Christina Hollis—The Shock Of The New...

I love writing with a pencil, on paper. My ideal is a black, eraser-topped Woolworths HB (a type that's vanishing rapidly, from both ends!) on the right-hand page of a brand new exercise book.

You know where you are with a pencil. The same goes for your Work In Progress, unless somebody tidies it away. This isn't the case when you get technological. Almost without exception the publishing industry wants manuscripts sent as attachments to emails, and specifically Word files, at that.

My OH has been in the vanguard of technological perfection all his life. This is why we had a Betamax video player,  and if only he had the time to kickstart a Kickstarter project, Spitfires would fill the English skies once more. As he considers Apple superior to Windows for word processing, that's what I've got.

Find out more at http://bit.ly/1GEkZkJ

Technology is not my friend. It took me six years to puzzle out the original idiosyncrasies of my first Mac, by which time age and an over-stuffed memory (the machine, not me) gave it the excuse to add a whole new range of quirks and failings. This meant daily overheating and explosions (me, not the machine) as every function took forever—by which time it had forgotten what I'd asked it to do, and just tossed up any old thing. Think predictive text, only worse. And unlike that this was never, ever, funny.

Yesterday, OH came home with a brand-new computer, just for me. It has a screen the size of our chimney breast, and goes like lightning. I'm typing on it now, but very, very carefully, as nothing operates in quite the same way as it did on Old Unfaithful. This means I can now lose all my work in a fraction of the time.

I'm off to get a few chapters under my belt to get the feel of this new machine. Meanwhile, if anyone knows how to retrieve my playlist and library from cyberspace, I'd be eternally grateful! 

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Her current release, Heart Of A Hostage, is published by The Wild Rose Press and available at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage  worldwide, and from http://bit.ly/1iNf2Gw in the US.

Celebrating Creativity

As an author, creativity is very important. I don't understand it well, but without it there would be no art or music or stories. . . or computer programs. Though technology sometimes mystifies and confuses me, I understand that it is simply hands-on creativity. When some new piece of technology hits the market (like this week's new version of the iPhone or the new Gears of War game), I shake my head at the ability of some people to make their dreams into a portable, usable format and share it with the world in general. And, as an author, I guess I do that, too!

Very few people in the world personify creativity as much as Steve Jobs did -- his creations changed the world in which we live and in which our children and grandchildren will live.

So, the announcement that Steve Jobs died hit me more than I thought it would.

It's not as though I knew the man personally or even followed him closely, so this gut reaction surprised me. I've been watching all the news bits about him, about his history, about the technology he's created or shepherded into existence and about how his many innovations came about. I find it interesting to see how much creativity is celebrated and honored by him and his life.

I want to share a couple of quotes of his -- this one about how Apple merged creativity with technology --

"Picasso had a saying. He said 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. ... I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

And this one -- about loving what you do--

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Both of those are inspirational to a writer like me -- reminders that unless we follow those voices in our heads and move in the direction our hearts send us, we will never be all that we can be. I don't consider Steve Jobs a saint, but I do think he's changed the world for the better and that's something I'd like to be able to say about my own life, too.

So, in honor of the man, I'm going off to let my creativity flow and to let those voices in my head and the dream in my heart show me the way.....I'm going to spend the day writing.

Do you consider yourself creative? What is your special creative power? Do you create words, pictures, ideas, people, gadgets, calm or what? Post a note and I'll pick a commentor to win a $15 iTunes gift card (I mean, really, what else could I do?!)....



Terri is busy working on her next Harlequin Historical - a new Highlander series! - coming in 2012. Her recent release, MISTRESS OF THE STORM from Kensington Brava, is available in print and digital formats and her short story KIDNAPPING THE LAIRD is available in digital formats! Visit her website for more info about her and her books.