Monday, November 11, 2013

Monday Mishmash 11/11/13


Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts:
  1. Back Up Your Files!!!  At the end of last week, I lost my new WIP that I was halfway through. The file corrupted and now a bunch of others are too. Apparently "Track Changes" can easily corrupt files, so BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!! Take it from me.
  2. Did You See #1? BACK UP YOUR FILES. I'm still crying when I think about having to rewrite that book.
  3. I Am Ashelyn Drake  If you missed my big announcement last week, it was that I'm writing NA and YA contemporary romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. You can "see" my confession here.
  4. Free Monthly Newsletter  My free monthly newsletter goes out later today. If you aren't signed up but would like to receive one, you can sign up here.
  5. Stolen Cover Reveal  I'm so excited to share the cover of Keren Hughes debut YA, Stolen. Check it out!

Roshanna O'Dare wakes up in her own home in shock when she discovers part of her memory is missing and her parents are dead…


With no clues of any kind as to what happened to her parents, and no other close family, Roshanna must move to Texas, Austin, to live with her last living relative, Uncle Joe after the funeral. But this means leaving her best friend, Marissa Mason behind.

That’s when she meets Bodhi Vincent, her uncle’s chauffeur, who seems to understand Roshanna in a way no one else has…

Bodhi is her rock after the death of her parents and the longer she stays with her uncle, the closer they become.

But before moving away, Roshanna was confronted with a shocking secret that Marissa had kept from her, a secret that changes how she sees life and the people in it—Marissa is a pure soul and her foster parents are soul drainers who need her pure energy to survive.

More shockingly, her parents’ souls were stolen by their murderer.

When Roshanna and Bodhi try and track down Marissa’s father, Leith Mason, in order to retrieve her parents’ souls back, they find themselves held hostage at gunpoint.

Will Roshanna and Bodhi survive? Will she ever find her parents souls? Or will their souls be the next ones to be taken?

Add it on Goodreads. And since Keren is awesome, she has a giveaway for you.

That's it for me. What's on your mind today?

44 comments:

  1. I am so sorry you lost your new WIP!! I have cried like a baby for the same reason. I lost a whole finished novel and another novel that I was nearing the end of in one devastating moment. Sadly, I haven't worked on either of them since then and it's been six years. I plan to rewrite them some day, but I don't know when. I wish you luck with writing your book again and I'll say a special prayer to the writing gods to give you a hand.

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    1. Now that I'm finished crying about it, I'm telling myself it was the universe's way of telling me I was writing the book in the wrong POV. I have a new vision for it now, and while I can't rewrite it for a few weeks (I have client edits to finish first), I plan to make it even better than it was before. And this time, I'll back it up. Twice!

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  2. Ack! Sorry you lost your work, Kelly. I know how that feels. It sucks.

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    1. Thanks, Diane. Yes, it does but I've learned my lesson.

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  3. It's a very eye catching cover!

    I've always backed up chapters as I've gone along. A couple of times the flashdrive where I usually work from as a basis ended up in the washing machine. Strangely, both times the files were fine.

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    1. Wow! It survived the washing machine? I would've thought that would destroy it for sure.

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  4. I love the blue and purple in the cover of Stolen!

    How awful that you lost your WIP! I can understand why you cried! It is so hard to lose something that you have worked on for so long and then have to try to recreate it! Good luck! :)

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    1. Thanks, Stephanie. And I agree about the cover of Stolen. Great colors.

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  5. Is it unsalvagable? Have you taken it to a professional?
    I would sob if I lost a WIP. I do send my chapters out to my CPs as I write them, so I could probably reconstruct it -- but not any changes I made after I sent each chapter.

    Off to email myself the current WIP ... Gmail saves everything.

    And Iove the changing banner with your covers!

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    1. Yes, I tried four professional tech people. *sigh* It's unrecoverable. I save everything in multiple locations. Why I never saved this one anywhere else is very strange. Lesson learned though.

      Thanks! I made it myself.

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  6. That's horrible news, Kelly! So sorry to hear that but thank you for reminding us to back up our files! I will be sending some positive and creative vibes your way so your better equipped to rewrite your book!

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  7. It's horrible losing all that hard work. I need to remember to heed your words and backup my work.

