Technology
September 1, 2001
1:59 p.m.
Sometimes we can be a little too reliant upon technology. Let's take, for instance, submissions. I hear you. How does technology affect dropping your stuff in the mailbox, Ron? You obviously don't understand. Let me tell you about my experience this week. If you've been following me recently, you know I've let my short story manuscripts lay still for the past couple weeks as I've focused on the book. So this week, I worked to get them all out there again. First things first ... the manuscripts are in electronic format. So I printed them. I don't care how fast your laser printer is or isn't, waiting for what seems like seventy-two reams of paper to make their way through the little slot take for-blanking ever. Enough said. Then it is time for the submission letters. I go back to my word processor. I should say here that I've got the basic outline of my submission letter and all my markets in a little mail-merge database inside my word processor. Yes--I get a little satisfaction out of the fact that I can send an editor a true form letter if I want. I don't, of course. But the idea that I can is enough to sustain me at certain times. I entered all the stories I wanted to send into my system, hit the merge button, and boom! ... There are the letters, waiting form me to modify as appropriate. I add bits and pieces to them as makes sense then hit print again. A century or two later, I've got everything I need. I addressed manila envelopes, being careful to make certain the addresses are easy to read despite my handwriting (which has degenerated since I do almost all my writing on the computer anymore). At this point, things are cooking along just fine. But there is a darkness on the horizon. It all comes down to the notorious SASE. You see, some years back, my beloved set me up a file to print my return address on labels. I take my SASEs, and I stick them on envelopes. Works just great. When I turned to the sheet of return labels, though, I found I had only one left. Dang. "All right, Ron. No problem," I said. "I'll just go to the file and print out some more." This made me feel better. So I search the various drives. No file. I do a search of my hard drive. No files. I spend many minutes in this quest, getting more and more frustrated. I have this pile of manila envelopes and at least a little hill of #10 SASEs. I've spent all morning getting ready to send these suckers out, and I'm going to be thwarted by the fact that I don't have any labels. Grrr. I am not to be defeated here, though. I refused to be defeated. So I searched some more. And I tried different file names. By now the SASEs were laughing at me, and time was drawing slim. I've begun to panic. Come on! Jeeze. I don't want to waste another day just because I can't print return labels. Then it struck me. I looked up and see my little black organizer. An old-fashioned ball point pen stood up, waving. I could almost hear it. "oooh! oooh! oooh!" If it were a kid it would have been jumping and shuffling between its feet. "Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!" Sheepishly, I picked it up. It felt good in my hand. I ACTUALLY WROTE MY ADDRESS ON EACH ENVELOPE! Wow! Took me about three minutes.  
Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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For your convenience, I have included a #10 SASE. Me |
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