News Flash: October 9, 2011

Congratulations to Robin, winner of a copy of Lisa Schroeder’s Sprinkles & Secrets, and Missy, winner of Stephanie Sanders’ Villain School!

From the 2012 Debs…

Deb Erika had the best launch week EVER for Little Gale Gumbo and wants to thank all the Debs and everyone in the Deb Ball community for making it such a special time. The week also brought lots of lovely reviews, including one from Deb Friend and Book Blogger Jen (Devourer of Books), another from writer Erika Robuck, and one from Shelf Awareness!

Deb Molly doesn’t want to brag or anything but she totally hung out with Deb Rachel IN REAL LIFE, not on the internet, and it was awesome. (It was the awesomest! — Deb Rachel)

Past Deb News

Deb Sarah announced that Woman’s Day magazine picked The Violets of March as a “must read” book for fall!

Deb Anna stopped by Deb friend Kathy’s blog last week for a wonderful guest post at BermudaOnion’s Weblog. Anna’s new book, Falling for Me, releases this coming week!

Friends of the Debs

Deb friend Jamie Ford will be at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.

And in case you missed it, Deb Guest Julie Klam ‘s brilliantly funny mock-trailer for You Had Me at Woof, featuring the snippet-tweeting Timothy Hutton, debuted this week. Watch it here!

Deb Dish — In tribute to Steve Jobs, what was your first memory of using a computer? (Hint: It need not be for writing…)

Deb Joanne remembers being at her friend’s house when his father had bought a computer, the first I’d ever seen. I believe my friend’s dad was some sort of professor, so he was definitely an early adopter. It was a Mac, complete with the apple logo on it and everything. I don’t think it did much to impress us and I actually think I spent more time playing with my friend’s Etchasketch.  A bit later, my older brother was the first in our family to have a computer (he was in university at the time) and I borrowed it to write my very first story, called: “Make Mine a Double” about a woman who hooks up with a clone. I guess my love for drama began fairly early.

Deb Erika remembers  these huge, green-screened IBMs they had in our middle school “computer room” and its truest feature, as far as we could tell, was a horse-racing game where the “horses” were made out of upside-down arrow keys that would gallop across the screen. Not long after, my brother bought one of the first Macs (Apple IIc?), and then it was all about a version of Space Invaders. It sat in a corner of his room like the Hope Diamond. We were in awe. I don’t know how long it took me to realize I could actually use it for something other than games. I suspect I wasn’t alone in that delayed epiphany…

Deb Molly remembers playing Oregon Trail on Apple IIGS computers in the school computer lab in fourth or fifth grade. The day she figured out she should name her co-travelers after her ENEMIES, not her friends, was the day she really started to love the game. Ha ha, Brian, you have a broken leg!  Jenny L, you just died of CHOLERA!

Deb Linda first used a computer (an IBM as big as a piano, with the keyboard built into a desk) at work,  post-college, where she was utterly enchanted by the ease of editing away typos. She remembers thinking how much easier writing the gazillion term papers she painstakingly tapped out on an electric typewriter would have been if she’d had access to computer magic while still in high school and college.  She also remembers wondering, fleetingly, if the bottom would drop out of the White-Out industry. Just like now she wonders if any of you know what the heck White-Out is. Yes, Deb Linda sometimes feels ancient.

Deb Rachel was obsessed with the Apple IIe computer her dad brought home when she was probably 5 years old. She thought she was the coolest kid on the block.

 

8 Replies to “News Flash: October 9, 2011”

    1. I have vague memories of the cards in high school – I have no idea what they even did, just that I had to fill out a ton just with my name… We’ve sure come a long way!

    2. You are most welcome, Kathy! I love that all of us have these crisp memories of our first computer experiences–I still can’t get over the scale of computers today versus when we all started…

  1. My first computer was an IBM with no hard drive. To turn it on, it needed a boot disk (the big floppy kind) for DOS. Black screen, yellow letters.

    We’ve come a long way, Baby!

  2. Oh, White-Out…those were the days. Who can forget that smell? The wonder of it all (it dries so fast!!)

    And I always loved the trivia (maybe it’s not true, who knows?) that it was Mike Nesmith’s aunt who invented it. (He was always my favorite Monkee.)

    1. I think that’s true about Mike Nesmith — I’ve read it somewhere before, anyway. He became my favorite Monkee after I got taller than Davy Jones…when I was ten. 😉

  3. Erika, so glad your launch week was such a success! I know it sure was fun for me to watch it. 🙂

    Molly & Rachel, I’m so jealous you guys got to have a real life meet-up! Bet you had a blast.

    Deb Sarah, so cool about being a Woman’s Day must read for the fall!

    Deb Anna, congrats on the upcoming release of FALLING FOR ME — so exciting!

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