The Science of Desk Clutter

May 18, 2011

I like to stay up-to-date on things. Every day, the current news stories the homepage of my browser selects for me keep me in touch with the real world.

Okay. Maybe not the real world, but some world outside my own four walls.

Somehow, and I don’t remember the actual series of clicks my little mouse took to get me there, I landed on a page with this headline: “Computer Desktop Clutter Reveals Your Personality.”

Say…what? That’s a scary headline. Why in the world would I want to know what my clutter says about me? I wouldn’t, but it was too late. I was sucked in – snared by my own curiosity into reading the article. Imagine my relief when I got to the part that says their survey, based on 80 million answers, is not scientific because it’s not based on a representative sample of the population.

I wondered, too, at this point, why Live Science was wasting web space, but I read on, unable to stop myself.

It seems that men are more likely than women to have a neat desktop. That led me straight to the burning question of why can’t men get their dirty clothes in the hamper, but I digress. They did say the survey wasn’t scientific.

Moving on, messy desktop users are more likely to have completed some sort of higher education. Uh-huh.

I’ll keep my mouth shut and my fingers off the keyboard on that one.

People who live in crowded cities are more inclined to keep a messy desk as compared to those in rural areas.

Messy deskers say work is often more important than their personal life. Messy deskers often have messy closets. (This was a surprise…why?)

Neat deskers who are more tech-savvy are more likely to place their personal life first and responded they work simply to pay the bills.

So where am I in all that? I’m female (cluttered), I live in a very rural area (uncluttered), didn’t go to graduate school (cluttered), I work because it pays the bills and provides health insurance (uncluttered).

My desk? It falls between “can’t find a freakin’ thing” and “a clean desk is a sign of a sick mind.”

And I like it that way.


KC Kendricks
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Amber Allure Top Ten Best Seller list, July 2010

August 1, 2010
7:13 AM

Congrats to my fellow Amber Quill Press/Amber Allure authors who made the monthly top ten best seller list for July 2010.

AMBER ALLURE / July 2010

1. And The Survey Says... - Karma Eastwick (Gay / Contemporary)
2. Pieces - Shawn Lane (Gay / Contemporary)
3. Save Me From Myself - Cassie Stevens (Gay / Contemporary)
4. Revealing The Past - T. A. Chase (Gay / Paranormal)
5. Bus Stop - Pepper Espinoza (Gay / Contemporary)
6. Yesterday's Names - Vivien Dean (Gay / Contemporary)
7. (Boys Of The Zodiac) Leo: All That You Are - Jamie Craig (Gay / Contemporary)
8. Night Train To Naples - Carolina Valdez (Gay / Vampire)
9. On Days Like These - Christiane France (Gay / Contemporary)
10. Wings Of Love - Deirdre O'Dare (Gay / Shapeshifter)

Strange Days, Half a Lifetime

November is always a strange time in the yearly cycle of my life. November 8th marks the anniversary of my father’s passing, and this year is particularly significant. This year, I have lived half my life without my dad.

I never know how I’m going to feel when November rolls around. Some years I’ve been melancholy, reflecting about those things in my life I can’t celebrate with him. What he’d say about my writing, I don’t know. He was always proud of me, but his little girl wasn’t supposed to know about, um, you know… sex.

He was a man of few words, unless it was about the speed at which I prefer to drive. It’s not what you might think. Dad drilled it home that if I planned to drive fast, I’d better know how to make the correct split-second decision. He didn’t tell me to slow down, because he didn’t waste words.

My dad is directly responsible for my love of American muscle cars. No, not exotic, for God’s sake, as described by one reviewer. AMERICAN MUSCLE. I know by the sound if it’s got a 283 or a 327 under the hood. I know at a glance if it’s a ’67 or ’68 Camaro, and I know the difference between a big block and small block.

What he thought of having a motorhead for a daughter, I don’t know, but I know he took the time to teach me as much as he could. Very helpful knowledge when dealing with mechanics and used car salesmen. Also very helpful when sizing up a prospective mate.

This year, I find I’m sad to have lived half my live without my dad. He would have had his 80th birthday this past June, and I cannot picture him at that age. For me, he’s frozen in time at the age of 52, my age now. A young man. A handsome man with humor in his steely blue eyes. A strong man standing six feet tall whose arms were always ready with a hug.

