Jul
Housekeeping Hodge Podge
Happy Sunday, everybody 
We’re all recuperating from the RWA Conference and RITA awards night. It turns out that only one us made it to the RWA Literacy signing but it didn’t keep up us from writing RITA nominee reviews and from holding virtual hands as we waited for the RITA winners to be announced.
Personally, I can’t wait for people to come back from the conference to share pictures and tell us all about it.
I’ve had a rough week, unfortuntely, I brought this on myself. I lost my current WIP to a corrupted disk. The good news is that I can always start all over again and hopefully this time I’ve learned a thing or two:
Always back up your work - Send it to an alternate email addy or a CP or even better both.
Get a flash drive stick - Those usb powered little sticks that you can carry with you everywhere.
Just because it’s new- Doesn’t mean it won’t crash and take your work to outer space.
Your friends - Are wonderful people who support you no matter what.
Take a deep breath - You can always start always again, if you done it once, what’s keeping you from doing it again?
In other news we’re all doing the happy dance here at RI, as we prepare to send out our first RI Newsletter. What better way to get a glimpse of what’s coming up at RI? I’ve joined. Now I wait (im)patiently for the first installment.
Isabel, I think the loss of a MS is something that every author has to go through. No matter if its one page or a whole 18 chapters (speaking from a lesson learned).
The only think you can do is recover what you can..hopefully some of it..and move on. Just don’t let it get you down.
Something else I’ve learned is to save it in an email or two. Take what you’ve written and send it to yourself to various email addy’s. Stick it in a folder and your good. This way if worst comes to worst, your pc totally fryin, you can always go into your email and get it back.
You might still have to work on the formatting (line spacing or what not) but hey, it’s not some 70,000 words you’ve got to come up with again.
Best of luck on this next round. As they always say, this time it will be even better.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:00 pmIsabel, I’m sorry to hear that you lost your MS. That really sucks. I lost one a long time ago (I was 15 or so, and lost 98 pages of MS), and it really puts you down. Just don’t let it take away your inspiration
Thanks for the tips on what one can do for back-ups. I tend to send a copy of my MS every now and then to a gmail account I keep for that only reason
Looking forward to the newsletter too!
Emily
July 30th, 2006 at 3:53 pmIsabel, I’m sorry to hear of your loss. Please don’t let it get you too down. I’m sure when you start again, it’ll be that much better. I’m sending you cyber hugs–(((hugs)))
I’m also looking forward to our newsletter!
July 30th, 2006 at 6:30 pmAndrea
I’m back and MAN was it FABULOUS!!!
More later (esp on my blog–I’ll let you know as I update it) but I’m very, very sorry to report that none of our authors won RITAs. However, the ceremony was SO lovely and the video clips…the video clips
All I can say is, What the heck is the movie where a VERY young Hugh Jackman plays a romance writer???!! Nobody seemed to know in my row. Please, dish! I MUST see that movie!
July 31st, 2006 at 7:10 amThanks, guys
I’m actually feeling upbeat. My mind is flowing with ideas so there’s a silver linning after all, I think.
Lacey ~ You must tell us all about the conference.
Andrea ~ How was the signing?
Ok, I’m leaving my house.
Isabel
July 31st, 2006 at 9:26 amYeah, I’m so bummed you lost your ms. That is TERRIBLE news! Sorry I didn’t post that earlier. I was rushing to catch my carpool. But seriously, so sad!
I’m working on the first day of my blog right now. You can also read Jenna’s Day-by-Day here:
http://www.passionatepen.com/atlantadaybyday.htm
but she hasn’t finished yet, either. There is SO much to say it seems pretty much impossible to sum it up in one sitting. And I probably won’t even touch on the workshops! Although there were a few that really did sit with me…the workshops are definitely NOT the focus.
Ok, end of breaktime! Back to work…must work so I can afford Dallas next year, LOL.
July 31st, 2006 at 12:06 pmOh, and apparently the name of that movie is Paperback Hero (1999). It looks DELICIOUS! Can’t wait to rent it.
July 31st, 2006 at 12:07 pmOK, I’m back. Feeling a little weird here without any other comments! But I just updated my blog with my first night in ATL.
http://www.laceykaye.blogspot.com or click on my Romance with Color avatar. Enjoy!
July 31st, 2006 at 1:34 pmLacey, I’m so happy you posted on your personal blog!!!
I was going to ask but I didn’t want to put you on the spot.
Isabel (on her way over there…)
July 31st, 2006 at 1:52 pmWell Isabel, hang in there sweetie! Yes you wish it hadn’t happened, but somehow things will work out, I promise!
Yes back up, back up, back up! I send my WIP to a friend of mine in colorado to keep safe for me. CP are also great, and friends last forever…too true!
Michelle
July 31st, 2006 at 6:59 pmI wanted to get pictures in Atlanta but my hubby pulled rank on me for the use of the camera.
It’s new and I don’t really know how to use it. Since he knew how to use it and was doing research for one of my time-travels I gave in without much of a fight.
Besides, I just know I would have set it down somewhere and left it.
Tianna
July 31st, 2006 at 8:36 pmWelcome to RI, Tianna
August 1st, 2006 at 4:22 pmIsabel