“My name is Flora and I suffer from netbookphobia.”

by Flora Vesna

When I was six years old, I woke up one night to find an alligator standing on my chest, its snout looking down into my face. I screamed bloody murder, and my mother came rushing into my bedroom to comfort me, and I saw the gator jump off my bed and scurry out the door, its tail swerving to and fro.

Now, of course, I know I was just dreaming. Since then, I have been deathly afraid of alligators and crocodiles. Yes, there are differences between the two, but that doesn’t matter to me because I consider both to be two of the scariest reptiles on the planet with the potential to kill me. There is no specific technical term for the fear of alligators, only a general one for all reptiles called “herpetophobia,” which is fine by me because I am afraid of snakes as well (yes, even the sweet garter kind).

And don’t even ask about the time my husband and I drove through the Everglades (twice!) between Miami and my family’s vacation home on the Gulf Coast side of Florida. He took sadistic glee in pointing out the alligators that were standing on the side of the road (behind a fence, of course), with me sitting in the front seat, my hands practically glued over my eyes.

Fear of alligators. That’s a legitimate fear.

Fear of netbooks? Not so much.

As a writer, I can carry a plotline in my head for a long time without forgetting it. I care for it, I feed it, I nurture it. It lives quite the glamorous life inside my mind.

Then comes the time when I actually need to put it down on paper, meaning into my netbook. And I panic. What if it doesn’t sound as good once I release it from its sanctuary in my head?

As I place my netbook on my lap desk and power it up, I’m always afraid I’ll lose the magic of the words. And of course, I have to write more beyond the plot that had been living inside my head for so long. But somehow, I always manage to continue the story. Eventually, a new plotline plants its seed in my head, and I tend to its growth until it’s time for it to leave the greenhouse of my mind to bloom. That’s the beauty of writing.

Flora Vesna is an aspiring author of erotic romance and paranormal romance. She grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey. She resides in New York City. She has an MFA in creative writing (fiction). She can be found on Twitter at her handle: @floravesna.