Coffee With David

All I can do is laugh. After several weeks on a project at my “bill paying job” that had kept me from writing my blogs, short stories, or working on my novels, I finally was able to take a week off. I knew I would not be able to write the first few days I had off due to family commitments (It was the anniversary of my father’s death.) and the need to decompress after a successful self-defense presentation I gave to the St. Louis Writers Guild. Little did I know that the Fates were going to give me an extended vacation.

The first day I had to write, I went to my normal “not so secret” writing spot. I sat down, plugged my laptop in and ordered a coffee and breakfast. I come back and the computer is not reading the power cord. This is not new. I have had this happen to this laptop once before and to a previous laptop. I had to send it in to the manufacturer the last time, as it was still under warranty. But sometimes when you play with the cord, it will move the power jack into the right place—and I have to admit, I was delaying having it serviced to save up some money for the expense.

Fate had a different idea. This time, my laptop would not accept it. This was not the best timing as I had some poems that were to be submitted into a poetry contest whose deadline was the following Monday. Unhappy with fate, I took my laptop in to a repair service that has been recommended by members of the St. Louis Writers Guild. The repair service confirmed what I knew…it was the power jack. (Why can’t it ever be the power cord? Those are much cheaper.)

The informed me that it would be about 7 business days before I would have my laptop back. However, they did have a service to pull off the documents I needed. On top of this, a friend of mine offered me the use of her spare laptop! I was not out of hope!

I had the repair service pull the documents onto a flash drive. I thought that this would have been a simple “show up and wait” like with a car repair. I was wrong. They had the unit that would do it tied up on another project, so it became a drop off and come back. They called me when it was ready and I promised I would be there before they closed. I was—by 30 minutes, after fighting St. Louis rush hour traffic. However, it turned out that the employee became ill and closed early. So I picked it up the next day.

The night the shop closed early, I met up with my friend who loaned me the laptop. If it had not been for her, I would not have been able to submit. (I don’t expect to win, but I did want to enter.)

I have always been a firm believer in O’Toole’s law, which is “Murphy was an optimist.” Sadly, between everything I know my deadlines are off. Good news, I am in control of them as I do not have a publisher ringing me up asking for things—for once I can say it is well that I don’t have a publisher or agent at this time—and my laptop is back, so I can work on everything again. The other good news is that I am finding my poet’s voice, so I have a new genre to add to my portfolio.

Now that I have my laptop back, I will be back into the grove with my writing. (Do you hear me Fates? I said I am back. Don’t throw any monkey wrenches into that please!)

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on the blogs, short stories, novellas, novels, and poems that I write.