Hey everyone! I’m on my phone today.

I was having problems with a few of my Microsoft programs on my laptop, so the Windows Support agent suggested I reinstall Windows 10. So I followed his instructions and downloaded Windows to my computer, and it took six hours. This was back in November. So on another day, when it was all downloaded and ready, I got back on the chat after waiting in line forever, and said “Okay, will somebody help me install this?”

The next agent said I needed a flash drive between 8-32 GB, but I only had one that was 120GB. So I had to go to the store to buy the right size during the holidays. Another day, back on the chat, I was told I had to download Windows 10 on the flash drive because I had downloaded the wrong version, so I had to re-download Windows 10, to my new flashdrive this time.

Flash drive ready, I went back another day to the chat, and finally this morning, amid writing the ENDING to my book, the last agent set the formatted flash drive to install Windows 10 to my laptop. I closed my manuscript and said goodbye to all my apps.

During an installation, the computer needs to reboot twice. Everything was running smoothly until the second reboot, when suddenly there was a problem. My computer gave me an error box explaining that there was an unexpected error and the installation could not proceed. To install Windows, it said, I needed to click “OK” to restart the computer and then restart the installation.

The problem came when I clicked “OK” and the computer restarted, because the only thing that happened was, that box popped up again. Every time. Restart. Box. Restart. Box. Over and over.

I did a hard reset and turned it off and on again. (Everybody knows you try that first. Lol.) No luck. I took the flash drive out and tried again. Still no luck. I tried it unplugged, and plugged in. Nada. Same box.

I got back on the chat through my phone this time and told the agent about the situation. I asked if I should take the battery out, but got a resounding “no” on that one. I just don’t have any idea what else to do. I am seriously freaked out that I can’t get on my computer at all. The agent could no longer type in the chat, so he sent me several emails asking for my phone number. I gave it to him several times and in several formats. The agent emailed me and said he’d given my number to a supervisor, and they would be calling me to proceed over the phone … but no one has called … in over an hour.

I emailed the agent and sent him a message in the chat asking if there was an issue or if I should just wait. I received no answer. An hour later, I repeated the email and the chat message, but I have still not received a phone call from a supervisor, an email or chat message from the agent.

I can’t go anywhere, though I need to go to the store, and I can’t get involved with anything in case they call. I also can’t write the scene I’m on and am super excited about, because the computer won’t work. I’m so frustrated I can’t see straight.

Yes, I’m writing on my phone right now, but I’m a pointer-finger-typer. One letter at a time. I’m about average speed, but I don’t want to write my book this way! And I’m almost done!

Oh yes, my friends, I am almost done with the book, and I know it’s good because my mom likes it and she doesn’t like anything I write. And I finally know how I want to end it.

My writing partners will be upset because I do not plan to kill everybody off, nor do I plan to make the hero choose the antagonist, like they want. Lol. If the evil one dies, it would have to be the protagonist’s fault the way it’s set up. However, the evil one is the love interest’s mother, so he wouldn’t be happy if our heroine killed his mother. Of course at that point he MIGHT actually choose the antagonist, but then why am I not telling HER story?

See, our readers want to have an experience with our books, and they want to experience good feelings–life is already hard. But a good story is already packed with drama and questions and heartache for our protagonist, so we relate, and then we want to experience the win, the romance, the answers to our questions, vicariously through the character. Girls dont want to reexperience heartache and pain, they want a happily ever after, or at least a happily-for-now ending.

And they’re going to get it with this book, though I plan for two more subsequent books, this one will be a complete story.

I can’t do much about it until I get this laptop fixed, so please bear with me. If I get a chance to blog this week I’ll make an extra post, but as of now, the blog will be back next week. If you have suggestions for a topic or any questions you’d like some more information on, let me know below or in the comments.

Update: The “supervisor” never did call. I eventually did a bunch of searching through Windows help support, but no one answered my question. So finally, I got on Google and just typed in the words in the box that kept coming up. Bingo. There was a video on Youtube. Apparently, I’m not the first person it’s happened to. It was a detailed fix, I don’t remember what I did, nor could I do it again from memory to save my life, but it worked at the time and I’m back on my laptop.

