An Unfolding SF Idea and a Keyboard Review

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* An Unfolding Idea for an SF Novel
* Artech HW086 Keyboard (Review)
* Of Interest

Quotes of the Day

“The united voice of millions cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.” ~ Oliver Goldsmith

“Truth is a clumsy servant that breaks the dishes while washing them.” Karl Kraus

“We’re still in the first minutes of the first day of the Internet revolution.” Scott David Cook, co-founder of Intuit

An Unfolding Idea for an SF Novel

Yesterday in Quotes of the Day I wrote these two paragraphs:

“Genetic control will be the weapon of the future.” Jeanette Winterson

An appropriate topic for a novel as our own federal government recommends and moves toward mandating “vaccines” that will alter the recipient’s RNA

Today, this rolled in from 1440 Daily Digest:

“US health officials propose shifting to a once-a-year COVID-19 booster for children and adults, similar to the flu shot schedule (More) | More than 80% of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose; around 15% have received a booster (More)”

There you go. If you can’t write a dystopian SF novel based on that, you either aren’t interested in SF, are frightened of backlash from the feds, or your fingers are broken. (grin)

There’s also a direct tie-in at the first link under “Of Interest.” Yet another potential breach of privacy and another step toward Orwell’s Big Brother.

Understand, I’m talking only as a fiction writer here. My only concern personally is that everyone gets to choose whether to accept a so-called vaccine (um, because it isn’t actually a vaccine at all). Of course, we’re living in an age of what I call surface freedoms, a time when, for example, you may call a duck an eagle and everyone has to pretend to agree with you.

At this point the choice of whether to be injected is still yours, although the feds have increased the pressure by regularly invoking the dreaded “CovId-19” in advertisements and urging the public to get injected. Fear is an excellent catalyst, but ruling by fear is never a good thing.

The advertisements are now saying you are especially at risk for CovId and therefore should take the injection(s) if you engage in risky behavior. For example, if you smoke (well, smoking marijuana’s perfectly fine, but you know, not those devil tobacco products), drink, or think for yourself.

Okay, that last one hasn’t popped up in commercials yet, but I suspect that’s only because it isn’t a widespread phenomenon.

So anyway, I probably will never write this idea because it annoys me so much. And even if you and I both did write it, the resulting novels would be vastly different.

So if it speaks to you, feel free. Roll the above together with the first item linked to in “Of Interest” and your own research. There might even be an SF series in your future.

Artech HW086 Keyboard (Review)

In a first, ever, I thought I’d offer a review of a new (to me) piece of tech. And really, it’s only right. For many of us, the keyboard we use is an integral part of the writing process. I know it is for me. And after a bunch of years I’ve discovered maybe my first ever favorite keyboard manufacturer. I received my new keyboard yesterday, a stainless-steel wireless Artech Model HW086, and I absolutely love it. Here’s why:

The keys are close enough together that I can type without reaching. That decreases the number of errors from inadvertently hitting the wrong key and the time spent backspacing or deleting, and thereby increases my actual overall writing speed.

The keystrokes are shallow enough to encourage touch typing. I feel as if my fingertips are crawling over the keyboard, yet the keys are solid enough so my fingers enjoy the experience. I can literally feel myself putting my characters’ words on the page, but it isn’t clunky in the slightest.

The Delete key is in the upper right corner. That’s important if layout matters to you (it does to me). Essentially, this keyboard mimics the keyboard on my little 11.6″ HP ProBook. You can’t beat comfort when you’re typing.

The keyboard is wireless, as I mentioned earlier, but it also has a built-in rechargeable battery and a charging cord.

The price was excellent. I would have paid twice as much for this much quality in a keyboard. The base price on sale was only $17.59. My total, including tax, was only $23.33. No shipping as I ordered through Amazon Prime. And when I looked yesteray, they even have the same model in “used, like-new” condition for only $13.99. (Same link, scroll down on the right.)

So overall, if you are a writer and if you want a keyboard that will serve as an unintrusive, silent partner in putting new words on the page, I strongly recommend the stainless-steel, wireless Artech Model HW086.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “A breakthrough system can see through walls by using Wi-Fi routers” at https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/see-through-walls-using-wi-fi-routers.

See “Finding Those Laser Beam Words” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/01/finding-those-laser-beam-words.html. Maybe good as a conscious-mind learning exercise. But while writing, if you focus on words you will lose track of Story..

See “Me, Myself, and (A)I: Copyright Office to Focus on AI Authorship” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/me-myself-and-ai-copyright-office-to-focus-on-ai-authorship/.

See “FBI director warns about Beijing’s AI program” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/fbi-director-warns-about-beijings-ai-program/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 890 words

Writing of Wes Crowley: Deputy US Marshal 2 (WCG9SF4)

Day 1…… 3231 words. Total words to date…… 3231

Total fiction words for January……… 40053
Total fiction words for 2023………… 40053
Total nonfiction words for January… 15460
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 15460
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 55513

Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 72
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer because of my zen-like non-process. If you want to learn it too, either hang around or download my Journal Archives at https://hestanbrough.com/the-daily-journal-archives/, read them, and try WITD for yourself. For the time being, the archives are free.