Being Simultaneously Informative and Engaging Can Be Exhausting!

I spent a good part of this week composing my talk on character development for the upcoming Women in Publishing Summit 2021, March 1-8. It’ll be recorded, so I have to submit it by the end of this month.

Technology and I have never really been close friends, but words… ah, words! They’re my best pals. And you’d think after forty-plus years of penning fiction (and publishing three novels in the past five years) I’d know a thing or three about character development, and have plenty to say about the topic. Well, it’s true… but somehow the words didn’t seem to want to organize themselves into any coherent fashion.

That’s why I had to employ some finesse, a little persuasion, a bit of ignoring the darn thing ’til I was good and ready to look that Word document squarely in its blinking little cursor and tackle it head on.

After cannibalizing a similar talk I delivered a year or so ago during a local Author Day event (no sense reinventing the wheel, right?), I pared the remains down, saved it as a new document and – voila! – I had the skeleton of a new presentation. And no, it isn’t plagiarism if it was your own work to begin with; it’s called revision.

The information was good. But the presentation itself seemed a little… what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, yeah – bland. More than that, it was lackluster. Having been trapped in innumerable seemingly endless meetings in my life, I realize few things are worse than a ghastly presentation that drones on for thirty minutes. I certainly don’t want to be that presenter.

So I reached for a few of my favorite tools from my arsenal: humor and personality. And I spiffed that puppy up the best I could. And when I conducted a practice run yesterday, during a session with my life coach, I’m relieved to report she chuckled in all the right places.

Afterward, I did some polishing, added a few examples to my 53-item character-development survey and tweaked my slides. I even deleted a handful of slides to streamline things. And I think I’m almost ready for another go at it. But if you’ve ever put together a presentation, you understand it’s exhausting, trying to be simultaneously informative and entertaining. I think I need a nap. Preferably on a beach somewhere warm… but I’ll settle for my own cozy bed. So if you’ll excuse me, I think I hear my pillow calling.

The Ubiquitous @

Aside from its obvious email application, how many of us have ever really considered the “at” symbol – @? It’s been around for centuries, yet it was largely ignored by all but those in the math or accounting arenas much of that time. For years, this unassuming character languished above the 2 on our typewriter keyboards, snubbed by virtually all except folks who included it in their grawlixes.

With the advent of electronic communication surfaced the ingenuity of one Ray Tomlinson, an American computer engineer (who, incidentally, passed away over the weekend at the age of 74). In 1971, Tomlinson drew the humble @ into the spotlight as a central figure of his recently developed “electronic mail” system.

Of course, you can also use the @ symbol to send electronic roses to your sweetheart… —-^–^-<@ – but you’ll have to kind of squint and look sideways to make it look like a long-stemmed rose with thorns.

As for what the ubiquitous @ is called in other languages, check out this article. Personally, I prefer the Armenian ishnik and the Danish snabela. What about you? What’s your favorite other-language moniker for @?

How Cold Was It?

I love the internet. From the comfort of my home or office, I can readily access information that in years past was stored only in the library (if it was there at all); I can chat in real time with far-away friends and relatives… I can even listen to radio broadcasts from all the way at the other end of the country (and, I might add, send snarky comments to the on-air announcer with just the click of a mouse).

Yesterday, Jeffrey T. Mason from KOOL-FM (94.5) was commenting that while they were enjoying perfectly lovely weather out in Phoenix, it was far colder on the East Coast. I’ll say it was!

So, how cold was it? Funny you should ask. Read his post [in which he reprints the email I sent him] here and find out. I particularly enjoyed the title of his post – and even emailed a screen shot to several friends with the subject, “In case there was any doubt…”

Now, who’s ready for another 6-12″ of snow Wednesday night into Thursday? Yeah, me neither. Happy writing!