Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Rest In Peace


Today I finally finished re-writing Living Soul, the sequel to Veiled, after I lost all my work to tiny rectangles!
Yes, rectangles.
A few months ago I was finishing up my work for the day when I accidentally took my memory stick out before it was all the way done saving, and it corrupted the file. It basically changed all my words (ALL OF THEM, about 23 chapters with roughly 10 pages in each chapter)into rectangles.
After I cried, I took the computer to the Geek Squad and they worked on it for three weeks, only to come up empty. They reset the computer to an earlier time, they cleaned up viruses, they worked on the file, they even sent the file to India of heavens knows where! Only to return my lap top with two recovered chapters, all compressed with no spaces or punctuation between the words. ...Basically a re-write.
After I ranted and cried and did all the expected things, I went back to work. Today I stand before you all caught up with a few extra sentences to boot!
So may that first version of Living Soul rest in peace somewhere in rectangular heaven, while the new version is safe and sound in several different places; including my super secret email account that no one knows anything about...until now.
Let this be a lesson to all you writers out there! Don't pull your memory stick out too quickly...or your words will die.

20 comments:

  1. Well that is a very depressing story, but I'm glad perseverance won out in the end. Definitely a good lesson and one I will never take lightly

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! That must be a relief, not only to you but to all of us "Veiled" fans who are dying to read what happens next!
    -Erin C.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HI SB!

    I think your article echoes everyone's fear when they pop in a flash drive, although many don't understand they have to be stopped before ejecting or pulling them out. It IS a hard way to learn the proper usage of flash drives! Bummer....sorry you lost some of your story.

    Thank you for visiting my blog and thanks for the invite to visit yours! I love the theme of Veiled and the sequel sounds wonderful. I'll be sure to check them both out in more detail.

    I'm glad you enjoyed my Chapter 1 of Whispers at Ghost Point! It will be a stand alone but is sorta/kind of a sequel to my second book, No Turing Back, as I bring back/reincarnate the 'souls' from No Turning Back. Thanks again for visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's a sequel! Yay! About to start "Veiled" and now I know I don't have to ration myself to a few pages a day - I can read to my heart's content.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ...I still have to finish it! I only recovered about 2/3 of the book...now on to the winding up scenes!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm always paranoid about losing everything on the computer. I've never had a crash, but there's always a first time!

    I have your book on my Kindle. I started reading it and loved it. Now I'm interrupted because of MY book launch. (And I'm finding at my age that I can't do as much in a day as I used to be able to do!) But I will get back to Veiled. I remember thinking: good writing, and an intriguing beginning. I have strong beliefs about the "veil" that separates us from the "spirit world." I can't wait to get back to the book, and others that on stacked on my TBR shelf!

    Thanks so much for stopping by and congratulating me.

    I love coming over here to see your lovely blog--and your lovely face. You are one talented young woman!
    Ann Best, Memoir Author

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh OUCH! I am so sorry that happened> But I guess you learn lessons this way. Thing about those lessons is (in my case at least), after a while you start to forget what you learned...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know what you mean, Trisha. I was in the habit of sending my work to my email now and then. But I had let it slide for a few months...and that's when disaster hit!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow. Just reading this was painful. Can't even imagine. So glad you got were able to push through and rewrite. Sometimes an event like that can suck the creativity right out of us. Thanks for sharing; I don't want to learn this one the hard way.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh my gosh, that's the worst feeling - and yet I've done that (and similar data-losing things) at least 20 times in my life. I'm not a quick learner, I guess. :p

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my gosh! I just clicked on your website and found out you went to the University of Utah! (I'm a little too excited about this - go Utes!) Good luck with your book, that's awesome.

    (Found you from Elana Johnson's blog, sorry to be a blog stalker.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. We're all stalkers here! Nice to meet you Ru!

    ReplyDelete
  13. ...and yes Kimberly, it was so painful in fact, that I couldn't bring myself to blog about it until now--that I finished re-writing the first 2/3rds. of my book! I have to say though; the story was very well rooted in my head, so it wasn't that hard. Still...it sucked!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Silvina, oh, what a loss to mourn over! But I am so SO proud of you for overcoming that huge challenge and coming up better.

    Congratulations on finishing the sequel!

    ♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥
    Can Alex save Winter from the darkness that hunts her?
    YA Paranormal Romance, Darkspell coming fall of 2011!

    ReplyDelete
  15. (= I'm excited to check out your books!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks, Jo! When's yours coming out?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

    I would be devastated if I had written that much, only to have it all gone! I always make sure to safely eject my thumb-drive, but sometimes I just pull it out. I'll make sure to be more careful from now on. Woo Hoo! You finished your new version!

    Your book, Veiled, sounds great and I love the concept of it. The story sounds amazing and I'm definitely intrigued! I can't wait to read more!

    Oh, and I responded to your comment over on my blog too :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's one of the reasons I email myself a copy of it. I'm just so paranoid!

    So sorry you had such a bad experience but I'm glad you managed to rewrite it. Ugh!

    ReplyDelete
  19. That's SO terrifying!

    Also, I'm totally buying your book based on the cover. It's AH-mazing!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks Jolene, they did do a great job on the cover! Yours are on my list as well!

    ReplyDelete