What am I on about? Well it is a bit of a story, but the short version — I lost everything off my desktop. Yes, I do backup onto a USB and I thought the cloud, but hadn’t done the USB backup for a little while (I bought myself a new computer, what could go wrong in those few weeks?) so some earlier edits were saved but I had done a stack of work that wasn’t. As for the cloud, I had no idea it wasn’t backing up
How did this disaster occur? I was working on a docx file – pressed save – it flicked onto desktop then poof! All my folders and files sitting on the desktop disappeared from the screen. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Took the bloody computer to two (2) different fix-it companies and they were as baffled as me and despite many hours of searching through the backwaters — no luck, that sucks, but it is all gone!
‘Devastated’ doesn’t come close. I can’t even cry, just have this big empty space inside. Perhaps my work is hiding in there somewhere and it will miraculously return and my own memory banks will have retained some of it, but I’m not holding out much hope. I had done a lot of work in a short period of time hence the lack of external backup. So, my dears. BACK IT UP — OFTEN!
The good news is that I did have a fairly recent edit/draft of Deaf Ringer and so was able to use that and rewrite the parts I had added, subtracted, re-arranged, corrected…mostly. Anyhow it is completed now and out to the final beta reader, who tells me she is enjoying it. I was planning on a pre-Xmas release, but that won’t happen.
The featured image is a photograph of one of many huge murals in Charters Towers where a lot of Dead Ringer is set. This one and many of the others are copies of paintings by Peter Lawson. He is a terrific artist, based on Magnetic Island I believe. Look him and his works up at https://www.gallery247.com.au/peter-lawson and visit Charters Towers Region to step back into gold-rush, military and mining history, and for a taste of life on the land. Also pop into its new art space at Mike Carney Creative Industries Centre an exciting relatively new centre for local and regional artists and creatives of all sorts.
Well that’s all for now, ciao,
Percy Rose - Author 