Back in Action Thanks to Lisa, Phil and Chris Bailey!

I’m back in action!

 

Over the weekend Lisa (my power partner) and Phil (my nephew) worked their tails off getting my new PC (from fellow author and copywriter Chris Bailey) up and running despite persistent, time-gulping challenges.

 

Century Link’s sluggish weekend speeds caused massive delays when it came to uploading (or is it downloading?) the online programs I need (Libreoffice and others), so I’m searching for a local provider who offers faster Internet speeds 24/7/365. What should have taken two minutes was taking two and three hours! So Phil ended up using thumb drives to download/upload what we needed from Jackie’s side of the house. (Jackie’s service is  Rainier Connect. It has lightning fast speeds, apparently, compared to Century Link.)

 

I’m looking at Rainier Connect’s reviews; they’re not good, but my sister hasn’t had any trouble with them, and most of the bad reviews come from the hinterlands, not where we are here in Tacoma/Puyallup. I’m sure that has something to do with the lower-ranking outlying reviews, although fiber optics hasn’t reached us here yet, either…

 

Anyway, all weekend I was out of touch with everything and everyone online. It felt isolating and very weird. It made me antsy, especially because I knew a client had emailed me some editing/enhancement work to do. Luckily, he said none of it was urgent and to take my time (February 1st was the deadline), and I was able to tackle it by mid-morning on Monday when I got fully back online.

 

I just regained access to this website today, so that’s why I haven’t been in touch with you until now.  I felt like a trapped animal, unable to write!  It was just the craziest thing.

 

So I read…and read…and read… a lot!

 

I read three books by — you guessed it!!!– Chris Bailey, the local author mentioned above. I met him recently thanks to Heidi Smith of Christmas Revisited.  I adore him! The books I read are Whisper, Without Chance and Sub-Heroes: The Adventures of a Fourth Grade Superhero.

 

Chris Bailey

in front of the awesome bookshelf quilt

his mom made for him.

I want one! 

If I get the full-time copy writing job in Federal Way it’s the first thing I’ll order!

 

Chris often writes about underdogs/marginalized groups. He’s a family man with a loving, very lovable wife (I haven’t met her yet, but his description of her as “amazing” says it all–and it says a lot about him, too!) and two children, a toddler and a preschooler.

 

Whisper and Without Chance had me in suspense throughout and in tears a number of times.

 

He signed Whisper to me “To Kris, a man after my own heart” and Without Chance “Love is Everything.”

 

And he has a sci-fi YA series The Starjumper Legacy: The Crystal Key, The Vanishing Sun, and The Plague of Dawn among other things…

 

Here are snippets from his author blurb from Whisper: “Working professionally with families for more than twelve years has given Chris a unique outsider’s perspective on many of the personal struggles that individuals of all demographics go through in our society…  Inspired by his frustrations with a society so full of fear and labeling, his fifth novel Whisper was written with the dream that someone out there will read it and find in themselves what this book is all about: hope and friendship …   If you know someone struggling with depression, anxiety, or other destructive emotional obstacles, find a way to let them know that someone cares, and that they’re never truly alone if they can open up enough to let someone else be there for them.”

 

And here’s a snippet from the author blurb from Without Chance: “Inspired by his frustrations with a society so full of prejudice and hate, his second novel Without Chance was a way for him to express his support and encouragement to the many young folks struggling with their sexuality and the pressure put on them to conform to an arbitrary ‘norm’…  A firm believer that “Love is love,” he hopes this book might help at least one such young person come to realize that they too deserve to love and be accepted not only by their friends and family, but by society as a whole.”

 

Phase Publishing is the publisher. (It’s his publishing company.)

 

None of his books are heavy-handed moralizing. Instead, the reader falls in love with his marginalized protagonists.

 

I’ve just begun reading the YA-level Starjumper series. It’s looking good!

 

Chris came to meet my goats and to have lunch with me on Friday. As mentioned above, he also brought my new (his not-old) Dell PC.  He upgraded/segued to a laptop recently, and when I reached out on Facebook for a used, hopefully free or low-cost working PC, he donated his to me. It’s a higher end Dell (my favorite PC manufacturer, hands down). I am soooo grateful. It works like a charm.

 

We also exchanged books, signing them to each other. That was fun! We had a great meal and a wonderful conversation at Shari’s Restaurant on Canyon just off Hwy 512.

 

Chris is (YAY!!!) a financial copy and content writer so now I have someone I can feel really good about referring clients to when they’re looking for a financial writer. I don’t write in that field at all. So now we’re power partners as copywriters and as local authors. How cool is that?

 

Next week I have a lunch date with a woman I grew up with for the first ten years of my life when I lived in Tacoma the first time. She’s a retired school teacher. Her natal name then was Jessie Haire. Now it’s Jessie Richards.

 

A few years ago while she was still working full-time I surprised her when I came to her school to present myself to a gathering of librarians who were meeting there. When one of them realized I knew Jessie, she went and fetched her from her classroom and had her walk in and spot me.  It was great!

 

“Kris?!”  “Yes!”  “Oh my gosh!”

 

She retired last year so it’s time to reconnect again, now that she has the time to do it.  I’m looking forward to it. We have a lot of catching up to do–like fifty years’ worth!