SHELLEY HALPERN EVANS
Writer

Best Laid Plans

I had big plans! Plans to work on my latest book (more about that in months to come) and to plug away at submitting my novel Deleted Arm to agents and Canadian boutique publishers.

I’m sure you can all sadly relate. Sometimes attempts to practice frugality are big mistakes. I’d gambled that my faithful 10 year-old MacBook Pro would see me through to spring. No wonder I never win at the races!

Ms. Reliable breathed her last and here I was, far from home, with an organized writing schedule, necessary background scribbles on iCloud, and no computer.

My son was visiting and we trooped to the local Apple store to peruse current models. My husband was his supportive self, “just get what you need,” he’d said during my telephone meltdown. I wasn’t thrilled about purchasing a new laptop in Mexico but this was an emergency. I ignored the daunting exchange rate.

Until…how ethnocentric I was. Jeremy and I had a lacklustre laugh together when we realized all the Apple keyboards here are in Spanish. Of course.

Have you had plans for a chunk of time only to be thwarted by technology or some other less-than-life-threatening disaster? What did you learn about yourself?

I tried to replace my computer time with some long-hand writing and discovered many famous authors write parts or all of a first draft with a pen or pencil. These include Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson and recently Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winner of Trust. Ah to be so liberated!