o the technology

what webs they devise to deceive us !

I have been hard at work on my novel "Mistaken Identities" .

I was working hard, writing some of my best stuff to date. (I am not easy to please at all, but I was happy for once). The subplots are moving along, the storylines beginning to converge and the characters are doing both expected and unexpected things as the story unfolds. (I know you know what I mean). But when the technology also does unexpected things, what then?

Three days ago I backed up the entire novel on a portable storage device. One of those small memory devices you can plug into any USB port on a computer. So at least I have that.

Then I write two days ago the whole day, a great scene. Pretty happy with it.

Yes you can tell where this is going huh?

Yesterday morning at 6:20 AM ( the next morning after the writing), I woke up to the sound of a huge hissing. (No it wasn't a giant lizard). I hear it coming form my brand new computer system. There is a large pop (as it has just arced), and I see a flash of white light (not that white light), and the end of story (literally) is that my system is completely not functioning after the electric event. (It happened even though the system had been powered down for the night. The power supply appears to be toast and maybe the motherboard).

It is under warranty (like I said this system is NEW)....but NOT THE WRITING!

So, the great scene I just wrote--a day's full labor is gone. The system must go in for warranty repair and I cannot tamper with the hard drive, or it will void the warranty. They tell me it will be reset to factory settings when I get it back, if I get it back.

I know this sounds like whining, and it is ONLY one FULL day's work, so I suppose I really am lucky. If it had been the entire novel, that would have been a disaster, but even I, am not fool enough to never have backed that up in several places ! Still, I was pleased with that day's work, and now it will have to be redone. wah!

I just love these forced rewrites! And the lesson is save every day and back it up somewhere else! Every time!

so rather than become discouraged...

I will write it again right away while it is fresh in my memory.

So I hook up my old computer yesterday.

This morning I sat down to rewrite the scene from two days ago...on THAT system.

Now, my old computer..

It has been Ms. Reliable for ten years. I upgraded it over the years. I wrote my previously published works on it. Still it was slow on the net, and I wanted to be able to watch DVDs and so on and listen to music and it just didnt have the processor, so I bought that new one...BUT AT LEAST I COULD WRITE ON THIS OLD SYSTEM...

This morning, I fire it up. Then IT TOO collapses... not for the same reason , but for now it seems unrepairable as well.

Then my glasses broke!

IS this entropy gone awry? What ruse is this?

So what technology daimon conspires against me?

And where is the good old typewriter, I know I used to have one..you know that thing that writers used to use to write with?

so will I beg borrow or steal another computer to get going? Or do I break out the pen and paper...

or will the pen run out of ink or break next!

thanks for reading this rant...

people do not know how frustrating this can be when the writing is flowing, nor the seemingly unsurmountable difficulties the author could have faced WHILE writing that book that they are holding in their hands.

still smiling and knowing I wont be deterred. Even if I have to take my little USB storage device to every rented or borrowed computer in town!

stay tuned for further details

tim kavi