I’ve been overwhelmed by stuff once again. Paper and magazines and mail. It creeps in and takes over my office, multiplying in the night while I sleep. I know it does. I keep getting rid of one particular stack between my inkjet color printer and my laser copy/fax machine, and it keeps growing back, like a fungus. There are magazines on the bottom of that stack that I saved because I wanted to read them “when I got a minute.” Yeah. Right. Like I’m going to find them there again.
Why do I print off so much stuff from the Internet? Oh, I think to myself, I’ll want to read that again later. Doubtful. It will just go into that stack over by the printer and copier. Then, weeks later (many weeks later), it may get filed or pitched. If it goes into a file, it probably has no more chance of being looked at again than the one that went into the recycle bin. (Yes, I do recycle all of my paper and junk mail, and I first shred everything that remotely seems dangerous in questionable hands.)
I am not a writer who can edit on the computer screen. I need a hard copy. Besides, I’m paranoid about my computer crashing and losing my books and other records. So every time I take a break, I print the pages I just wrote so there is always a complete hard copy available. (I also subscribe to a service that backs up my data nightly and stores it on a remote computer. I sleep much better at night because of it, too.)
Have I mentioned in my blog that I am currently reading (actually, listening to an audio book of) The Kite Runner? Good book. Disturbing in places. I’m very caught up in the view point character’s life, hurting for him, rooting for him. The story has also given me a glimpse into another culture. Yesterday, as I was driving to an appointment, I gasped in surprise when a new detail was revealed. I had not seen that plot twist coming. I love it when that happens, especially when I think, I should have known that.
For the past month, I’ve been reading/judging books that were entered in the RITA Award contest. Several were books I wouldn’t have picked to read on my own (none were inspirational/CBA novels as I have books entered in that category), but judging in the contest introduces me to other authors’ work which is a good thing. All were good books; two were ranked very high on the score sheet. Finished with that responsibility, now I can pick a book of my choice from my teetering stack of To-Be-Read books. I am really going to have to part with some of my books because I’ve run out of shelf space and they are taking space on the floor of my library now. Sigh. A book blizzard is not as easily overcome as a paper blizzard.
And now it is time to turn my attention to my work-in-progress. Have a great Thursday.
-rlh-
