by Gail Ingis | Feb 22, 2018 | Art, Design, Gail Ingis Author, Gail Ingis Blog Post, Technology, Writing
You know that frustration you feel when your computer is behaving badly but you’re so in love, you can’t bear to break up with it? Turns out that relationships, including the ones we have with our computers, are very complicated.
Tha’s how I”m feeling right now about my Mac. It’s a MacBook Air and I’ve had it for about 8 years which is like 70 human years. Computer years are even tougher than dog years.
If my computer was a PC, I would have been through two more by now, but not with Mac.
So, while I’m still trying to hang onto my “best” computer companion, I’ve reached out to Apple Tech Support and any geek/nerd I can find.
One of my problems is that my MacBook is not “going to sleep” when I want it to. Which makes it really tough to get updates. Yup, you heard me, Mac will not go to bed! I have to hold down that little button on the top right until it finally goes to sleep. Then after I count ten seconds, I push that button down again, Mac turns on, but not before it flashes a notice at me, The computer shut down because of a problem, it will continue starting up in sixty seconds. Don’t touch any buttons the tech guy said. I touch nothing, and it boots up. Then the next day there’s a message waiting for me on my computer that says, Mac could not install updates, if you want to, blah, blah, blah, the routine starts over again.
Mac is operating, but it has 23,000 emails that I am having difficulty deleting. I’ve taken off most of my photos, and that’s tough for the artwork I do. I guess I have to visit the Apple Store or call Apple Tech Support tomorrow. I want my computer to be nice to me and treat me the way I expect to be treated. I do some pretty important stuff on it, and I don’t want to worry it will have a Mac attack on me while I’m on the last chapter of my book.
So, should I break up with my Mac or keep getting “counseling” from Apple Tech Support? I’ll keep you posted . . .
Gail Ingis Claus is an author, artist/painter and interior designer. Her upcoming romance The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin will be released in spring 2018. Her current historical romance, Indigo Sky can be purchased on amazon.
http://amzn.to/2j0LXLE
by Gail Ingis | Feb 15, 2018 | Design, Gail Ingis Author, Gail Ingis Blog Post, News, Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine’s Day from our hearts to yours.
Tom and I have been married for many years, so we don’t need to do the “typical” thing to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This year, our special present to ourselves was a trip to the furniture store for a new sofa. Yep! It’s time for our 24-year-old sofa to move out. We’ll be donating it to charity along with a few other things around the house. So on the advice of my dear friend Lorraine Davis, a talented interior designer who is still working at the age of 90, we went to Jordan’s Furniture. And boy did we have fun! Not only did we get terrific service, we bought a beautiful sectional with built-in recliners. Those recliners will come in handy for watching our favorite Hallmark movies and when I need to put my feet up while I’m writing. So Happy Valentine’s Day and remember it’s the time you spend with your sweetheart that matters most.
I ordered this gorgeous sectional in “Classic Sahara”.
And here is my “Valentine” to Jordan’s Furniture:
The experience purchasing our new sofa from you was awesome. It’s obvious that you have a handle on the market, the product, delivery and warranties and philosophy of Jordan’s Furniture. We are confident that the sectional four recliner leather sofa and console table is the expected fine quality and will serve our lifestyle perfectly. The leather upholstery has an amazing hand (Feels soft, pliable, stable and aniline dyed). The pricing fair and expected for our purchase.
Of course, this first time visit was a most pleasant experience, walking in from the handsome exterior to the welcome music at the entrance, (Felt like Disney/Epcot) to the visuals stepping into the showroom, and the salespeople’s smiling faces and greetings, both coming and going, we can’t wait to visit again, maybe make another purchase. I must add that the unexpected brief treat of the pizza snack and ice cream was tops. It was a smidge late to snack at the hour of 8:30 pm, but by the time we left, we could not wipe the smiles off our faces, but we did get that ice cream sundae caramel syrup off. Thank you Cary B, and thank you Jordan’s Furniture.
Gail Ingis Claus is an author, artist/painter and interior designer. Her upcoming romance The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin will be released in spring 2018. Her current historical romance, Indigo Sky can be purchased on amazon.
by Gail Ingis | Feb 8, 2018 | Gail Ingis Author, History, Life, News, Technical, Writing
Brite Brilliance 16×20″
When I was a kid, hearing the word “tag” meant it was my turn to find and tag the kids who were hiding, with ‘you’re it’. In baseball, if you get tagged running the bases, uh-oh, you’re out.
These days, I’m dealing with different kinds of tags – dialog tags in my writing. Let me tell you that the hide and seek tags were a whole lot easier than these pesky dialog ones. When I first began writing, I was told that tags are meant to let the reader know who is talking: he said, she said, etc. But having written and published one book, and writing my second, I decided to review the system. In my efforts to be a better writer I began wondering about all the rules and when and how to break them.
The “Less is More” motto has always been my mantra. It’s touched all parts of my life including my career as an interior designer and my work as an artist/painter. My painting Brite Brilliance (on the left) could have included a lot more in the foreground like a tree or trees, people, animals, taller plants, and shrubs,. But I decided that “less is more”. I wanted the eye to focus on “the big picture” and so this is the result. And guess what? I sold Brite Brilliance in no time at all.
Thumbs up! For Johnson’s tags.
Here’s the scoop. According to an article by D.M Johnson, He Said, She Said: Dialog Tags and Using them Effectively, on Scribophile. Simplicity is key. Johnson writes that the “less is more” approach is better than all the alternative creative ways of saying “said” i.e. “agreed”, “countered”, “offered”, “argued”. Let alone those pesky adverbs: gently, quietly, softly – she said softly, he said quietly. Dialog tags like “he growled”, “she exclaimed, he replied, etc. Tags that try to be heroic are deceptively dragging your reader out of the story. Those tags are stopgaps, disruptions and a way to ensure that an editor, agent or publisher will toss your manuscript into the garbage. They usually check your dialog first, if they see all those fancy tags, they go no further. You’ve been tagged a reject.
A way to see: How does your brain see this image? Is this about two profiles in black or a goblet in white?
Johnson says that dialogue tags (or speech tags) are like signposts, attributing written dialogue to characters. Dialogue tags don’t need to be fancy, splashy, or self-conscious. Their primary purpose is to show which characters speak and when. The greater the number of characters involved in a scene, the more important the frequency and positioning of tags becomes.
Adding adjectives and adverbs to tags to provide specific information about the speaker or the speech—she asked warily; he said innocently. These are called adverbial tags. Sometimes adding an adverb to a tag can be useful, a quick way to indicate a mannerism or emotion (she said quickly; he said coldly) without drawing it into a longer, descriptive sentence. As a caveat, it’s frequently suggested in writing advice columns and books that such tags be used with a careful hand; an adverb can make a tag more obvious and remind people they’re reading a story instead of experiencing it. Still, published authors use them when it fits the situation.
You can apply this motto to everyday life. When you’re organizing your home office, decorating your living room, putting together an outfit for a job interview or a night on the town. Remember, “less is more”.
For more information on dialogue tags check out DM Johnson’s article. She has a ton of great stuff to say.
D.M. Johnson is a published author and an editor dedicated to helping writers achieve their goals. Her background includes a BS in English and marketing. She provides editing and critique services through Word-Edge.com, offers specialty publishing for unique projects, and teaches writing classes online.
Gail Ingis Claus is an author, artist/painter and interior designer. Her upcoming romance The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin will be released in the spring 2018. Her current historical romance, Indigo Sky can be purchased on amazon.
Click the image! Linked to my Amazon author page
Click the image!. A work of art, linked to my Facebook page
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