A new keyboard & progress on editing

Well, my new keyboard arrived in the mail this week, and someone wonderful helped me install it on my laptop.  I'm now finding it incredibly distracting to type, because the new keyboard makes these sharp click-click-click-click noises with every tap of a key; I had worn down my other keyboard to a much more muffled noise.  On my previous laptop, I had actually worn down the matte finish on some of the keys so that they had a well-used shine about them.

I get very in tune in with my keyboards, so I am a little sad to see the other one go.  It made familiar noises and was starting to get a comfortable worn spot on the space bar where my thumb hit.  However, I am sure I will learn to love this new keyboard as well; I already appreciate how clean it is--there's no crumbs hiding under the zero and dash key that go *crunch*.

And, awesomely, I am once again able to adjust the brightness of my laptop monitor now that I have four fully functional arrow keys.

The new keyboard has inspired me to get some serious editing work done on my next series.  Now that I can actually use my left arrow, I will be much faster moving around the screen; however, I've come to terms with the fact that it wasn't really the keyboard preventing me.

The first book in the series I am working on now, which I have been calling Redemption, has an interesting history.  I wrote the first draft in one week back in 2008.  I sent it to a friend/editor, who identified some issues.  I rewrote the story to have a more advanced vocabulary.  Another frieditor; I rewrote it in the third person instead of the first person.  Another frieditor; rewrote it to have a more basic vocabulary (but still above where it started).  Another frieditor; start of story needed to be more upbeat.

This book has seen a lot of reincarnations.  I decided to let it steep about a year ago, while writing a few other books in that series and others, and returned to it after I finished my initial edits for Secrets of the Guardian, Waldgrave Part 3.  I took a deep breath, and decided I would try to rework a few chapters to my liking; if it wasn't working, I would scrap what I had and write it over from nothing.

After redrafting a few chapters, things are now running smoothly.  I am told the story is now worth taking the time to read.  Onward I go.

When will I be done editing it?  I have no idea.  Probably by the end of January.  I'll have to see how it looks and how people like it at that point, and decide if it will remain a personal treasure or venture out into the realm of publication.

So happy to be typing at full capacity again,
Al