August 5th

Joseph is over and I found myself glad for the evenings off. But not glad enough to keep me from trying out for "Wizard of Oz." I'm Dorothy and I'm elated to be working with people from the cast of Joseph again. I'm making contacts, already some who may help me with cover art, website design, a group of swing dancers and perhaps a place that will allow me to come in and direct "Swing". If only all this was going on in Palacios.

Sigh.

My life has been changing again lately - smaller changes this time but hopefully ones that will help. I've been concerned about the massive amounts of time spent on the computer. I have been working in the mornings, reading over manuscripts to edit and sending emails to set up book tours and what-not. Then in the afternoons and evenings, there's always that question I want to google for answers - and all my friends who are only accessible over cyber-land. When I'm not at rehearsal or cleaning the house, I've been on the computer.

I have very good eyesight and I've been worried about the toll of looking at a screen all day. Since I want to be an author forever, I don't see that is going to change any time soon. What's been bothering me worse than my eyes is my back. I've tried all sorts of desks, chairs, excercise balls, but most of the time, I end up sitting on my bed and typing. Thus staying in front of the computer all day and as cozy as it is to go between editing on my kindle (more on that later) to reaching over to type out a story reply, it's been taking a toll.

I decided to see what I could do about it. Using some of the savings from what I earned for the CYT camp, I invested in a kindle.

My reasons were threefold. First, I could upload my own stories, read through them without a backlit screen and put in notes on what needs to be changed. This keeps me from skimming over the computer. I can even tell the kindle to read it to me and listen for missing words or repeats that I might not notice just reading. I put in a note any changes and later will go to the computer where I can type them in from the note list that is so conviently pulled up. It keeps me from having to spend $30 for an ink cartage or ending up with hundreds of pages I'll only look over one time before they're updated and outdated.

The second reason is that now that I have a kindle, I am free to check and make sure my novels will look good on them. I better understand what I'm trying to format for. After spending 20-30 on a book that told me everything about publishing on kindle, except how to format it, I bought a kindle book for 2.99 that shows you how to copy and paste the basic HTML codes into a template.

Thus, after months of various complete reformats, The Calling is finally available for sale on kindle from a format that took me two days. It would have taken me less except that my computer shut off and kicked me from chapter 31 all the way back to chapter 10.

But if something worked right the first time for me, - well, it wouldn't be me.

The last reason is because I've been wanting a kindle for years - I just couldn't justify the price until I realized how I could use it for my own writing instead of simply reading others.

This is how I have cut down screen time for the editing process. It helps my back because I can move around from chair to chair - or even take a sheet and lay outside as I did today.

The other thing I'm experimenting with retraining my back is that I have put my computer at a higher level and taken away chairs all together. Thus, I'm standing while I write this. I don't know if it will be perminant or how it will work out but I'm going to test it for a while. I've read that it keeps you more focused and while I have mixed feelings about that, I'd like to see. It does reduce the urge to check out random webpages or sit staring are your email waiting for a reply. It encourages more movement even small ones like shifting.

And I won't be spending hours standing in front of it, thus I'll be naturally be taking more breaks.

We'll see what happens.

I've been trying to find ways to work more excercise into daily activities. Yesterday we went tubing down the river. Most of the river, you can actually stand up in and there's a very soft current that carries you downstream. Instead of tubing all the way yesterday, I threw my tube onto another empty one and Lauren, Kayla and Justin and I spent a good portion in the water. I can't tread water for long without getting tired but I pushed myself and then hung on to the tube while I kept kicking. We had a lot of fun and I couldn't help thinking about young Terrant floating down to get out of enemy camps, or the slaves from the Civil War trying to loose their scent or Andrew on the Titanic or what if I had fallen off my cruise ship on that last trip.

I've decided I never want to be in water that I can't stand in without something nearby to hang onto. Then Lauren decided when we got back to the house, she was still having fun. So we plotted a picnic and a photo shoot. It turned into a medieval picnic at the learning center and an impromptude photo shoot that didn't turn out too great because of lighting.

I had the brilliant idea of using that tree crossing the creek to take a photo of Justin at once side and Lauren at the other. Just a few feet off the water was only about two inchs so I could stand there easily. I handed the camera to Justin, stretching to reach my foot over the deeper part directly under the log. I stepped in a hole, the water jerked my dress down and I got swept half-way under the log, ending up - wet.

For the second time that day. All in all it was a good time and I ended up banishing them from my bedroom at 1:00 this morning.

Thus the reason why I'm sleepy today.

Rehearsal starts Monday.

Before then I'm hoping to reread the first chapter of my book and get it up on YouTube.

And my goal today is to get as much of "Swing" read through as I can. I'll start making the changes soon.