    Good luck rewriting. I'm sure it will be just as good if not better.

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    1. I decided to take this opportunity to change the POV, which I think will make the book better. At least I'm hoping. lol

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  8. What a nightmare losing your WIP. Poor you. This is why I email all my writing to myself. Hope you can recover/remember it.

    Congratulations on the pen name and the genre switch. As I've said before, you are nothing if not prolific.

    This week I'm working on another new chapter (added in to this draft).

    Have a great week.

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    1. I email myself too. I don't know why I didn't with this WIP. It's so unlike me and now I'm paying for it. It's officially unrecoverable so I will be rewriting it.

      Good luck with your new chapter!

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  9. Kelly, if I could give you a hug through the screen I would! Ugh, technology can be such a pain in the butt sometimes. You're handling it a lot better than I would. My computer would be broken, after throwing it through the window. *wink*

    I know it's the last thing any author wants to hear, but I think when you get back into it, your WIP is going to be even better, the second time around.

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    1. That's what I keep telling myself. I don't know how else to get through this but to believe the book will turn out even better.

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  10. That is so awful, Kelly! But you'll never NOT backup files anymore, I'm sure. It's happened to me, so in addition to backing up, I email my day's work to myself every day.

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    1. You should see how often I save to multiple locations now. I'm obsessed.

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  11. I'm sorry to hear about your WIP. I lost one of my stories once because I didn't eject the flash drive properly. Now I work from DropBox, so all my files are saved on two computers and I can access my stories online.

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    1. Thank you! I tell my husband all the time that not properly ejecting flash drives can ruin files. He doesn't believe me. I have Dropbox and I'm using it now.

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  12. I guess losing all our files is about the worst thing that can happen. All that work gone. Sorry for your troubles. I have a hard drive plugged into my computer. Don't know if it backs up everything or not. Hope so. I also email my stories to myself, and they're always in my email box that way and would be available on another computer, which is what I usually do. Put them on my laptop. Yes, I'm paranoid. :) I haven't heard of Drobbox. Need to take a look.

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    1. I have the free version of Dropbox so I won't be able to keep everything there as a backup, but at least I can keep things I need at the moment. I can move them to other places later when I don't need them at my fingertips anymore.

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  13. A big OUCH to your #1 (&#2)- a writer's nightmare. Knowing your output, you'll catch up quicker than most. But, still, OUCH!

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    1. I have to finish these client edits before I can even think of catching up. Plus, I have a new idea that is nagging me, so that might come first.

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  14. As you know I had my own recent experience with not backing work up.

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    1. You'd think since I knew about that I would've been extra careful. Stupid, Kelly. Stupid.

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  15. That's a beautiful cover on the cover reveal. Such good advice on backing up files - and not just when you're done for the day. Will I ever remember to do this? I too have shed many tears when I've forgotten.

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    1. I'm backing up my files several times a day now. lol I'm paranoid.

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  16. *dagger to the heart* AH!!! (Yes, that was my scream on your behalf.) I'm so sorry Kelly, but thank you for the reminder. I like to email myself backup drafts every so often.

    And Stolen? *shiver* It sounds amazing.

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    1. I usually email backups too. Why I didn't this time, I don't know. I'm hitting myself for it though.

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  17. Oh my goodness! I'm crying for you. We have a little thing in my writer's group whenever we sprint. It's a contest to see who can yell "save it" first at the end of the time. Too many of us have lost precious words.

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    1. That's a great idea! Save repeatedly. lol

      I love your new avatar, Sarah!

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  18. Losing work is so hard!!! My laptop crashed last year and I lost everything on it. It was a major set back for me, so much motivation was lost!

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  19. Oh no! So sorry to hear you lost your file, Kelly. Yikes :(

    Also, Stolen looks cool. The blues and purples in the cover are really eye-catching.

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    1. Thanks, Emilyann. I'll get over it eventually. ;)

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  20. So sorry to hear about you losing your WIP Kelly-what a pain. x

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    1. Thanks, Anita. I'm taking a break from it before I even think about rewriting the book.

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  21. I usually back things up on a disc but haven't done it lately. Thanks for the reminder Ashelyn. :)

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