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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fixed Computers, Bad Dreams and Postponed Dystopia

1. Yay! Husbands rock!! Sean unlocked the secrets of the crashed hard-drive, saving over 50 precious pages of my last WIP!! (Of course, I haven't read them over again yet...I mean, what if they stink and I made Sean spend the entire weekend searching for a way to save them....in a way that I could access easily?) I'll look at them soon...I promise.

2. I dreamed I was still in college but I couldn't find my class because I didn't know what the class was, but I knew I had to be there. And then I was by a river, and people were parachuting down into that river....but they didn't have parachutes so they were just plummeting.....and then my car was on the railroad tracks and a train was coming but I couldn't get the car to start.

Stress much?

3. One of the cool things about reading reviews on Amazon is how it reassures the reader that our dystopian future is a long way away. I mean, when I go and look at reviews of a book that I LOVED and other people give it a one-star-wonder, it actually makes me happy. What a fabulous world we live in! We all don't love the same thing! How sad it will be when we all love only one kind of thing. (Of course, I am also thinking...."Did we even read the same book?" I especially think this about reviews of books that made me think "meh," and people gush over. "DID WE READ THE SAME BOOK??")

But it's not the books that are different.

It is the people.

And that is the best thing about our planet, I think.
People are still allowed to be different.



hrh

13 comments:

Myrna Foster said...

I love that people are different too, and I'm so glad that your husband saved those 50 pages. Hurray for husbands with skills!

BK Mattingly said...

I'm glad you got your 50 pages back! I loved your last point. I'm glad people are different, it makes the world more interesting (sometimes more difficult, but still interesting).

Matthew MacNish said...

Ah, what a good point. That is such a great, positive way to look at it!

Very lucky about your pages recovery too, a lesson about backing up (not that I haven't ever lost any work myself, it's such a tragedy when it happens) ...

Sherrie Petersen said...

You are so lucky to have a techy husband. I killed my hard drive last year and had to send it to a company to recover the data. Very expensive. Now I'm much better about backing up my files.

I have the same reaction to reviews. Sometimes there's no accounting for taste :)

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

It would be soooo boring if we were all the same.
Yay for Sean and for you and your manuscript!
I keep meaning to buy a good backup drive or subscribe to one of those online services. Right now, I use a thumb drive after writing and sometimes even email myself copies so they're in a second place.
I hope your stress dreams will be over now. Sometimes, I laugh about them--like, thank you, brain, for alerting me that I'm stressed!

Margo Berendsen said...

So glad to hear your work got recovered. And that's a WONDERFUL way of looking at the great range in book reviews. 'Tis so true! I STILL don't like when one star reviewers just get nasty about a book, though. Give us valid reasons for why you didn't like it, but no need to get mean!

Lenny Lee said...

hi miss shelly! im real glad you got your wip back even if youre a little scared to read it yet. i like that everyones different cause it could be pretty boring if everyone was just the same. yikes! the blogs would all look alike. ack!
...smiles and hugs from lenny

Laina said...

If you're looking for a good backup system, dropbox is good and free.

I have stress nightmares, too. They tend to be very... bloody, though.

Jessie Oliveros said...

If Sean had failed Geek Squad is always helpful for $99. Just so you know.

Janet Johnson said...

What a great way to look at differing reviews. It IS great that we can choose.

And yay for the saved pages. Such an awful feeling. In fact. Going to save right now.

storyqueen said...

Myrna-I am pretty lucky, I guess!

Bethany-You are right...sometimes more difficult for sure.

Matthew-I usually back up right away by sending it to my gmail acct. I had just forgotten and remembered a few hours before the big crash. I mean to do it when I got home....

Sherrie-(Shhhh...he's not a techie...just very persistent....)

Tricia-Yeah, I do the e-mail thing, too, since I am known for losing my flash drives......

Margo-good point! I agree, a nasty review says more about the reviewer than the book!

Lenny-You are so right! I didn't even think of how boring it would be to read blogs that were all the same!

Laina-I use gmail most of the time...I just forgot. You can bet I'll not forget again!

Jessie-Oooh! The Geek Squad! I love their little cars. Do they arrive in white shirts with bow ties?

Janet-It IS great to be free to choose!

Anonymous said...

Hi Shelley. I was so glad to see you were able to save your WIP. Yeah!

Margo Berendsen said...

Stopping back to let you know I have an award for you at my blog. I STILL remember that great post on querying you wrote several months ago, plus lots of other food for thought. Thanks! - Margo