…or something.

Insomnia occasionally plagues me. Last night I lay awake until oh-dark-thirty, when my brother-in-law the lieutenant colonel says he gets up, and when I finally fell asleep, I dreamed about… Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. (If you have never read any of their books, you are in for a treat. Run, do not walk, to the nearest ebook seller of your choice and pick up Agent of Change and Fledgling. They’re free. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back. All done? Good! On then!)

The door to the Lee & Miller abode, which I know only from pictures they have posted, was open, so I walked in. My main interest, it seemed, was to see what hardware they use to write. Sharon’s computer, in my dream, possessed an ergonomic keyboard made of futuristic-looking plastic and (I somehow knew) light-weight titanium. Very cool.

Steve’s could only be described as Steampunk. That one held my attention, in the dream. It was a square of something that looked like brass, with 10 levers placed 5 and 5 on two adjoining edges, sticking out like inverted ant legs, arranged to fit the human hand. I knew, upon looking at them, that Steve had only to place his fingers and thumbs on the levers, and it would transmit whatever was in his mind to the paper.

In walked Sharon, as if it was perfectly normal to find me in her house, ogling her husband’s keyboard. I greeted her and explained why I was there, and she allowed as how many people found Steve’s keyboard fascinating.

Then, more’s the pity, I woke up.