Words, Ribs, And Dragon

I have really been slacking off in the writing department lately. I started Big Lake Ranger, my 5th book for this year, on September 30th, and I should be wrapping it up by now and looking at a publishing date. But between keeping busy with some medical and technical issues and more than a little bit of laziness on my part, I’m only at about 51,000 words.

But I got back into it yesterday and proofed and corrected several chapters, wrote another one, and printed them out for Terry to edit and proofread. If I keep my nose to the grindstone, I can still finish it by the end of the month, if being the keyword here.

A friend asked me if I’m burned out and tired of writing, but that’s not the case. I’m usually fairly prolific, but sometimes I just need to back off of things for a while. I don’t always do that when I should, but when I do, I feel that my work is better when I get back to it.

Since we spent most of the week at home, when Terry asked me what I wanted for dinner last night, I told her we should go to Dustin’s Bar-B-Que. I’m a big fan of their baby back ribs, and Terry likes their pulled pork. We got there a little before 6, and the place was a bit crowded with the Friday evening trade, but it had thinned out quite a bit by the time we finished our meal. Assuming the snowbirds start flocking South this year, which they didn’t do nearly as much last year due to COVID, things should start getting busier. I know the local business community will appreciate that.

After doing a lot of research on the problems I’ve been having dictating with Dragon, I ordered a Phoineikas USB soundcard hub, which was supposed to be delivered on Monday. But it went missing somewhere between Amazon’s warehouse and the delivery truck, so I had to reorder a second one. It came Friday and I decided to see what it would do. I had some problems getting it to work at first, but when I finally did, I tried it with my Yeti Nano microphone, both with Dragon and in Microsoft Word’s dictation feature. I also tried a lavalier microphone and with my Zoom H4N pro, as well as trying to transcribe from my Sony digital recorder through it. I did not see any improvement over having the microphones or recorder plugged directly into the computer. I’ll give it some time and see what happens, but so far the jury is out on it. It may be headed back to Amazon in a few days.

I also ordered a copy of Dragon Professional Individual For Dummies since I certainly qualify for that description. Like all of the Dummies books, it’s loaded with information, and I’m hoping that it will help me get more accuracy out of the dictation software. I am becoming more and more convinced that the issue is not the software or the microphones, but rather my enunciation. I’ve been accused of being too soft-spoken and even mumbling more than once. I wonder if I can learn to talk again at age 69.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Watching Over Me: A Psychological Thriller, the first book in the heart-racing Crime After Crime series by M K Farrar and M.A. Comley. Trust me, this British crime writing duo know how to keep readers on the edge of their seats from the first page to the last! To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – I would like to thank my middle finger for always sticking up for me when I needed it.