Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
I’m now entering my third week of having a desktop computer at home that’s so disabled it can’t really be used for any sort of writing. I have a new computer being built, but it hit some snags (motherboard, memory, bla bla) and so for the last three weeks I’ve been mostly using a craptacular laptop from 1999 that I inherited from Heidi. It’s a little workhorse — it never crashes, but it can only run one application at a time, and it runs like molassas. Hey, I’m not complaining: it was free, it runs Firefox, and has a wifi card. But it’s also part of why I’ve not been posting as often.
Yesterday I got a check for the first half of my book advance. It’s about the cost of a new hyper-snazzy laptop. If I were a different kind of writer (the impulsive, procrastinating, passionate kind — instead of the methodical, reasonable, excell spreadsheet kind), I would go blow it on a swanky computer that would be outdated within a month. Instead, I’m tucking it away into savings. It’s sort of sad, but I’ll thank myself later, I’m sure.
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, is in bookstores now.
You're reading a page from the archives. Check the homepage for current content.
Sara
February 14th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
I admire your reserve, Miss Elish! What’s the old saying…
A book advance saved is one helluva nice retirement earned?
Matt
February 15th, 2006 at 10:11 am
My book proofs are here! Real printed proofs on lovely thick glossy paper (already soiled by colleagues’ grubby filthy fingermarks!!) Just to look at them now and it goes to PRINT next week.