woman who published "Down There.") I figure it's a rare opportunity, and I'm going to lap it up!

Barbara, don't burn anything! And have you found something special to spend your writing check on yet?

Jenny