Kage Baker, if she was aware of my writing efforts last night, must have been wringing her hands and cursing in frustration, Technology was never something she enjoyed dealing with, even when it was working correctly. Last night, it was not working at all for me – at least not in the way where one even has the time to wring one’s hands or set one’s hair on fire. And while Kimberly has been very patient with the noise I make – writing not being a silent process with me – frenzied profanity interferes with the family watching television.

But, man, it was a right mess last night. Microsoft Office, a usually reliable place to create an ordinary document, simple did not respond. You can’t mess with a site you can’t open; that seems to have been the philosophy behind the non-operation. The one funny moment in the general morass was an apologetic page from WordPress, explaining that none of their links were working, due to an “unspecified personnel problem”.

I figure somebody got fired just before their Christmas break and left their employer an epic present. I had a good laugh, though. And it was sort of satisfying to know someone was worse off last night than I was. Especially a huge corporate “monster” like WordPress. It seemed we were both having inexplicable problems. Heck, I hadn’t even fired anybody!

However, in the meantime, I have now accomplished 2 blogs in a row. Whoopee! A personal best, at least in this current cycle of writing. Kage always said that when you started writing a new project, all the lights went out and the gears cycled back to start in the machine that watches you write. Thus, you got new goals and victories every time.

I asked Kage once where this watching machine was located and what it looked like – not teasing; I was always fascinated about how she populated the world … she described a rather wonderful device, rich with coloured lights and bedight with polished brass, ticking and honking gently just behind her left shoulder.

And who was I to argue? It was only one of many machines with which Kage populated our life. Besides, since I began to write myself, I have noticed soft machine noises just behind me. I get glimpses of brass in the windows beside me; the room is occasionally perfused with gently chiding or congratulatory colours. Kage’s machine has somehow followed me and taken up residence in unguarded sections of my mind. Which, to be honest, is most of them …

I must also credit my sister Kimberly; every day, without fail, she has told me to write. She started me writing again. And Kage’s machine keeps me writing along.

But I really have accomplished something that amazes me. At this point in my recent life, managing two blogs in a row is astonishing. And tomorrow, I will try for three.