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Bankrate: Was the nerve damage from typing?
Buchanan:
It could be. I never paid much attention. Like
court reporters and others I knew who got carpal
tunnel syndrome, I always thought they were just
malingerers looking for workers' comp. But for
more than 20 years I just pounded and pounded
on manual typewriters and never had a problem.
Then I had an IBM Selectric typewriter and I typed
on that for years. Then the computers came in,
and it was after working on computers for a while
that the problem really was revealed. I don't
know if it was building up all those years and
it was inevitable, or if it was the computers
that are more responsible for it than the others.
Bankrate:
As a result, you've started using voice-activated software lately to write your
books. How is that working for you? Buchanan:
Pretty good. Nothing is perfect, but you know, it is amazing. I couldn't be anywhere
near as productive; I don't even think I could do it, write these books and make
these deadlines, without it. It is intuitive software. It learns. I read one or
two of my prior books into it so it could catch on to my vocabulary. Very often,
based on what I've done before, it thinks it knows what I'm going to say, so many
times, as I'm speaking to it, dictating to it, it'll finish the sentence before
I do. When I have the microphone too close to my mouth, it'll
pick up my breathing sounds, or hiccups or sneezes. I was working on "Cold
Case Squad" and there is a scene with this femme fatale named Natasha who
is this sexy, beautiful woman with no past who is really very mysterious and dangerous.
She hadn't been in the outline, she just appeared and became a very strong force
in the book. So I was thinking, what am I going to do with her, and I guess I
sighed and the words that appeared on the screen were, "Kill her." So
I did; it was a great idea, and she did die this really bizarre death. It's almost
like you have a collaborator, like the thing is psychic. I was afraid my software
would get an agent and I would have to start splitting the books with it. Bankrate:
How are you doing financially? Buchanan:
Well, I'm making it, but it's not easy. Everybody thinks that if you write a book,
you're automatically a millionaire. And of course I've never been very financially
astute, so I'm sort of house-poor; my house is worth a lot of money but I don't
want to sell it and it's really expensive to live around here. And the house is
a darn money pit, there's always something, and with the windstorm and hurricane
and homeowner's insurance, it's extremely expensive. Miami has become a really,
really expensive place to live. My windstorm insurance last year was $10,000.
I'm on one of the three man-made islands of Venetian causeway between Miami and
Miami Beach. When I moved into this house, this is where I hoped to spend the
rest of my life, and I hope I do. Because where would I go?
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