For two days I've been wandering in the desert of the psychotic wilderness of computer crashes. And if that makes sense you get a purple sticker! Waking up on Tuesday morning and booting up your computer and NOTHING IS THERE is the worst, most sinking feeling EVER!!!
Everything is GONE. Your WIP, documents, letters, publicity files, notes, pictures, book trailer images, you name it.
My darling new publicist at Scholastic - YES I ACTUALLY HAVE A PUBLICIST AND SHE IS ADORABLE AND TERRIFIC AND I'M SO EXCITED CAN YOU TELL?!?! - described having a computer crash as akin to losing a limb. Amen sister.
Two months ago I got my first external hard drive so not everything is lost, bless my family for bugging me to purchase an external hard drive! They must be brilliant. And thank goodness I've been backing up the current WIP - WHICH IS DUE IN TWO MONTHS TO MY EDITOR AND I'M TRYING NOT TO PANIC AS YOU CAN SEE BY MY VERY CALM DEMEANOR.
I have the best son in the world. Well, I have three of them, but middle son read my very rough first draft and he and I spent an hour and a half on the phone the other night discussing plot points and how to heighten tension and the stakes. He still has the last 30 pages to read and he has three big tests this week (college engineering so he'll be putting in about 40 hours studying) and we're going to talk again after the weekend. But dang he is good! He's always been my biggest reader (staying up all night reading with a flashlight) although all three boys love to read. Since he was 14 years old, he's been very astute about plotting and characters and what works and what doesn't.
I figured out a couple of months ago that I only have time for two revisions before the book is due and each revision needs to accomplish what 5 revisions used to in my previous books.
I have outlines. And notes. And lists. You betcha I do!
And I'm invoking heaven's blessings for a full computer recovery from this terrible, horrible, no-good-very-bad virus.
Everything is GONE. Your WIP, documents, letters, publicity files, notes, pictures, book trailer images, you name it.
My darling new publicist at Scholastic - YES I ACTUALLY HAVE A PUBLICIST AND SHE IS ADORABLE AND TERRIFIC AND I'M SO EXCITED CAN YOU TELL?!?! - described having a computer crash as akin to losing a limb. Amen sister.
Two months ago I got my first external hard drive so not everything is lost, bless my family for bugging me to purchase an external hard drive! They must be brilliant. And thank goodness I've been backing up the current WIP - WHICH IS DUE IN TWO MONTHS TO MY EDITOR AND I'M TRYING NOT TO PANIC AS YOU CAN SEE BY MY VERY CALM DEMEANOR.
I have the best son in the world. Well, I have three of them, but middle son read my very rough first draft and he and I spent an hour and a half on the phone the other night discussing plot points and how to heighten tension and the stakes. He still has the last 30 pages to read and he has three big tests this week (college engineering so he'll be putting in about 40 hours studying) and we're going to talk again after the weekend. But dang he is good! He's always been my biggest reader (staying up all night reading with a flashlight) although all three boys love to read. Since he was 14 years old, he's been very astute about plotting and characters and what works and what doesn't.
I figured out a couple of months ago that I only have time for two revisions before the book is due and each revision needs to accomplish what 5 revisions used to in my previous books.
I have outlines. And notes. And lists. You betcha I do!
And I'm invoking heaven's blessings for a full computer recovery from this terrible, horrible, no-good-very-bad virus.
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