A Big Lesson Learned

26 08 2011

You hear about it all the time.  Someone forgets to back up and the system crashes, and you lose everything you have been working on.  It happens.

And it just happened to me.

My laptop is a present from my Dad and was my Aunty Jill’s who died of cancer a few years ago.  It is one of the few links I have to my Aunty and I am always appreciative to my Dad for giving it to me.  I have personalised it with a cover sticker of roses.  The battery doesn’t work, so I have to always have it plugged into the mains.  It is an old machine, but it is mine, and it is special to me.

My beloved laptop died.  When I tried to turn it on this morning, it kept telling me that there was an error and needed to restart, and restart, and restart… I couldn’t get onto the c drive to recover my documents, it kept telling me there were errors.  So I bit the bullet and reinstalled Windows XP.

Well the computer lives (thank goodness), but everything except what is on my memory stick is lost.  Thankfully I have some stories up to date, but I have lost approximately 20k off Blood Gold and about 5k off my Gothic Novel.  But that is OK.  They are only words and can be replaced.  I think I am more gutted about the Gothic Novel because I had been studiously working on that one, trying to get it to a finished enough level to get it out to readers by the end of September… oh well.

Big Lesson learned – back up every night before turning the laptop off!


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Another Holiday Been and Gone

27 12 2010

Well, if that was Christmas, we have had it.

Another busy day with lots of presents and family around.  It was a lovely enjoyable day, made all the more pleasurable by the company of a friend who is currently staying with us until she has her baby (which at the time of writing is 7 days overdue!)

As a result of all of the activity going on around the house, no writing has been made.  No creativity has taken place, no beading has been done, and as a result, one very frustrated writer!  I am feeling very frazzled and concerned about the lack of effort I am putting into trying to write!  I have lots of excuses, but that is what they are.

Am I beating myself up?  Hell yes!  There is nothing wrong with taking the laptop to bed at night and writing, except I haven’t been to bed before 10pm most evenings and that tired that I read for 5 minutes before passing out.  I could make 5 minutes in the day, but my 6 year old son wants to go swimming, or I am talking with my friend.  At least she is understanding my frustration, which does help a little bit.

Anyway, the Gothic novel is still not finished, and not looking promising for anytime soon, but I have promised myself that I will not start writing the next story until this one is finished, and it is only good habit to start getting into.

So on to the next holiday – New Years, when I will reveal what my next years writing goals will be, and I am quite excited to get started on them.


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Monday Traditions

13 12 2010

Monday morning is generally when I update my blog, let people know where I have been at with my writing, and life in general.  This morning is no exception.

Except, I haven’t done any writing for almost three weeks now.  Not that I haven’t tried!  I still have my Gothic Novel to finish, and I went for a walk last week, got all inspired, came home, fired up the laptop, made myself a cuppa, wrote a couple of lines and was interrupted by the phone.  It was my step mother in law – which was a welcome interruption.  We talked for an hour, like we generally do, having a catch up, and then I looked at my emails, and got one that made my blood run cold.  It is a work related one, an issue that does not want to go away, no matter how many times I spell it out.  Some people are just not switched on are they!  I felt so desolate after reading this email, that all my inspiration flew out the window and I felt very flat.

Last night I thought about writing, but by the time I managed to get everything organised for this morning, I didn’t have any time left.  And I knew today was going to be busy!  Raspberry picking has started.  I had phone calls to make and I have a claim to look at this afternoon in town, hence had to arrange for my son to go to another house after school, just in case I didn’t make it home in time.  I also had to arrange for my car to go into the garage to get the brake pads replaced… the list just doesn’t seem to end does it.

But there was a great piece of news this week, and I have been holding onto it because it really doesn’t seem real!  (NO I am not pregnant).  My beloved came home from a work seminar on Tuesday telling me that we got a big job to do before Christmas.  Curious, and typically, I asked what it was.  To get passports.  I was baffled, why would be need passports?  My darling husband, who works like a trooper at work and goes above and beyond the call of duty, has finally had his good work noticed, and we (him and I) are going to FIJI in February for a few days, courtesy of his work!  Most of Tuesday night was spent in a daze, walking around the house, muttering – Wow.  Passport forms have been filled in, and tomorrow they get posted off to Internal Affairs.

