Back up

Recently, I have had a rash of bad juju regarding my files and things getting lost/stolen. So, I have endeavored to make sure I have back ups. Well, it was not enough. I had some sort of virus that would not let me access restore points or anti-virus.

I also found that my anti-virus was off. I don't know if that was me with a download that I forgot to turn back on, or if that was the virus. But any time I tried to access any of that, I was blue screened. It kept telling me to uninstall last thing I installed. I had not installed anything. I had TRIED to update my adobe last. But it had not started yet.

I spent HOURS yesterday, trying to make it recover somehow. It did not. Long and short of it is that I lost all my pictures and my research.

I had started moving files to dropbox so I have my 3 complete novels still saved. I also have some of my research in email boxes that I will have to track down now. (I send to my alternate email and myhusbands email, so between them, i hopefully have SOMETHING. I have a joint venture book published which I had on my computer. The sequel is gone. Unless I managed to send it a while back.

At one point, my back up files on this OS went blank. My whole back up drive just wiped out. I had already had plans for buying a seperate harddrive for back ups. My husband and I have even priced some. However, we have not had the money. This last check my husband only had five days of work because of the weather.

He was unable to get into work the day before Thanksgiving (turned out to be good thing since mypipes were frozen!) so he lost his two days of holiday pay as well. One twelve hour shift and two 8 hour paid days down the tubes. Sigh.

My dropbox used to have more on it, but I cleared it out to help my son back up his itunes before reinstalling. Something was not working right with quick time or something, so he gave up. I took out the music and started refilling my dropbox, starting with my MS.

Mostly, I'm bummed at loss of my pics. The ironic thing is that most of my pics that I don't yet have on disc/jump drive are on FB which was the culprit in the first place. One of my friends was hacked and her site used to send infected messages to the lot of us :(

I probably would have been fine, but like I said, my defenses were down. I am really bummed. This week, I've lost my pics, and discovered the loss of my and my children's childhood ornaments. Trying hard to not be a downer to everyone I talk to, but it gets harder with each thing that happens.

HOWEVER, I do have my completed manuscripts. With all the interest I have in my romance thrillers and paranormal romance, I think I'm going to relegate my sci-fi and fantasy series to smashwords for my small cult following. I will put them cheaply available like $1-2 dollars and will link the sites here for you.

I have to go back through and fix dialogue. I went and took out contractions, but on the reread, it does not sound good. I had this confirmed with a beta reader (without pointing it out), so I am going to fix it before I release it to the stratosphere :)

I have my thriller out with an editor. Keep those fingers/toes/hair/eyes, whatever you have crossed for me:)

And keep the happy juju thoughts coming so I can go back to being my cheerful self! I really am an optimist at heart...