The Scream Heard Round The World

So I was working away, editing book two of the Chronicles of Anaedor series when my computer ate my document.

Then, without so much as a by your leave, the stupid thing shut down. I stared at the blank screen for a minute. As I watched in glaze-eyed fear, the computer then kicked back on and proceeded to start up again. Okay! Things were working. I could get back to editing my book! Whew! So, when everything was fully loaded on the desktop, I double-clicked my little bookmark icon and my computer promptly went black again, shutting down, then starting up again. This happened several times (I couldn’t seem to make my mind comprehend that doing the same thing over and over again wasn’t going to make a difference).

What the heck was happening to my computer? Would I ever see my document again? Oh, the humanity!

The scary thing is that this has happened to me before. Like my mother, I’m very good at finding the bugs in software. One time I managed to freeze a video game I used to play back in graduate school 3 different times, right before I was almost to the end (once you reached a certain stage you couldn’t save, so if it crashed you had to start over again - ah, yes, the good old days). I don’t know how I did it. This time, all I did was try to undo a caps drop and my computer freaked out. Maybe I should have given it a little warning, or asked for permission, speaking softly and calmly. Little did I know that such a simple procedure would send my computer into a hissy fit.

Now, like I said, this same thing has happened to me before. Each time, my husband was able to retrieve my documents by transferring them to his Apple computer (mine’s a PC). Some kind of magical hoo-doo voodoo process happened on his Apple, and there was my stuff back again, right as rain. I’m hoping and praying that he’s able to work his magic again. I do have my stuff backed up on a disk, but I did that a week ago. I’ve made a lot of changes in that week. I do not want to lose those changes.

If you hear someone screaming in the night, you will know that I did lose those changes.

In the meantime, I am sitting here writing this blog, hoping to relieve some anxiety. I didn’t know what else to do. I even spent some time making banana bread for supper. But, until my husband comes home from his techie job and fixes this problem (he’d better be able to fix it), I have to find something productive to do. I might even clean the house.

Oh, dear Lord, now I know I’ve really flipped.

Strangely enough, I do love my computer. Can you imagine hand writing an entire novel? I can’t even comprehend it. But I pay a price for the ease in my life. Unless your house burns down, your handwritten copy is pretty safe. If it your computer eats your document, you may never see it again.

Ever. So pray for me, please, or send good vibes. We don’t need another insane writer in the world.