As for Monday Traditions, blogging, housework, getting jobs done so I have the rest of the week to relax – yeah right.  Writing hasn’t been a big thing lately, but I have been thinking about my goals for next year, and I am quite excited to get into them.  Going to be a busy year, writing wise, as I want to get three novels written next year, along with 12 short stories, and sort out the 12 short stories i did this year and get them ready for publication.

So this week, will be a week of winding down, getting organised for Christmas, raspberry picking and hopefully some bloody WRITING!


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This past weeks writing

8 11 2010

The Novel Push Iniative may be over, but my writing is not.  I am happy to announce, that as of half an hour ago, my story was at 29276 words, and showing no signs of stopping!  Yaye!

Monday 1 November – 739 words

Tuesday 2 November – 574 words

Wednesday 3 November – 593 words

Thursday 4 November – 1278 words

Friday 5 November – zip

Saturday 6 November – 974

Sunday 7 November – 771 words.

I have decided that instead of writing at night in bed, I am going to set aside an hour every day to do writing while I am up and moving around.  I was listening to Labyrinth soundtrack today while writing, and the music was suitably moody for the writing, so I think me and David Bowie will have a date, once a day for an hour so that I can get on top of this story and get it finished this month.  The plan was to edit it during December, but I guess January will be the edit month now.

I am liking the story and the flow that it has, I have just found that I have skipped a scene, unintentionally, but that doesn’t matter, the story will still come out around 60k I guess, which is a good size for the story.  I like the characters, and even wrote in a new one, because I wanted to show a human side to the King’s agents who were considered as the devil back in the day because Henry VIII wielded so much power and authority, that people were scared to act against him.

If anyone knows of any good quotes from Henry VIII, or websites that provide quotes please let me know, I would like to start each chapter with either a part of the law or a direct quote from the man about the abolishment of the Catholic Church.

 


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September Writing Goal Update

1 10 2010

Wow, September has just flown by – it seemed to disappear in a haze of shifting and unpacking.   It doesn’t feel like I have done a lot writing wise – probably because I haven’t, I have been too preoccupied trying to make things fit, finding homes for things and making sure that the new house stays tidy and clean!  Anyway, this is what I got up to during September:

# Get Chrystias finished off and start looking around for a publisher / agent for it. – Gareth has sent through all of the feedback on this, and it has been invaluable.  Fortunately I must be getting closer to a more perfect story because there weren’t nearly as many comments this time around as their was the first time.  Thanks Heaps Gareth, really appreciate it!

# Get Kings Queens and Noblemen edited to the second edit – with a view to getting it finished by the end of the year – For some reason, I really don’t want to edit this one.  So I might just can the idea of doing this.  Instead I edited Medusa’s Garden.  So I will swap this and say that Medusa’s Garden is now out with readers for their initial opinion.

# Create more short stories and really start to focus on developing this skill further – I finished August’s short story and completed September’s one as well.  It was a story that had been brewing for a while, and after my interview with Ripley Patton, I was able to write a more heartfelt story and resolved some issues that I had regarding the passing of some people I knew.

# Get one short story published (in a magazine / e-zine) (something other than my own blog site!) – I think I will get Death is Her Name (Septembers Short Story) ready for submitting.

# Finish off some story ideas and start writing the next novel – the first draft to be completed before the end of the year (2010) –  Well this has been done for Medusa’s Garden, and now I am embarking on writing my second novel this year.  It is a Gothic Novel in line with Writing Down Under’s Gothic Novel Writing Month.  Hell, it is something that has fascinated me for a wee while now.  No better time than now to try it.

# Encourage some of my writing friends – Gareth, honestly, I have started on it – ten times!  Just need to get passed the part that I have already done and work from there.  I will get it done before Christmas!

So, October is Gothic Novel Month – my story is about a monk and a woman who tells everyone that the older man that is always with her is her father, but he is actually her husband.  Lots of twists and turns in the story, but have been researching 1500′s with Henry VIII and the fall of the monasteries.  Very fascinating period and fits in nicely with the storyline.  I am excited, I just hope I can pull it off!


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