It's NaNoWriMo Time 2020 Edition

 Once again, America, November is the time to cram 50,000 words into one day's work!

I kid, National Novel Writing Month spreads it out over 30 days. That makes it 1667 words per day, more manageable ya?

I'm going to finish working up on a superhero novel that I've been TRYING Gods help me to get done over the past ten years, and this year I'm feeling it because I am no longer distracted by other story ideas in me head. This is it, kids, I got this.

If you're a writer in Polk County, there's a Lakeland Region you can join and share in various Virtual Write-In gatherings! Look for USA::Florida::Lakeland and sign up with us.

See the rest of you on November 30th when I've got 50,000 and a semi-coherent novel of doom!

The Award

It came today in the mail!

I have Mal lying in repose behind it so you can see the white text more clearly on his black fur.

(hmmm) (contented sigh)

It feels good, getting recognition at something artistic - painting, writing, photography, singing, performing - you enjoy doing.

Thank you, Florida Writers Association, for this accolade!

National Black Cat Day 2020

Say hello to Mal the Crazy Kat (or Krazy Cat, one of the two) the Pan-Furr of the house!

You'll notice he's fixated on the snack that's about to drop into his belly!

(My online friends call their Black Cats "Pan-Furrs" because they're more fur than usual panthers, well you'll understand it when you see it)

Back Open For Business

Just to note today we re-opened Bartow Public Library for the public to come inside.

This is one of the riskier parts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, as the spread of the virus works best indoors in close quarters. A lot of the things the library staff has to do now involve:

• Making sure everyone is masked. Masks work to reduce the spread of the virus (via the moisture of our exhaling breaths). Most everyone who came in wore masks... but some refused to cover the nose, which still allows for their exhales to cause issues. Cover the mouth AND nose, please.
• Wiping down the computers especially the keyboards and mice after every person's use.
• Enforcing the social distancing such as the six-feet-apart rule. We're trying to mark off where people need to stand at the service/Information Desk.
• Putting checked-in items to quarantine for at least 72 hours.
• Trying not to stand too close while helping patrons, especially at the computers where a lot of the patrons uncomfortable with using computers insist on us helping by hand. We're trying to set up a virtual sharing between the staff computer to patron workstation to provide remote help.

So far, most of the other libraries in Polk County haven't seen outbreaks in them. I think one library in one of the smaller communities had a person test positive, they had to shut down for a week. We'll see how things play out in Bartow and how the patrons return to our building over the next couple weeks. It was quiet today, a brief rush during the afternoon when parents came in to use the computers and check out stuff for their kids.

Praying things stay safe for the staff and for the city. The COVID numbers are spiking as the flu season shifts into gear. That's the best we can do for now, muddling our way through the pandemic... 

Royal Palm Literary Awards 2020: Award Ceremony

Having submitted a Finalist in the category of Short Nonfiction: Article or Blog, with "Seven Reasons NOT to Invade Iran" from my You Might Notice a Trend political blog, I waited and watched last night's Royal Palm Literary Awards via online presentation (hi, pandemic!) for the results.

Which was this:

They haven't published the full list of winners - which covers Fiction and Nonfiction, Poetry, Published and Unpublished works - but I'll update this site with a link when I can.

This is a good, nice feeling. For a writer, there is some satisfaction when you get a work printed even when it's self-published like on a blog because there's the enjoyment of having committed the writing to paper (so to speak) and put it out there for entertainment or enlightenment or both. There is a lot of satisfaction (well, depending on how much of a perfectionist the writer is) when any work is lauded by peers.

Thank you, Royal Palm judges. I know it's tricky to give accolades to politically-tinged writing, and I am grateful you are wise enough to be open-minded to judge a work on its quality.

Now, back to blogging! (writes op-ed about how gun nut militias are ruining PT Cruiser's reputation as a cool retro car) ...What?

Bartow Library Status September 2020

I need to announce that the library where I work opened to Curbside level service today.

What this means is:

1. Patrons cannot enter the library (yet). Our computers and study rooms/meeting rooms are unavailable.
2. Patrons CAN call to place library items on Hold for Pickup outside the library door. We will have a cart set up where they can retrieve the items when they call us to say when they are there. We have a driveway at the door so they can just pull up like drive-thru.
3. Patrons can send us requests to print and copy materials, and also scan and fax documents to other locations. We would have to pickup their items to copy and return them via that doorway cart. We will charge for copies and for faxing (scanning is free, yay Internet).
4. Patrons may not be able to browse our New Fiction/Non-Fiction shelves, but we provide notebooks of current release information left at the doorway cart so they can see what's available and call us to request those titles for Curbside.

It's not a full opening, but given the risks of indoor spread of COVID, this is the safest we can be while giving our Bartow community more support than we've been able the last five months.

Going Online With Library Patrons

 The problem with the ongoing pandemic - how it restricts the availability of indoor locations, the problems of cleaning contact surfaces that include TABLES and STUDY ROOMS as well as KEYBOARDS and MICE of our public computers - is how to make the library effective for our patrons when our patrons can't come in.

One thing we are doing at Bartow Library has been creating online videos and activity links. We did a lot of Online Storytime readings for our youth literacy and read-along families. Our librarian in charge of the book discussions has been using Zoom since May and has been gaining more chat members.

She's also involved in teaching our exercise and Tai Chi classes, so she's asked us to make and present a YouTube video to share with the class enrollees she still has signed up.

So I just wanted to share that here as well, try to get the word out, and let any library users know your public library near you should be doing similar things you can follow!

Keep an eye out for more stuff!