The Blue Screen of Death . . . Anne McAllister

I don't know if it was John Lennon or not who said, "Life is what happens when you're making other plans." But, believe me, life is what is happening here.

On the weekend I sat down to write this blog piece -- and my computer's trackpad went nuts. One minute it was behaving. The next it was sending the cursor zinging all over the place.  I couldn't even get it to shut down right. I had to press the on/off button. Never a good sign.

Next time I pressed it, I got as far as the "starting Windows" screen. I haven't been able to get any further since.  So . . . I don't have a blog piece written. I have countless hours of discussion with my friends at my computer company's software help division under my belt instead.

I would like to report progress. So far, I can't. Maybe today.  In the meantime, I've borrowed someone else's computer.  I apologize for the lack of a useful blog post.  If you have ever had computer issues, I send you my sympathies. I would appreciate yours.

Stay tuned . . . I hope by next month I can report that there were blue skies just around the corner.  But if not, I hope I can at least tell you that the archaeological dig I'm going on in 10 days was a great success.

I'd love to have you leave comments, but I don't know if I can answer them. Proceed at your own risk!

What do you depend on?

I had a heck of a Tuesday. Not sure if I woke up with some sort of magnetic force-field but the day started with my computer crashing. Not just a hiccough but a full-on, mega, catastrophic fail. Corrupted everything. My first reaction was, 'I have a book due in a week!!!!!'  My second thought was, 'Thank goodness for Dropbox' and my third was, 'Crap, I have no clue about the password.' .

 I rushed the computer to the 'computer doctor' and then tried to ring my husband from the shop. My phone said, 'No SIM card.' Hello? My SIM card was in the phone. I rebooted the phone three times and then trudged home only to find the brand new home phone wasn't doing its job either!  So obviously I was supposed to be out of communication with the world, and with a deadline I am usually happy with that but I didn't even have my computer  :-(

I tried to find my husband's desk under the mountains of paper and turn on his computer. I was being thankful that we had a spare computer (Ahem or two) in the house until I discovered that my version of 'Word' and his version are not the same. Still,trying to be Pollyanna, I reasoned  I could read my manuscript and still write, even though it involved making copious notes to insert into my version later.

The computer shop marked me as urgent (sweet!) and 30 hours later I had my computer back except it isn't really back as nothing is on it. It is a shell of its former shelf and I see hours and hours of work trying to restore it all. Actually I see hours and hours of my husband's time, installing it all. Still, I have my data so YAY on that as it could have been so much worse.

Anyway, I am hoping next Tuesday, Valentine's Day  is going to be a better day for me. Maybe flowers or chocolates rather than failed technology? And to celebrate that thought and earnest hope, I'm having a little competition.

The last time I was really at sea with failed technology was when my washing machine died. We really do get attached to our machines!  What do you miss the most when it fails?

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch. A current RT Book Reviwers' Choice Award nominee, you  can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Boomerang Bride is available now from Carina Press,Amazon Kindle, Nook and all other online book stores. Her medical romances are available from The Book Depository and harlequin.com