My friend Carl celebrated his 30th anniversary in ministry Sunday. Carl’s been at St. Luke’s Lutheran (ELCA) for about 15 years; he’s one of the most grounded and compassionate people I know. I met Carl, wife Triss, and daughter Holly when Carl answered the call for pastoring at Trinity Lutheran in Porterville, CA where I lived back in the 1980’s.
As Mary and I drove down to south Sacramento on Sunday we read aloud an excerpt of Lexi Revellian’s Trav Zander on the way. Trav Zander has one of the best opening lines I’ve read on YouWriteOn.com: “I wish to acquire a dragon.” Lexi admits that line wasn’t her first choice. Writers work alone, in a non-collaborative, non-committeefied way. Yet we get feedback and consider the worth of the advice. Alan (aka Plumboz) had recommended taking that line from further in the story and making it the starting point. I like it. Trav, the protagonist, is a doer of deeds and a seeker of fortune. He has a good heart, an honest streak, and no ability to price out jobs. Pretty much anything for a buck, an entrepreneur. Let’s face it, he’s a whore.
What do these two disparate themes (Carl’s fete and a YWO review) have in common? I drafted my review of Trav Zander on the way to Sacramento using the AlphaSmart. It’s an amazing little device. The LCD screen is plainly visible in bright sunlight; try using a laptop outdoors or in a car. And it doesn’t get hot even if it stays on for awhile. And it is lighter weight than a laptop. And it automatically saves everything I type. Shall I continue?
I like the longevity of the batteries. I’m already thinking of upgrading to an AlphaSmart 3000 or Neo. I looked at the AlphaSmart Dana which uses Palm OS 4.1 software but it has a rechargeable battery and it lasts ‘only’ 25. The Neo lasts 700 on three AA batteries. Neo only does the one thing—wordprocessing—but that’s 80% of what I’d use it for anyway.
After we attended Carl’s Lutheran service at St. Lukes’s, we had an outstanding lunch at BJ’s brewery in Elk Grove, and stopped by Carl’s house to say hello, then we hopped and stopped our way to the SF Bay Area to see Lee and show Mary’s Haluzak recumbent bike to a potential buyer. SOLD! We hope the new owner enjoys it even more than Mary did.
The visit with Lee was fun and included the bonus of meeting his new hamster.
And the reason for the upgrade from the AlphaSmart to a Neo or Dana? Only the one computer of the five that we own will accept the text that is written on the AlphaSmart 2000. It seems that the 2000 must be too old of technology for the newer PCs. Who knew?
Oh, the name of the antagonist in Trav Zander is also named Carl. I’m sure there’s no connection…
Nullius in Verba 
And a very useful review it is, too. Thanks Timber, Mary and Alphie.
What’s the hamster called?
We forget her name. I wanted to say Henrietta but that’s the name of a hamster Mary once knew.
We enjoyed the story so helping by asking questions was easy.
I do love having my name bandied about in other folks’ websites, but for golly sake, it’s Alan, not Allen. Perhaps I wouldn’t be so sensitive if my last name wasn’t garbled all the time too.
Allen Hutchinson is, I am sure, a very nice name.
But it can’t compare with Alan Hutcheson for elegance.
Darned if the built-in spell check on this blog site didn’t do the little red squiggle line under Hutcheson. There, it did it again.
These people will never have my trade with this sort of thing.
Wish I could come up with an opener for my own blasted book.
Best,
Alan
Alan,
You’re quite right. I have changed the offending spelling to the correct one.
Best,
Namron Besnon