Friday, September 19, 2008

Goin' CRAZY!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update - I'm back from my speaking trip to Kansas (so much fun!) and am hard at work finishing up TDB. But while I was gone my Outlook Express email went bottoms-up - which is so strange because EVERY time it's crunch time something will go bizarrely wrong. On The Angel of Death my computer actually melted, including the external thumb drive. On The Christopher Killer my computer contacted a virus that wiped everything out, so I had to piece things together from printed chapters and old thumb-drive files - what a nightmare! I received at corrupt file on The Circle of Blood that messed everything up, so THIS time I have saved, resaved, saved again, and sent my chapters by email to outside sources just in case. Well, I've got my book (thank heavens) but when I got back from Kansas I discovered my email was completely gone and now I have to go through this strange 1&1 Internet server to try to get messages, which is soooooo sloooooooooow! (That includes messages from my blog - each one takes five minutes to upload since they normally come first though Outlook. Aack!) If you don't hear from me promptly that's why. Sorry!

My husband has been trying to make it work and he's bought a couple of supposed 'fixes' that haven't done a thing. Ron laughingly calls it The-Curse-of-the Home-Stretch, which is how it feels. Again, I'm asking for patience (please!) if you write me and don't hear back, because we've got another huge mess to figure out - I am SO not tekkie and I can't believe I have another computer issue when I'm just days away from sending in my manuscript (through email, of course. IF it will work!) Do you think it's a ghost? My sister claims it's because she and I put out this strange energy that disables all things electric (yesterday, in Kansas, the Power Point projector at Sterling College where I was giving my presentations glitched out on me, and the computer guy kept muttering 'This makes no sense. It was JUST working. I can't figure out what's wrong!' Hmmmmmmmm.) Anyway, thanks for the good cheer you're sending my way - it has kept me focused and energized and ready to hit the 'send' on my electronic manuscript - it should arrive in New York on Monday!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

yay!!!! cant wait!!! whats the chances of it being out by christmas?!?

Darla Ransom said...

wow thts some bad luck!
tht reminds me of when my dad thought he could fix our computer but he recked it more. lol at least i can laugh about it now.

Alane Ferguson said...

I'm up and running again, although we had to buy a new Windows program. I'm still trying to figure out the new format! My manuscript is printed and I'm going over it for flow (and typos) and will try to reach my goal of sending it to my editor tomorrow. Start lighting candles!

Alane Ferguson said...

I'm not sure about Christmas, because printing and binding a book (let alone editorial rewrites) takes time. But you never know! Keep those good thoughts comming - I'm almost there!

Anonymous said...

did u get to send the book to her?

Anonymous said...

Hi! I sent you an e-mail before I read your blog! I hope you remember me; I introduced you at the Young Adult Lit Conference last Spring. I teach at Jefferson High School and the kids LOVE your book! I was wondering if you could come and talk to our students about the writing process and answer questions? We can pay you if necessary, but I know the kids would get a kick out of a local author speaking to us. I loved your speech at the conference and I know students will love you too!
Please let me know if you can come; I know your busy and would even like it next semester!
I am not sure how you could get hold of me, I can leave my work phone 303-982-6077. Not sure if that was a smart idea, but I am excited about this!
Thank you for your time!
Oh, and I received an 'A' on my final presentation I gave on "The Christopher Killer"!
Jon Clippinger

Anonymous said...

o my gosh i want the book sooooo bad.... badly??
oh, i don't know but i really want it =D

Anonymous said...

hey
how is everything? hows the book doing?

no_name_in_sight said...

hey guys me and Alane talked for a while today and im doin some work to get her books out there even more and its so easy just folllow the link and digg the posr if we get enough diggs it will make it to the front page and she will get like 1000 hits in a day thats amazing for al u non nerd ppl out there ps u might have to set up a account

no_name_in_sight said...

http://digg.com/people/author_never_turned_down

sorry guys forgot the link a sec ago

no_name_in_sight said...

just a suggestion so u dont melt again go buy a macbook pro and put microsoft word on it it wont crash if u mess it up

Anonymous said...

You poor thing, when are you going to be able to find time for everything you need to do!

Either way I wanted to blog being I had just seen you yesterday, and give you a little news blip.

The website is being hinky, but I'll get it to work by the end of the night. If you want to go and just check it out, leave a message in the guest book that would be great! It's brittanyalawrence.com.

And there are a few other ideas I've been having to help get you that blue spruce award, so I'll be giving you a call by the end of the week more likly.
--Brittany

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the marvelous posting! I really enjoyed reading it, you could be a great author.I will make sure to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back in the future.
I want to encourage one to continue your great work, have a nice evening!


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