The book is now finished too! Woo hoo. Now, I have to put it away and I won’t touch it for at least a week. I found a beta reader from a critique forum on Google groups run by Maggie Stiefvater. If you read YA, you probably know of her. She wrote Shiver and The Raven Boys. Anyway, she kindly hosts a group of authors looking for a critique partner and/or beta readers. I only really heard back from one other author, but I did say experience was necessary. So that might have thrown out some of the contenders.

So, next week we’ll probably talk about the editing process, or what to look for first. Sorry, I missed last week, and this week is late. I’m thrown off my game. I also broke the “c” and “x” keys off my keyboard and can’t get them back on. And the computer place couldn’t help me, so I’m trying to replace my keyboard, but I had a hard time figuring it out. With my hubs being an IT specialist, I asked him to help me with it … two weeks ago. He will eventually. If I keep bugging. IT people HATE doing computer work at home.

I will also be helping an author client to self publish his book, so I will be making up a template on how to publish through KDP. If you are going to self-publish, you should be interested in this template. I don’t know yet if I’m going to list it here for free, or make it an optional package for sale.

I’ve also heard a few times now, “I would love to have you edit my manuscript, but I’m sure I couldn’t afford you.” Please, if you are looking for an editor, do some looking around and price-checking, and then come back here to the editing page, and see how I rate. If I’m not affordable, let me know. I don’t want money to be an issue for people who really need help.

That said, I am pretty much done doing things for free. Recently, I saw a woman’s new cover and it was pretty awful. A stay-home mom like me, and disabled as well, we had a lot in common. She had hired a family member to make the cover and paid them $500. I felt bad and made her a free cover (about $300-500 worth). I made up a back page and spine, checked the dimensions on KDP, and created an ebook and formatted paperback cover for her. This took some time, so when I came back in two days with the covers, she informed me that in the meantime, she’d hired someone ELSE to do another cover for her, but that if she didn’t like theirs, she would use mine. I don’t know what would possess a person to pay someone else when I’ve gone out of my way to help them with my time and money (I bought the stock photos for it) and not pay me, but she confirmed that she didn’t care for the second bought cover and planned to use mine. I did exactly what she wanted, but in a marketable form that would get her clicks in her genre, for free, and got no thanks.

The story is one in a long line of helping people and having it backfire on me, or having someone else profit from my work. That is why I charge anything at all. I’d like to earn for my work, but I want to be competitive with my pricing. So if you look around and feel like I’m overpriced, let me know so I can help you where you need it, and adjust my list.

Sorry today I seem disjointed. I go back to work next week and I had four manuscripts all come in for their second rounds. It’s the second round that I really fine-comb things. So I’ve got one or two weeks to get that done and my brain feels scrambled. One of them is over 400+ pages, so it will take me a while to get through them. It’s one of those things where you have so much to do, you don’t know where to get started.

I’ll also be getting an MRI this week. I have two new pains. One is straight through my ear, and the other is a burning pain through my ear, jaw, and neck. It has reawakened my TMJ and my jaw is locking open and shut, and my teeth are moving. It’s strange. So after seeing the doctor, the dentist, the ER, the ENT specialist, and the neurologist, I was told I have one of two things. It’s either a tumor on my inner ear, or it’s something called trigeminal neuralgia. Which is nerve pain in your ear, jaw, and face, that just never goes away. It’s referred to as the “suicide disease” because so many who get it, can’t handle the constant pain and kill themselves. But I have it on top of my back pain, and my bursitis, so it’s doubly painful. It’s really more than I want to handle. I’m hoping it’s a tumor, so they can cut it out and fix it, and not just another chronic pain to put up with.

My theory is that I am going to do great things, and help a lot of people, so I am under attack. Whatever you want to call it, God, the universe, demons, karma, it all adds up to be about as much as I can handle. I’ll keep you all updated on what it is. If I have to have surgery again this year, I’ll be taking a short break from blogging. So make sure you get all your questions in to me as soon as possible. And if any of you would like to be a beta reader for the book, contact me or reply to this post. Tell me what format you’d like. I have: pdf, mobi (for Kindle), and epub (for Nook). Personally, I would do the mobi version and either read it on your kindle, or download the kindle app. That way it saves your page for you.

I may use my time today to update some of the older blog titles to tell what they are about. Some have vague titles, but helpful information that you wouldn’t know was there. So have a great week, and I’ll tell you about the book and editing next week.

Until then, keep writing!