ROW80: Order out of Chaos

We leave Sunday at 4 am for Corpus Christi. Nothing like a month-long trip to bring order out of chaos. Way too much time spent the last several days trying to get my new HP Stream ready for the road.

HP Stream Pros: Ultra light. Cute. Bright blue. So portable at 2.3 pounds. 

HP Stream Cons: Limited memory with 28 out of 30 G used for hidden programs!!!! Slow on the internet. But I only want this for writing and e-mail and blogging (maybe only once a week for ROW80), so I don't need supercomputer. Did you know that if you're using Windows 10 and deleting programs from one device, you can actually delete the program from all your devices IF you don't click that little button that says, "This PC only"? 

I'm starting to feel like a computer guru because my little Kindle Fire now has Skype AND Xfinity login available everywhere (so Skype came off the Stream). And I'm starting to use 'the cloud' -- although it feels nebulous (taking flash drive too).

But did I get any writing done? Well, yes. I actually printed out 20 pages and worked over sequencing, transitions, editing, and new scenes. It's hard to measure progress when word count goes down.

This Week's Goals & Progress by Sunday, January 31: 

IN PROGRESS: 1. Edit Rivers of Stone, 5 out of 7 days each week. On track 3/3.

2. Complete 2 new marketing steps to alert folks re Rafflecopter giveaway on writing blog (newsletter, e-mail). 

3. Blogx3 and READ x10: Steady progress here, but guilt, guilt, guilt when I don't read everywhere: ROW80, Poets on the Page, WIPpet Weds, Insecure Writers Study Group. 

 Declutter office. Amazing progress here.

4. Keep e-mails under 100.  OK, hovering at 98.

5. Clean up WSQ projects. DONE: Bid for printing programs, report to board. PENDING: Library project & call Linda.

6. Packing. Yep. What will be forgotten? We use a packing list but still I end up asking: What is essential? Brings me right back to that HP Stream.

NOT YET: 

1. Work on poetry book. 2. Read 50 pages of The Frugal Book Promoter (to page 165). Oh, I'd really like to finish this one.

3. Exercise 3x week.
4. SASP project: Media Kit questions.

WIPpet Wednesday. Last week, I read only two participants. So once again, I'll post with hopes of doing better. This week's excerpt finds Cat on the Saskatchewan River, alternating between portages and white knuckling past rapids. The excerpt, based on the date somehow, equals 10 sentences (1 for January + 2 + 7 for the 27th).

Mr. Lane, as short as any of the boatmen, stood shadowed by the campfire. “I’m hoping it stops raining,” he said. “The next bit is only three miles long, one mile of which runs with great rapidity. Boats can descend, but as we are going upstream, in the morning, we portage.”

For the next three days, the men ran and stumbled along barely visible paths along the portage trail, bent under the weight of two 90-pound packs. Below, as if they were animals, six oarsmen dragged the two York boats over the portage path of logs, with two men on either side lifting the boats slightly. 

At the end of the portage, the men cheered, clapped each other on the back, and drank the rum tots that Mr. Lane handed out. Then they reassembled the brigade in a small eddy by the Saskatchewan River. Cat had carried one of Kane’s small backpacks, feeling she was not of much use. She gazed at the river’s white water ahead of them and wondered what Dougal had done here.

Voyageurs' Portage (Source nps.gov)

I love the picture above for it shows the head straps, the barrels and those 90-pound packs of furs and supplies the voyageurs carried. Sometimes the men would compete to see who could carry the heaviest load. Rough humor.

Now why not visit ROW80 to see what we're up to this week or drop by WIPpet Wednesday to read other snippets. And have a great week!