After a few weeks of brainstorming ideas, I’m down to the nitty-gritty of plotting my next book, scribbling lots of character and setting notes, mulling over conflicts and turning points, and generally letting my head get full of this new (rather exciting, if I do say so myself) tale. Naturally, just as I decide it’s time to start work on a synopsis, perhaps even a first chapter, our aging laptop coughs up a furball of corruption and carks it.

Perfect.

Fortunately we’re pretty good at backing up files and there wasn’t much screaming or tears –well, maybe a little expletive-enhanced screech – but things were as calm as they could be. The lovely Geeks2u man who came to resuscitate the computer managed to save most of our data anyway but, oh, what a pain it all is. Not only am I consigned to a netbook with a screen so tiny it’s turning me cross-eyed, we have to go through all the drama of buying a new computer and reloading it with all our stuff. Then, seeing as we’re Windows people (yes, Apple fanatics, I hear your lament but someone has to keep Bill Gates in his millions), we’ll have to learn a new operating system and work out where everything goes, and and and….

It’s all a bit much, really. All I want to do is write.

But you know what? There’s always a pencil and paper. A bit archaic perhaps, even a little slower, but wonderfully easy on the eyes and blissfully safe from the blue screen of death.

Methinks there’s a lot to be said for that.