Oops

So my computer sits on the floor, right. The screen and keyboard go up on the desktop. Well, I'm not much of a silent sitter, never have been. I was sitting there, typing away and had one leg crossed over the other (I know, totally bad posture for how you're supposed to sit when typing--Correct sitting posture HERE by the way) and as I was slouching my vertebrae big time, swinging my free leg back and forth, WHACK!

My shin bumped into the flash drive sticking out the front of the computer. Bent it over to the side like I was trying to break a key off in a lock.

Heart lodging in my throat, I could only gape at the bent flash drive in shock. After I yanked it free of the computer and tried to straighten it...nothing. I can't pull up a single file I had saved, can't even get the computer to acknowledge there's a flash drive in there.

Now ask me what was on that flash drive.

EVERYTHING! Everything to do with my writing, anyway.

All my works-in-progress stories, all my signed contracts for stories I've sold, all the PDFs of the stories I've sold, all my little graphs, telling me how much I'd made on royalties, all my writing business expenditures, all the graphs I'd made for the promotional projects I set up. Everything. Stored in a little bitty two-inch piece of plastic and metal.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering...didn't you back anything up, Linda Kay? Well, sure. About every year or so, I copy all my files from one flash drive to another and start using the new flash, while storing the old one away. Except I hadn't done that for 2012 quite yet. So I'm saved up to 2010...except my first book didn't release until 2010, so all my book PDFs are probably gone. I have a few saved in old emails but probably not all of them.

In the WIP department, I'm a little more lucky. I just sent an email of all my currents WIPs to myself in attachments last Friday, so I'm at least within a week current of those. Not too much damage there.

Book contracts: I'm hoping I have all of those either printed out in my paper files or still have copies in old emails I've saved. Don't know everything quite yet.


I'm still not too sure how much stuff I've actually lost. Maybe nothing important. It's hard to tell until a month or so down the road when I'll be all like, I need such and such--oops. Guess that's gone forever.

I used to save everything on the hard drive of my computer. But the hard drive would always crash or I'd get a virus and lose everything (am I the only one sensing a pattern here?). So I started to rely more and more heavily on flash drives and CDs and, yeah, those old 3-by-5 inch floppy disks (but my computer doesn't even have a slot for those anymore). I still think I'll save most everything on my "next" flash drive, but....

My piece of advice for this fine hump days remains: BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP...and do it more often than you think you should!

Have a Happy Wednesday.

Proud Mommy Moment

We interrupt this author blog and talking about books and writing to brag about a big Mommy Moment for me!

I no longer have a little baby girl. I have a full-fledged toddler! Woo hoo. Miss Lydia finally used her potty chair yesterday. Her grandma (who babysits her while I work) and I had been talking to her about it, telling what she needed to do to be a big girl. But whenever we'd ask her if she wanted to sit in her chair, she'd simply say, "No," with no interest whatsoever.

I heard you're not supposed to push these things. Okay, I've heard all kinds of advice on potty training, but we decided to follow the "don't push" advice. "She'll do it when she's ready." And yesterday, she was ready!

Grandma got her to sit on her chair and once she did her business, Grandma and Grandpa praised her so much and gave her a prize, consisting of M&Ms, she went and pottied in her chair three more times by the time I picked her up from work. Then she did it again at Grandma's to show me what she could do. At home, she went twice more.

The last time, I wasn't even planning on taking her. I'd just pulled her from the bath and had her sitting on the floor, wrapped up in her towel, while I turned away to drain the bath water and put her toys away. When I came back around, she was sitting her her chair, straining her belly to squeeze out a few drops.

Unlike Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad were not prepared for "prize" giving. Lydia had gotten some chocolate for her birthday last month from her aunt. But I guess Daddy didn't think she was eating it fast enough, so he helped her along, consuming most of her birthday present. I was planning on giving her a chocolate square, or "kaw-kaw" as she calls it for a potty prize. But, yeah, there was only one square left. Thanks, Dada!

So the last time she used her potty last night, I opened the bathroom door and called my husband's name, saying "hurry. Bring chocolate!" When he told me there was none left, I changed gears, thinking of what other treat Lydia liked. So I called, "Bring pretzels." Don't ask why my two-year-old is into pretzels. But there it is.

After she munched on her pretzel stick, I set her on the edge of the bathroom sink where we do our nightly teeth-brushing routine. But Lydia, of course, was still into wanting more prizes for her job well done. So, instead of yelling, "Dada," as she refers to him, she yelled his first name like I'd just done, even used the same inflection in her voice I had used. "More pretzels," she added.

It was too cute to resist. The kid got more pretzels!

So that's another proud mommy moment coming at you from Linda Kage. How's your Friday going?

It's been wet here all week, flooding, raining, slopping up my poor car with mud. I'm ready for a nice dry, sunny day.

Have a happy weekend!

Lucky Seven WIP

Okay, my mind is all bla, bla, bla today. Nothing interesting up there to say.

I've found a new author I'm totally crushing on, so I've been buried in "read" world. Have you ever heard of Jennifer Haymore?? I hadn't until I saw one of her books on Amazon. I bought one of her stories because I was craving a steamy historical regency-style romance. I'm so happy I discovered her. She reminds me of some of my favorite historical romance authors: Suzanne Enoch, Elizabeth Hoyt, Julie Quinn, Laura Lee Guhrke, Lisa Kleypas, and Sabrina Jeffries.

Anyway, Carol over at Under the Tiki Hut, got tagged to play a lucky sevens game, and said anyone else who wanted to try should feel free to take a turn. Since I had no other plans for my blog today, I tried it!

The game: Lucky Sevens

Here's how it goes:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they're written.

4. Tag 7 authors

Below is my line seven and the next seven lines on page 77 of my most-recently completed WIP. I was shocked to find such an important scene mid-progress on line seven of seventy-seven. But here it goes anyway! Sorry if you're confused. It makes more sense if you read the entire story, of course!


****

Why was she saying something now?


He shook his head, not sure what to demand first. The shaky words that left him mouth were, “Are you…are you asking if we had sex?”

“No,” she spat, then a moment later she glanced over her shoulder at him and choked out, “Did we?”


His mouth dropped open. She looked so scared of the answer, he wasn’t sure how to respond. Would finding out she’d been intimate with him honestly traumatize her that much?


****
So, I'm gonna be like Carol. I'm not pointing out seven specific people, but if anyone else wants to play, consider yourself tagged. It was definitely interesting to find out what is on line seven of page 77!!

Happy Monday!