Sandra Lindsey

I bet all you guys have really organised computer filing systems, and back everything up regularly in three or four different ways... well, I aspire to this sort of behaviour, but in the mean-time I'm still at the "remembering every couple of months or so that what's on the memory stick and what's on the network drive are supposed to be the same thing" stage.

About 2 years ago, I had my most productive writing days ever. In two days I wrote close on 10,000 words of a story, plus figured out most of the world-building, characters, major plot points etc. Then something happened in my non-writing life which needed my attention and the story's mostly languished since...

Every so often I think I'll have a "quick look" at it though, and that's when the trouble starts:

First, I look on the network drive. Not there.
Then, I look on the green usb stick. Not there.
Then I start checking all kinds of random older folders on the network drive, convinced that's where I've saved it. Nowhere to be found.
Then I start to worry, and think "oh no! most productive two days of my life, down the drain!"
At this point I usually remember that I wrote it using the old laptop (whose hard disc gave up the ghost 9 months back), and that I was running it under Ubuntu a the time. "Aha!" I think, "It's one of those awkward things where the computer can't see it when it's running under Windows!"
So I re-boot into Ubuntu on the desktop, and go through the same checks...
...and check again...
...and curse myself, because by that point I've become convinced I must have saved it to the laptop's (now defunct) hard disc.
...
:-(
...
Then, after some swearing at myself, I remember what I named the file, and do a search for it...
...and the computer says "Here it is, on the purple usb stick! Didn't you know that? And here's this really useful related file as well!"
And, after a few more choice phrases, I go "YAY! I'm not as dumb as I thought!" and decide that I really ought to put a copy in the directory of my stories on the network drive.
At which point, the computer says "no."

One of these days I'll get a copy saved elsewhere, but in the meantime I hope I've raised a smile from anyone who's done something similar :-)

As I'll be attending the UK GLBT Authors & Readers Meet in July (aka uk_meet), I submitted a story to the promotional anthology British Flash:

and it was not only accepted but also complimented!

I am, as you can tell, still quite giddily excited about this :-D
I'm also rather stumped as to how to write the blurb for it, which was requested a few days ago now... probably shows my naivety, but I didn't expect one to be needed for an anthology of flash-fiction; and 100 words for a blurb seems exceedingly long when the story's only 500 words!
...I'll get there. I just hope I'm not making too many enemies while I do...

Other parts of life have been busy too - we had a few losses & gains with the chickens, leaving us now with 4: 2 light sussex and 2 welbar. I'm currently trying to find a few hours when it is light, dry, and I'm not too tired / muscle-achy so I can glue up the new run I've made for them. Then I just need to attach the wire, get the door for it finished and tie a tarp over for a roof. Then I can make them some perches and ramps and suchlike so they've got lots to keep them occupied while I'm out at work :-D

I also found a beer-making kit I'd forgotten I had so I've tried to get back into that again. Not sure on the success so far. That's definitely something I've got worse at as time's gone on :-( Probably due to the first few times I made beer, I was out of work so not coming home shattered of an evening...

Hmm. Can't finish on a down-note. *thinks* How about two of my favorite verses of poetry?

"You are old, Father William, and your jaws are too weak,
For anything tougher than suet.
Yet you eat all the goose, with the bones and the beak,
Pray how do you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said the old man, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife.
And the muscular strength that it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."
Yep, I found my copy of Alice's Adventures Underground the other week :-D

Words my computer doesn't recognise:
- skulking
- oogle
How can my computer not know these? Surely it's heard me talk!

The other day at work I was printing something with a wedding-design and the names "Audrey" and "James" in a swirly-whirly font. I mis-read "Audrey" as "Andrew" and wondered (aloud!) why there was a woman in the picture!

Sadly, I had to give up last week on the idea of writing something for the Tea & Crumpet anthology (connected to the UK GLBT Writers & Readers Meet happening in July) as it became rather obvious I just don't have the time or energy right now to have got it finished in time. I will be submitting for the flash-fiction anthology though - I've been revising/editing it in the 10 minutes between arriving at work and starting work... so at a pace of about 2-3 sentences a day. Good thing it's only about 500 words long!
- Just realised, I'd better check there's not a minimum words limit on that submission call!

Got a little distracted this last week, by changing day-jobs. Finished one on Wednesday & started the next on Thursday. Was shattered and over-whelmed by the end of Friday, but very looking forward to today :-D

Haven't re-read through my edited flash-fiction thing for the uk_meet anthology yet so must make sure that gets done this week. Then I need to toss a coin (or something) and decide whether to work on the historical short story, or the one with cricketers in their whites. Likely wouldn't be asking myself that question if we hadn't had Radio 4 on (LW, we don't get FM in our valley) at the weekend while out in the garden.

Of course, I've also been getting distracted by our chickens, which we've had nearly a month now and are just coming into lay :-)

Hmm... think I'm leaning towards the cricketers...

Unshelved (by Gene Ambaum & Bill Barnes) today is sheer genius: about e-books.

Best last line of an article I've seen in a good while: surprisingly, is in a Scientific American story about adult male circumcision.

Mslexia have a survey about novel writing. Sadly, being a lit'ry focused magazine, they don't have m/m listed as a genre, and no place to fill in what your "other" genre is when you tick that box :-(

But anyhow! it may give you a laugh if nothing else :-)

Anyone else get inspired by the Friday Guys over at Reviews by Jessewave? I'm sure I can't be the only one! Anyhow, one of them today inspired ( this little glimpse: )

If you're interested, I scanned the original (complete with slightly smudgy bit from where I spilt* my cuppa):


*Yeah, probably 'spilled' rather than 'spilt'. I'm just helping the language evolve ;-)

...which have amused me lately.

1) I am sure that very few none of you will be surprised to hear that of the eight people on the first aid course I attended last Friday, it was I who laughed loudest and longest at the mnemonic "Please Sir, slap my face, lift my leg, and roll me over!" (for the recovery position, in case you're wondering). Thankfully, there were women there with even dirtier chortles than me when it came to "harder, faster, deeper" *snort* I may have been temporarily disowned by my colleagues at that point...

2) I don't know how it is where you live, but on the Welsh weather (after the news) there's often seemingly random places marked on the map - not the main towns, but a few in each of North, Mid and South Wales (it could be Derek Brockway thing). Tonight one of the places was Rhiwargor. Which is a teeny, tiny place (about 3 farms and a waterfall) at the top end of 'our' lake :-D I nearly fell off the sofa.

Last night we caught a re-showing of The Return of 'Allo 'Allo on one of the BBC digital channels. It's the one thing (other than Ski Sunday) that I remember us all sitting around and watching as a family when I was growing up ...of course, as we got older, it ceased being all the family watching it, but I still caught a fair number of the episodes. Taught me a lot about the world, and adult behaviour that series did (hmm... perhaps that explains things?), and I'm sure my parents didn't think I got half the jokes I did. I know, from the clips they showed in The Return... that there was at least one joke I didn't get at the time: when Fairfax & Carstairs are in bed together (complete with nightcaps and nightgowns) and Fairfax says "Grammar school boy, were you?"

Yeah, didn't get that one when I was 7 (8? 9? No idea which series it was from, tbh). But my favourite character, without a doubt, throughout the whole time it ran, was Lieutenant Gruber. Never did see what he saw in Rene though. General von Klinkerhoffen was better looking...

So, after that glimpse into my pre-teenage mind, I hope you don't feel the need to scrub yours out too badly!

PS My second-favourite character was the English Policeman (Crabtree?), for fairly obvious reasons :-D