I'm writing this from a web cafe and something weird is going on with this blue underlining. I had great plans to finish my novel by the end of May when I am leaving for England/Greece, but last week my computer blew up on me. Fortunately not the hard drive, just the electrical. But it's going to be a couple of weeks before I'm up and running again and as I am leaving here May 24 there certaintly won't be time to finish Shadow of the Lion.
This is also putting a glitch in my weekly (paid) writings for the Vancouver Guide although at least I can post those (without the photos) and I'll be able to pre-date the ones for posting while I'm away.
This has been a very disturbing and upsetting development right when I had so much to do. The best laid plans....and all...
On top of this distress I had just dealt with some upsetting interference of certain people at one of my memoir writing groups. I have a great aversion to 'cliques' of any sort and perhaps that's one reason why I'm not as yet involved in the larger travel writer's organizations. So when it starts happening in my own little writing workshop groups I get very disturbed by it. At this point things are settled down. This week I organized a very successful exchange reading with
writer's groups from across the Lower Mainland who all came to my Brock House group to share their readings. It was a wonderful event, a bright sunny day down by the beach and everyone really enjoying themselves. There's some very fine writers in Vancouver and it was so good to get together to hear one another's work.
So, hopefully things will solve themselves. I am frustrated right now, wanting so badly to work on the next chapter segment of Shadow. I had the use of a laptop at home but by the weekend it also went on the fritz. It seemed almost as if I was under some kind of bad spell last week and I even started wearing my Greek mati to ward off the evil eye. (I really think it worked!)
Anyway friends, I will be back with more of the Progress Report as soon as I have my own computer back. See you then.
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4 comments:
Wow. That's awful (just happened to George RR Martin too). I JUST got my labtop up and running again after several months due to an automatic update reloop from Windows Vista (grrr). I'm glad you didn't lose your work!
Are you in the middle of editing your novel? If you need to finish it how about writing it down with pen and paper and then typing it out when your computer works again? It sounds obvious but you don't want to lose any great ideas!
I'm sorry to hear about your writing group, btw. That's ridiculous. At some point we have to leave High School behind, along with our egos. Hopefully you've got far more supportive people you can associate with.
Well I'm managing on web cafe computers but it's very frustrating. I'm like a junkie without a fix!
I have made a few notes for shadow (next chapter seg) and will do more. I usually write by hand first anyway. And I am preparing all my stories for the Vancouver Guide as I must prepost a lot before I leave on my holidays. So I am not being really idle but I'd really like to have my own computer at home so I can work on my own schedule as before.
What a coincidence -- earlier today I actually (don't freak out) *dropped* my laptop for the first time ever. I was mighty perturbed, one could say. It seems so far that the computer is working okay, but I was very anxious until I started it up again.
I also bent a flash drive. I thought, oh, no, there goes the only copy of my current work on my current project! But the flash drive, even bent and broken, still worked! Wow, was I ever lucky! So now I'll buy a new flash drive and transfer the files to it, and then make sure I make some extra backup copies. I have done a good job of making backups in the past few months, but this particular very recent stuff is not backed up. Yet. It will be by tomorrow, that's for sure.
Anyway, maybe there's something going around the cosmos triggering technical difficulties for creative types. Hope it's over already. I don't want any more incidents like that one!
Sorry to hear your computer is down. I understand how you feel. When I've had to go for a few days or a week without access to one it caused heightened stress levels. I'm sure you'll get it worked out soon and be back up and running, good as ever.
It's too bad about the clique-ish-ness problem. It's surprising sometimes how some people can behave, or how they can miss out on what is really important. With any luck the situation will quiet down and people can get their focus back on helping each other and developing their writing.
At least you have an upcoming trip to look forward to! Hope you have a lot of fun.
Take care, Wynn, and keep moving forward!
Adrian
Wow, Adrian, that was so lucky! I'm going to get an external hard-drive when I return from my trip. I do have my novel saved on CDs and also in a zip drive but I have a lot of stuff in my docus that isn't saved and that was really causing me concern. Anyway I got it fixed (it was just the power pack) and a very kind friend donated most of the money for the repairs in return for me doggie sitting and other little helping hand things.
Now I am trying to find time to post some new blogs but I'm so busy writing up pre-posting stories for the Vancouver Guide.
And time is running out!
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