I’m blogging on Thursday at Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs in the hope that someone will steer me in the direction of a new scanner/printer/copier that will replace my wonderful work-horse of a peripheral which has given up the ghost.

I don’t quite know what the problem is. The printer part works fine. The copier part copies. But the scanner just sits there. 

I probably use the scanner more than I use either the printer or the copier.  I’m always dragging home books and photos that need to be scanned and saved.

So ever since I bought the new computer I’ve been saving my scanning to do … whenever.

And now whenever is here. I need to get some stuff scanned. Soon.

So if any of you have suggestions for good all-in-one printer/scanner/copiers, please either email me or leave me a comment here or on Tote Bags (I’m giving away five books on Tote Bags to encourage advice. Stop over and advise me there and get in the drawing). 

In the meantime, I have revisions to do, so I’m heading back to work. 

And in case I don’t get back here before Thanksgiving – because I’m planning on spending it in Montana – I want to wish you all a happy holiday.

Enjoy!

It’s not just to tell stories.

I discovered that today as I wrote a blog for Tote Bags.  I’m blogging over at Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs tomorrow — Thursday. So please stop by and say hi. I’m talking there about one of my favorite shopping spots in the whole world.  Not a specific spot – a type of store. 

It’s a big draw at this time of year – when everyone is headed back to school.  Only I went there yesterday to shop for a birthday present.

Where?

The office supply store, of course. 

Remember the concept of the paperless office?  Me, neither.

Well, I do have a vague memory of it being an ‘ideal.’ But do I have one?  Not on your life.

I have so much paper that I really do scan stuff to try to make a dent in it.  But at the same time, I’m forever taking notes and more notes. I love taking notes.

It’s the kinesthetic learner in me. I learn it if it goes in through my fingers as I write. That’s about the only way I remember it. 

I can hear it and keep it for a while. See it? No, that’s not very useful for me.  It helps, but it doesn’t ground me. 

For example, seeing pictures of Santa Barbara wasn’t enough to get me back into the ambiance.  I needed to have my feet on the ground.  Same thing with note-taking.

Which is why I buy notebooks. And write in them. Because if I don’t, the memories are all too fleeting. But if I make notes they jog my mind and take me right back to the time and place – I  remember the feelings I had, the thoughts that were going through my mind, And writing them down instills the memory even more deeply.

It’s why I write.  To remember.

Ten years ago today (my, time flies), I was in Washington DC for the RWA conference.  It was the first and only time I’d been to Washington, and I was having a marvelous time.

Nancy the Cat Slayer had come along just for the heck of it, and I was meeting up with Anne Gracie for the first time.  It was also the first time I met Jane Porter, and it was the last time I got to see Grace Green before she retired from writing.

I had  two books (count ‘em!) up for the RITA in the short contemporary category — the Desire, The Stardust Cowboy, and the Presents, Gibson’s Girl. It was a pretty amazing time.

The day the RITAs were being announced, my husband rang me from home to say that something more momentous was about to happy — our daughter, who was expecting a baby in late August, had jumped the gun.  Or the baby had.  It was on its way.

“Call her,” he said.  “She’s already at the hospital.”

So I called. Cool, calm and collected me. I called and they said she wasn’t there.

What????  Not there?

Had they mislaid her?  Good grief!  This was not a large town. There was only one hospital in this particular place in Kansas.  Still is.  I paced and I fumed and I called my husband back and said, “Are you sure?”

And he said, “Yes, I’m sure. Call again.”

I stopped and thought before I called — and then I realized that they hadn’t mislaid her, I’d forgotten her name!

She goes by her middle name — which I’d used.  And she is married, using her married name, which I forgot.  So I asked for her by her middle name and her maiden name — neither of which was on the hospital record.  Sigh.

I called back. Indeed, she was there.  In labor, quite busy. I only talked to her for a moment.  “I’ll call you,” she promised.  “After.”

I went to the RITAs in a daze.  Amazingly, The Stardust Cowboy, won.

As thrilled as I was, it was only the second most wonderful thing that happened that day.

An hour and a half later, Stephanie Alyce was born.

She was the best.  Pretty much still is.

We called her Glowbaby because she was jaundiced and got to wear a cool suit that glowed.  She looked like a caterpillar about to come out of a cocoon when she was wrapped in it.

Now, occasionally, I still call her Glowkid.  It’s still true — most of the time, she just glows.

Today she’s off to see Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with her mom, her other grandma and one of her aunts.  I’m off to San Francisco for a wedding.

There is another RITA finalist this year, but I’ll be at the wedding celebrating so I won’t know if One Night Mistress…Convenient Wife won or not.  No doubt someone will tell me one way or the other.  I’ll cross my fingers for it, but there are lots of wonderful books up for the RITA.  If it wins, I’ll be thrilled.

But no more thrilled than ten years ago when The Stardust Cowboy won — and Glowkid made her first appearance.

Happy birthday, Steph!