UGHH! When it really sucks to be a writer . . .

5-18-13

So here I am working on Volume 3.   I have 91 pages assembled into a complex Adobe Acrobat file, a composite of files from 4 different software packages. . . wait, did I say “have”???   Strike that and change it to “had.”   A few hours ago, while I was saving a page that I had just converted into the Acrobat file (the book), an Error message came on the screen, telling me the file was unsavable and lost.   Gone. Lost. Un-salvageable.   All the tricks of almost 25 years of desk-top publishing . . .   none of them worked.   The file was gone.

After the shock wore off,   I assessed the damage.   The book was gone, which is a pain, but I have all the files and individual page files that made up the book.   I had been regularly backing up my files, so it is not a complete “back to the drawing board” loss.   But it it a pain in all the painful places.

I try to be   an optimist, and I force myself to find the silver linings in murky things.   So here’s my silver lining:   somewhere along the way, the gigantic file that was my book got corrupted.   At least it exploded and disappeared when I was halfway done.   It could’ve waited until I had finished and was submitting it to the publisher . . .

So tomorrow (maybe) I’ll start reassembing the book.   I’ll be fine, the book will be fine.   In two weeks, I go east and deep South to interview two more original crewmembers   –   the last of the interviews before I finish the book (and the series).   I’m really looking forward to these visits.   And to finishing off the book.   You will not be disappointed (unless of course you were gonna send me a picture of your dad for the book and you never did.)

steve