Today, as I was cleaning out my work area, I found the above November 24, 1993, Pluggers cartoon.
So true! Note the typewriter (though I was already using computer technology for my writing: a computer, a state-of-the-art Toshiba "laptop," 20 MEG hard drive, loaded with WordPerfect 5.0).
Writers tend to be pack rats, and I'm the worst kind, but this cartoon is a scrap that I'm glad I saved. Back in 1993, I didn't have a scanner, and the internet was pretty much the milieu of computer fanatics and people who wrote strange computer codes.
I probably intended to tack this cartoon onto a cork board, but obviously never got around to it.
My first printer, which cost $400.00, was a NEC dot matrix which required spooled (fan-fold) paper and a degree in engineering to figure out how to thread it. In fact, I still have it. You think the Smithsonian might like to have it? For its time, it was a great machine; the print was clear and the ribbon lasted forever. A lot of old manuscripts printed from that NEC are still around.
Yesterday, I bought an HP Color LaserJet 2600n for under $150.00--a breeze to set up. It's a big duffer, but well worth the space; it is connected (through a router) to three computers (why do two people need three computers, anyway?).
Yesterday I received an encouraging personalized rejection from a huge literary agency--such is life.
All I need is one agent who's passionate about my memoir.
So I'll just continue to plug along, playing with new geegaws...
Ciao.
