So I just learned a very valuable lesson yesterday....always have a backup when working on a novel. I am extremely glad I emailed both my novel and synopsis to a close friend, because my laptop kicked the bed! It is fully charged and won't turn on. I have to try and get my motherboard out of it and hook it up to a USB to get the rest of my files, such as my photos and query letter I worked days on. Right now, I am kicking myself in the ass for not emailing that too. So my word of advice--always...always, have several backups. Email it, save it on a disk, or even save it in your own email. Just make sure you have a backup.
I am grateful I wrote down a couple of the agents I want to query, unfortunately I didn't write down all of them. They are saved in my favorites bar on my laptop, go figure. The hours I spent researching each agent, trying to make sure they represent my kind of novel and would be a good fit with me, blown. But just so you know, this is my kind of luck.
On another note, my friend Steph and I had a little better luck yesterday that our normal days. Every time we go to the store together, something happens. Luckily for us, it wasn't our fault. After we parked we were getting all four kids out of the truck, when an elderly lady pulled in behind us and hit the ass end. There were no marks, but really...was that necessary. The elderly lady got out of her Jeep and walked into the store without saying anything. Steph takes the kids out to the truck as I checkout, when I walk outside--leave it to me--I forgot where we parked. I was walking in the complete, opposite direction, until I noticed Steph practically jumping up and down, waiving her hand in the air. When I finally make it to the truck, I realize Steph had to pull her truck ahead so she could get the tailgate down. Of course the elderly lady would walk out when we're loading up stuff. Steph looks at the elderly lady and said, "Drive carefully." I couldn’t help but laugh. This elderly lady didn't belong on a dementia unit; you could tell she was very aware of what she was doing. She just wanted to get as close as possible to the truck I guess...
I learned that same lesson back when I was just writing fanfiction. I lost an entire story after months of hard work. It just vanished. I scoured the hard drive even and it was like *poof* vanished into thin air.
ReplyDeleteI keep a minimum of two back ups of everything I write and have since then. I'm things worked out for you though.