Wow - so, I haven't really fallen off the face of the earth. Instead, I've been inundated at my day job, working on multiple projects, all due sometime this month (October).

A recent post by my buddy Donna Andrews got me thinking. What are the tools of a writer's trade? Until a few years ago, many writers swore by their favorite pens, a specific type of paper, lined/unlined, padded, loose-leaf. But the advent of the personal computer pushed much of that to the side.

For sure, there are writers who still compose longhand, then transcribe, but I'm not one of them. As a born geek, I took to the computer without looking back. Starting with WordStar, then WordPerfect (DOS), then upgrading to the GUI version when it became available, I've never looked back.

Now, I write on a brand new G5 20" iMac, using a wireless keyboard. If I travel, I use either my iBook (which is soon to go the way of eBay) or my work laptop, an IBM T41. I love laptops: the versatility, the portability, but I have to give major kudos to the iMac. The huge screen and brilliant resolution are a balm to these older eyes.

In any case, I cannot write longhand. Oh, I do have scribbles and thoughts and even dialogue/scenes written out in a notebook I carry, but the way my brain works, I'm liable to forget about it once it's written. Once a scene or whatever leaves my thoughts and is committed to paper or pixels, it's gone. A hazard of the profession, to be sure. I need to be more disciplined and transcribe these scribbligns as soon as possible. Plus, there's the fact that my handwriting now sucks beyond the telling of it. (I used to write quite nicely - no more). Then there's the brain to hand speed ratio. In longhand, it's more like a crippled tortoise. On the keyboard, it's the hare crossed with the Flash. I'm a brilliant typist: there is no slowdown from brain to keys, like there is when I have to write something out.

I think the worst part about bonding so well with the computer world is that no matter how portable, setting up a computer to type out random thoughts is just not feasible. At least, not until the Star Trek voice activation comes into being. (Voice programs are all fine and good, but they really don't do well for writing novels...at least not for me).

I've tried digital voice recorders, but it's the same thing as handwritten notes: they have to be transcribed. One day...one day...thought will become words on a screen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but one can hope.