One of the worst things that can happen to an author is to lose files. The pace of life today makes working digitally from the beginning the most productive path. This leaves you vulnerable when the technology breaks down.
When I was younger, I wrote mostly by hand. I used composition books which I decorated with cut-out pictures from magazines, stickers, and hand-drawn sketches on the covers. Later, I started writing in beautiful notebooks with lovely covers that I chose not to mess with, so I added the pictures and stickers to the inside pages.
The process of writing by hand gave me a chance to slow down the creative flow. Since I’m a very good typist, word-processing the work is always faster. Going from a handwritten story to typing it up allowed for revisions as I went. This first revision during the word-processing was an integral part of the writing flow for me.
As life became busier, I had to move away from writing my whole first draft by hand to straight up typing it into the computer. I don’t think it really affected the quality, especially since I have powerhouse critique groups, feedback writing communities, and amazing developmental editors. However, it did leave me vulnerable to technology failures.
Back in June of 2024, the external hard drive I had been using as my primary back up system fell from my table. I thought nothing of it, but when I went to access it, the files wouldn’t load. Apparently, the thump with the floor messed up its insides, and now I would need to take it to an expert to see if we can recover any of the items stored therein. Haven’t had time to do that yet.
The tragedy of this, of course, is that I had not thought of putting all the files into the Microsoft Enterprise server I use for Inklings Publishing. We have super amounts of storage as part of our business subscription and it would not have been a problem, but I just didn’t think of it. So much was lost on this drive.
Among the items seemingly gone was a story I had been writing about a University of Houston history professor who goes back to Viking times and brings a bunch of them here to the new world. The ripple effects being that Native Americans don’t end up wiped out by European colonization later on, because the Vikings who arrive integrate with the natives and fortify them. Vikings were known for their willingness to assimilate new things into their culture, which is why so much of their culture ended up a victim of christianization. (As a Christian myself, it pains me to say that, but religious institutions are never true to the heart of the spiritual belief they represent)
Anyway, I searched for it but couldn’t recall the file name so I believed it completely gone. This past weekend, however, I remembered what I had given it as a title. I did a search and it popped up on one of my smaller thumb drives. I was so pleased to see how much of the story was recovered, that I spent this long weekend finishing the tale.
So, my Viking time travel alternate history romance is off to developmental editing this week and who knows… might be a great release for 2026/2027.
