Dear Book Buddies,

I’m tough on computers. I prefer laptops to desktops because then I can seek out a different venue when I want a change of writing scenery – like different rooms in the house, a lounge chair on the patio, a corner table at Starbucks, a bistro in Paris . . . . Okay, I lied about the bistro in Paris. And if you’re going there, why would you spend your time staring at a laptop? But I digress.

My point is the portability. The thing is, I’m also a klutz, and that means I might have dropped my laptop . . . a few times. On the tile floor. Fortunately prices are going down, so when I went shopping for a new laptop because my old one was, shall we say, shell-shocked, I found a nifty little Asus netbook for not too much money. I’m typing on it even as we speak.

Originally I’d intended to do everything on this little hummer, including email, but I found myself resisting email on this ‘puter. Instead I answered email on my old crippled one, and it was a struggle, but I loved dedicating this new baby strictly to my writing. It’s a mindset. When I fire up my Asus, which is sapphire blue, in case you were wondering, I’m into writing mode.

My poor old computer was looking sadder and running slower by the day, so I had another brainstorm. I found a reconditioned laptop for not very much money, either, and now I’m answering email on that. My geriatric computer will go to my computer-savvy daughter who wants to mess around with it and see if there’s life left in the battered old girl. As for me, I’ve divided my keyboarding world into two distinct parts – the Internet side and the writing side. I’m crazy about my new system. And I haven’t dropped the Asus yet.

Schizophrenically yours,

Dream no little dreams,
for they contain no magic.

--Anon