[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 09/06/12 ~ and…

It’s been a long, hard week since I last checked in. For those of you who join me daily on FB and Twitter, you know of what I speak! 🙂

As I write this, I’m coming down from a traumatic couple of days when I thought I’d lost the last 10 years of computer files. First, you all have to understand, I’m a self-taught computer “whiz” ~ NOT!  I have spent the last ten years learning whatever I need just when I need it. Nothing more, nothing less. I’ve had numerous computer crashes, been cobbled together by experts, and toddled off after each event a little wiser.

I have learned a lot.  I know about flash drives and CDs and sending files to my internet Inboxes.  I feel secure in my daily computer knowledge.  I hadn’t, however, found the optimum solution to my long term file storage. It takes TIME to save files every day so, no, I’m not as faithful as I know I need to be, and I’m just frugal enough — okay, I’ll say it, c.h.e.a.p. — that I haven’t broken down to get the external drive my son-in-law’s been recommending so my files are saved automatically.

Which brings me to my recent disaster. Someone told me about Dropbox. It seemed like the ultimate solution. Not only would everything be saved automatically but it would be saved off-site so I’d be covered in case of a fire or lightning strike (had one recently that fried all of my computers and modems ~ hmmm, discerning the pattern of electronic disasters littering my background yet? 🙂 ).

Did I mention the “free” part in this life-changing decision? Frugal woman I am — yeah, yeah, c.h.e.a.p., it’s a life choice and a virtue, you know — I promptly signed up for my own Dropbox account and happily started dragging files off my laptop into the abyss of security.

“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”

I wish Robby, the Robot had been in my office on Tuesday. He might not have saved my sanity but I might have paused a second or two before gutting my whole career.  An exaggeration, I know, but it did feel that way. Anyway, I was an “overzealous” (the word my daughter used with a straight face when she came to rescue her sobbing mother after a frantic 911 call) dragster, I’d bypassed the “free” space limits of the program, and my computer went into catatonic shock trying to process 58,000 files. Really. 58,000! I’ve been my own businesswoman for years. Can anyone say, “Meltdown!”? Me, not the computer. Okay, yes, the computer, too, but mine was a lot messier and rippled like the aftershocks of an 8.5 earthquake.

Thankfully, my daughter is smart, knows her stuff, and is ever willing to fix her mother’s computer mishaps with a smile and a tone that soothes the savage beast that bore her. She found ALL of my missing files — they had been deleted — and told me how to recover them all.  It’s going to take me a week to get them all loaded back on my computer. As I’m doing this around everything else, I’m going to finally do what I should have done in the first place. I’m getting an external hard drive. It should arrive about the time I finish saving my career.

The moral of this story? Don’t ask me how anything works on your computer. Don’t listen to anything I say or recommend.  And, don’t let me anywhere near your office equipment. One touch and it’s bound to go kablooie!

And that’s just two days out of my week…tired yet? 🙂 No?  Then, onward ho…!

I completed another section of my office renovation. One last corner to go, probably the hardest since it includes a built-in shelving unit. Straight walls are so much easier.  Can’t wait to finish. Been long time coming.  A friend asked me what was taking me so long to post pictures. 🙂  A valid question.  The truth is this house is as old as I am, literally. The walls are all bare wood, never been painted. So, it’s at least one coat of primer and two coats of paint. I’m actively working in the office so it has to be dismantled and set back up in sections before I can move on or do my daily work. Did I mention the house is as old as I am, and I’m no spring chicken. Needless to say, both of us need refreshing. 🙂 Here’s hoping I’ll have complete pictures next week!

SATIN PLEASURES went “live” with a new cover and smaller size as a paperback on Amazon this week. I’m thrilled with how it turned out.  You might be wondering why I’m making these changes now. The truth is both digital and paperback versions have been exclusive to Amazon almost from its release in February. I was dying to make some changes to the book presentation itself, so it made sense to do it when I was ready to make it available in other venues. I’ll announce the releases as they are available in the next couple of weeks.

And finally, to celebrate, SATIN PLEASURES will be **FREE** on Kindle for THREE FINAL DAYS…beginning 12:00 AM Pacific time today, Thursday, September 6th, and running through 11:59 PM Saturday, September 8th. Feel free to spread the word to your friends.  Happy Reading!!

So much for my promise to keep these short and sweet. Did I scare you off yet?  If not, I’ll see you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….