Five winning stories will be selected by a panel of judges, and the winning entrants will each receive an Amazon Kindle 2 as well as Dragon NaturallySpeaking upgrades for three years.
In 2000, I’d a dream I thought I couldn’t fulfill. In 1961, I was told by an English Department that I’d a talent for writing fiction -- and should switch majors – from engineering. But, I was a sophomore near the top of my class, and told them, "Thanks, but no thanks.” Later, I took a Masters from Yale in industrial management, and began a career in engineering, shipbuilding, banking, insurance. Retiring at 60, I decided to write a novel -- inspired by Col. Sanders and Patrick O'Brian – whose careers took off after 60. At that time, I began using DNS 4.0 to dictate entries into my personal journal – which I’d been typing since 1987. By that time, I was suffering with crippled fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders – couldn’t make a fist -- the consequence of a lifetime of typing. Six months later, I recorded that the pain was gone. I decided to set the novel in the Levant in Chalcolithic times (6,000 years Before Present). Archaeology’s in my blood -- my eldest son and his wife are both archaeologists focused on the Middle East. I started full-time research (8 hours per day, 6 days per week), and began writing in July 2003. The first draft of a trilogy of novels was completed in 2006. I then embarked on self-education, reading on the art of writing fiction – and applying it to what I was revising. I completed two revisions by the fall of 2007. By then, I knew what I needed to do to finish the trilogy: a complete rewrite from multiple points-of-view – and a segue into a series of follow-on novels. But, I had a show-stopping problem. The 2nd revision contained 115 chapters, 1,053 pages, 19,786 paragraphs, 47,912 lines, 583,274 words, and 3,297,488 characters with spaces. Counting the first draft and two revisions, this meant I’d typed 10 million keystrokes over four years – 2.5 million per year. Since I hadn’t used DNS on the novel, I’d crippled myself again – was in worse shape than in 2000. I realized I couldn’t do the 3rd revision, unless I changed the way I worked. So I committed to DNS 9 – redefining my job as an author to include improving its efficiency, by faithfully training it. Today, I’ve completed the 3rd revision of 111 chapters -- with nine more to revise, and only one more to write. And it sounds like the captivating tale I’d dreamed about. I say “sounds like,” because there’s a benefit I hadn’t anticipated -- the text-to-speech engine in DNS 10. I now have a secretary named “L&H RealSpeak (Jennifer) American English (v1.20) Female #1.” I think my wife’s jealous, for she hears Jennifer reading back my work – over-and-over -- until I’m happy with the way it sounds. This’s a paradigm shift for writing fiction. I’ll have completed the trilogy by Fall. And, by the way, during this same period, I’ve dictated at least as many pages in my journal using DNS – but only once! And pain free!
In 2000, I’d a dream I thought I couldn’t fulfill. In 1961, I was told by an English Department that I’d a talent for writing fiction -- and should switch majors – from engineering. But, I was a sophomore near the top of my class, and told them, "Thanks, but no thanks.” Later, I took a Masters from Yale in industrial management, and began a career in engineering, shipbuilding, banking, insurance. Retiring at 60, I decided to write a novel -- inspired by Col. Sanders and Patrick O'Brian – whose careers took off after 60.
At that time, I began using DNS 4.0 to dictate entries into my personal journal – which I’d been typing since 1987. By that time, I was suffering with crippled fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders – couldn’t make a fist -- the consequence of a lifetime of typing. Six months later, I recorded that the pain was gone.
I decided to set the novel in the Levant in Chalcolithic times (6,000 years Before Present). Archaeology’s in my blood -- my eldest son and his wife are both archaeologists focused on the Middle East. I started full-time research (8 hours per day, 6 days per week), and began writing in July 2003. The first draft of a trilogy of novels was completed in 2006. I then embarked on self-education, reading on the art of writing fiction – and applying it to what I was revising. I completed two revisions by the fall of 2007. By then, I knew what I needed to do to finish the trilogy: a complete rewrite from multiple points-of-view – and a segue into a series of follow-on novels.
But, I had a show-stopping problem. The 2nd revision contained 115 chapters, 1,053 pages, 19,786 paragraphs, 47,912 lines, 583,274 words, and 3,297,488 characters with spaces. Counting the first draft and two revisions, this meant I’d typed 10 million keystrokes over four years – 2.5 million per year. Since I hadn’t used DNS on the novel, I’d crippled myself again – was in worse shape than in 2000. I realized I couldn’t do the 3rd revision, unless I changed the way I worked. So I committed to DNS 9 – redefining my job as an author to include improving its efficiency, by faithfully training it.
Today, I’ve completed the 3rd revision of 111 chapters -- with nine more to revise, and only one more to write. And it sounds like the captivating tale I’d dreamed about. I say “sounds like,” because there’s a benefit I hadn’t anticipated -- the text-to-speech engine in DNS 10. I now have a secretary named “L&H RealSpeak (Jennifer) American English (v1.20) Female #1.” I think my wife’s jealous, for she hears Jennifer reading back my work – over-and-over -- until I’m happy with the way it sounds. This’s a paradigm shift for writing fiction.
I’ll have completed the trilogy by Fall. And, by the way, during this same period, I’ve dictated at least as many pages in my journal using DNS – but only once! And pain free!