I was about 500 words into a post about Kaye George’s new novel, Choke: An Imogene Duckworthy Mystery, when, upon clicking Save Draft, I received an error message I’d never seen before.
Then I discovered I was logged into HOTSHOTS!, the local Sisters in Crime chapter’s newsletter, and was, in effect, about to post on the wrong blog. The Sisters probably wouldn’t have approved.
Grateful for the error message, I tried to get back to the draft so I could cut and paste it into To write is to write is to write.
Guess what. It wasn’t there. Sometimes To write is not to write.
Sounds downright Shakespearean, doesn’t it?
Never mind.
I then logged into To write, etc., and rummaged around to see whether the vanished draft had somehow landed here. Stranger things have happened. But not this time.
So. I shall behave with my usual grace under pressure. I shan’t say mean things about anyone. Or anything. Or lament the loss of that most excellent essay.
I shall instead close up shop and go to bed.
If, tomorrow, I can bring myself to start again, I shall, but with the knowledge that any attempt to match the quality of the original is futile.
That piece was dead brilliant.
M. K. Waller 
Another strange occur with Kaye’s CHOKE. I visited her at the HCBS on Friday and purchased a copy of the book–autographed. Had a house full of company and after everyone left, I can’t find my copy of the book! Someone TOOK it! And it was either Randy Rawls or Earl Staggs!
Go figure!
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My copy of CHOKE was lost for over a week. Actually, it just was turned over so I couldn’t see the orange pickup. But I located every other lost book in the house while hunting for it.
As for whoever swiped your copy–you’ll know when you hear the laughter.
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I’d suspect both equally, I think.
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Maybe CHOKE is haunted, like Hamlet was? Alas, poor Imogene! LOL.
Kathy, it is always the most brilliant work that disappears. It’s like socks from the dryer, a mystery never to be solved.
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I know all about the socks mystery, but I’d never connected it with missing words. And my favorite socks are always the first to go. Your comment makes me feel better about the loss.
(Confidentially, I would like to say something about being haunted, but Kaye might not approve.)
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ooooOOOOOoooooo
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In the early 1980s, when I was a newspaper reporter, I worked on a Merganthaler computer that blipped at the slightest cough. Anything you hadn’t saved was lost. Of course in the flurry of writing, I would often forget to save every once in awhile, and all would be lost. I never cussed in my life before that computer came into it. I do understand.
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Computers and cussing. Yes. Thank you for understanding.
In the ’80s there was all this talk about Computer Assisted Instruction–it would save education, because computers are neutral: no more student-teacher conflicts, no more interpersonal problems getting in the way of learning. Well, we see how that’s worked out. In the past thirty years, I’ve wanted to kick the stuffings out of a number of computers, as well as nearly every printer I’ve come in contact with.
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“It came from your brain once, it can come from your brain again.” That’s what I always tell myself. But of course, matching “the quality of the original is futile.” So this is where you exceed the quality. Good luck.
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I like that philosophy. Thanks for sharing it. I have, in fact, thought of a hundred or so words that should have been cut from the original. This time I’ll toss them before I begin.
Thanks for visiting and for commenting. I hope you’ll return.
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Well dang! 500 words about ME? About MY BOOK? Dang, and other stronger words.
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The first 300 words were about me. The next 500 or so were going to be about you and CHOKE. At the time of the ill-fated save, I was looking for an apt quotation, possibly Boobs and Belly. But I shall return to the topic. Just as soon as the laptop apologizes.
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LOL!!! Let me know how that goes.
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I lost a 7,000 word essay when at uni once – I was brought up a lady it was then in the 80’s at the beginning of home computers I learnt to curse in the most unladylike manner – many many many machines later my vocabulary has increased – my mother would roll in her grave if she heard me!!! why is it the only time in a year one forgets to save / back up the machine gets hungry!!!!
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7,000 words. I don’t know that I would have survived that. I attribute the machine hunger to pixies and elves.
I did all my college work with pencil and pen and then typed it up. I used a lot of correction tape, but there was always a backup. (Wouldn’t want to do it that way now, though, no matter how much I yell at the laptop.)
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New tech can be the most infuriating resource on earth, Kathy 😦 hope the next post meets with more success.
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The trouble with computers is that as soon as new tech becomes old tech, it’s replaced by more new tech. But–Excelsior!
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When that happens, I cry; but actually when I rewrite it, I think it might be even better for the marinating time in my brain. Good luck.
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If it had been more than half a blog post, I probably would have cried. But you’re right–I’ve been mentally revising it since the morning after the catastrophe.
Thanks for visiting and commenting. I hope you’ll visit again.
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