Ave, Steve Jobs

I wrote my first book on a used Apple Macintosh that my friend Ted Davis gave me. Yes, a Macintosh with no modifiers, the very first of the line. I used MacWrite (II, I think). I never sold that book, but I fell in love with writing while I was doing it. I also fell in love with the Mac. It was so much simpler to use than any other computer I'd tried working on. It didn't get in my way I was able to just write and not worry about the machine I was working on.

I think I was in the middle of my second book when I upgraded to a slightly newer used Mac, this one with a hard drive. That lasted me through my third book and the beginning of my short story phase. That gave way to my first Mac laptop, a little Powerbook 140 that I bought new. Then a 145b where I wrote the short version of WebMage, my first story to sell.

I wrote WebMage the novel on my next Mac, a clamshell iBook slate. The form factor helped inspire the version of Melchior's laptop that most of my readers are familiar with. Two white iBooks followed, carrying me through the first couple of WebMage books as well as three novels that are still looking for homes.

I'm writing this on the successor to those machines, an aluminum MacBook, a tough beautiful machine that has lasted longer than any of its predecessors. It's seen me through the end of MythOS, SpellCrash, Broken Blade, Bared Blade, half of Crossed Blades, and The Eye of Horus. I also own an iPad that I use to take notes at Wyrdsmiths meetings and to read ebooks including eARCs.

My history with the Mac is my history of writing. I won't say that I wouldn't be a writer without Steve Jobs and Apple, but it would have been a lot harder and a lot less fun.

Steve Jobs, you made my life better, and you helped me bring my art into the world. Thank you!