What Is That?

Olympia, WA: With the cooler days of autumn up here in the Pacific Northwest, the leaves are changing colors and football season is in full swing. I live in a football family: from a husband who played with USC in the early Seventies, National Championship, two Rose Bowl games to Joshua, 13, playing on Tumwater Middle School Firebird 8th grade team and Thurston County Youth Football League and Isaiah, 8, playing his second year with TCYFL.
This means I'm on the sidelines of a football field for hours. Now I'm one of the loudest during the game, they know their Gramma is cheering them on. But the boys have to be there an hour before the game for warm ups. Hmm, what's a writer to do for an hour? (raising my hand) I know, pull out my trusty AlphaSmart and start clicking away.
A what? I can already hear the questions. I get them all the time at the stadiums. "What is that?" An AlphaSmart 3000. Okay, mine is already five or six years old. There are newer versions available from the company. This portable, light weight piece of genius running 700 hours on three (3) double AA batteries, holding over 100 pages of text should be in every writer's arsenal.
Read those details again. I can pull out my AlphaSmart and have whole scenes sketched out for a novel, or punch up character details, or work on my latest book proposal while sitting in a cold, damp stadium on a Saturday morning. It automatically saves and I can upload the pages to Word when I get home.
I've used it sitting in my car in a parking lot ten, fifteen minutes before going into my day job. My AlphaSmart goes with me through Little League season year after year. There is no excuse not to be able to write a page a day or more when you have an AlphaSmart in your briefcase or bag. Eight files can store multiple works in progress.
What is it? An AlphaSmart is a writer's best friend for getting a first draft down, for punching up a scene, for brainstorming a new non-fiction book, or a timely article about first aid on a football field.
Hmm, the holidays are coming. I think you'd better order one for yourself. You deserve it.