Writer’s block part III

Here are two short paragraphs from my second Nostalgia City mystery:

Lyle Deming braked his Mustang hard and aimed for the sandy shoulder of the desert road. Luckily, his daughter Sam had been looking down and didn’t see the body.

He passed a thicket of creosote and manzanita and pulled onto the dirt as soon as he could.

Here’s how the Windows voice speech recognition program transcribed it when I read it to my computer:

Lyell great use loss think are 10:00 AM and four are being sent the shoulder of the dessert row . Luckily his daughter center had been looking Gould shaw and didn’t see the body The house a thicket of creosote her and send you a toll on two the tour as soon as he caught.

Writer’s tool kit

And people are worried about AI taking over?

In my last post, I explained that I have a tear (seven millimeters long) in a tendon in my right arm. The pain makes it impossible for me to type, and my orthopedist says I have months to go.

Rather than complain—which is silly and pointless—let me quote from an email I got recently from my friend Larry:

It seems unnecessarily cruel that God or fate attacks an author’s fingers. Why not his toes, knees, or ears?

Thanks for the support, Larry, but I already have a bum knee, and I’d like to keep my hearing.

Help is on the way.  First, my arm and hand are only slightly and occasionally painful (I still can’t type) and I’m doing PT exercises daily. Second, I’m so excited about the next Nostalgia City novel and eager to develop its quite contemporary plot, I bought professional speech-to-text software. Continue Reading →