I hope he’d still be proud of me, of the choices I’ve made, and how I’ve handled those situations where choices were made for me. I hope he’d tell me it’s okay to love my stepfather, a man who is a true blessing to my mother’s life, and to mine. I know he’d approve of my Mr. Goodwrench certified husband.

So if I’m sad right now, I know it will pass. Something mundane will happen as I go about my days, and Dad’s grin will flash in my memory, and I’ll hear his laughter. And for a moment, he’ll be beside me again.

Life is always good.

KC Kendricks

How Star Trek convinced me to stay in the RWA

It's true. I'm a member of the Romance Writers of America, and it's membership renewal time again. I don't think they know I'm a member since you sign up under your real name. Since I started my career using a different nom de plume, KC Kendricks isn't listed on their website.

To what I suspect is their horror, my alter ego is, as I have PAN status. Make no mistake, the epublished author is a second class citizen in the eyes of the RWA, and for us to have a listing on the website makes a lot of people cringe.

The last several years has seen the RWA maneuvering to oust the epublished author. Rule after rule is approved to thwart our progress, and yet we persist, and continue to sell books. At one time, the RWA didn't want to consider us to be published authors.

Sorry. Legions of readers buy our epublished stories and we get checks. That makes us published. I begin to suspect we make more than some print only authors - witness the influx of those writers to epublishing along with some big name publishers going e-book.

What's really down and dirty is how the RWA waits until after the renewal period is up and then they slap down the new rules.

As if we don't notice. Tsk. Tsk.

Well, $85 is a lot to shell out for a yearly membership, but I guess I'll do it again. Why? I like the punishment. Just kidding. It's because of Star Trek.

I've been a fan of Star Trek since episode one, which first aired in September 1966. I was nine. I've seen every episode of every series, and every movie. (Yep. Saw the newest Star Trek today and you won’t get spoilers here but you should see it..) And back in the 1980's, I read every book fandom produced. One thing about Trek - you never know what might happen.

The only thing that is carved in stone in Star Trek, is if you're wearing that red security shirt on screen with Captain Kirk, you're gonna die, and probably horribly. Other than that, all bets are off, and you never know. All things are fluid, even space. Even the Borg. Crisis and solutions alike morph out from under you. You never know.

And you never know about the RWA. One day, it may morph into an organization that truly represents its total constituency. I want to still be there when that happens.

What will I have to say then? Well, you never know.

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betweenthe keys
http://www.twitter.com/kckendricks
http://www.myspace.com/kckendricks

Saturday Evening Romance

One of the hardest things about writing happens after the story is finished and the contract signed - promoting. The e-pubbed author is generally with several different publishers and may even have a different nom de plume for different genres. To help the process along, I opened a promo blog, Saturday Evening Romance. http://www.saturdayeveningromance.blogspot.com

This promo blog is open to all authors regardless of genre or publisher, and I invite authors, and readers, to check it out. The guidelines are posted on the home page of the blog for reference. I've also included them below.

I hope you'll find Saturday Evening Romance a place to find a wide range of new and favorite authors.

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com

SATURDAY EVENING ROMANCE GUIDELINES

To have your new release or excerpt posted, please send it to kckendricks@yahoo.com with Saturday Evening Romance in the subject line.

Only contracted, edited work with proper ISBN and publisher links will be accepted.

If you include a link in your post it may not show, so be sure to type the url so it can be copied and pasted into a browser.

Be sure to format your excerpt. We won't reformat it. While we welcome the chance to help everyone promote their work, we have our own writing to do.

You may include a book cover.

Please, only one post per author per week. If you have permission to post and abuse this limit, your posts will be removed, and your posting permission revoked.

New release - please make sure you've included your purchase link and ISBN.

Reviews- Please add them at the end of your excerpt.

Contests - please add them at the end of your excerpt.

Coming soon - please add them at the end of your excerpt.Visit my [website, blog, myspace, facebook, ning, booksigning, etc.] - please add them to the end of your excerpt.

Make sure you send time sensitive material in plenty of time to be posted.

Political commentary of any nature will not be posted.

We reserve the right not to publish any entry that we feel is offensive for any reason.