The perils of not backing up are rearing their ugly head. My main computer crashed on tuesday while I was working some video. It left the computer utterly unbootable.
Last update, the computer was at Data Doctors having the 500Gig hard drive imaged. They report there are numerous bad sectors on that drive. That data is the utmost importance, holding family photos, all my video, and other files that are too large to backup to anything but another hard drive. It's something that I had been intending to do, but never got around to doing while I'm out of full time work.
Also on that disk is all my writing, most of which is backed up on a flash drive and several iterations of CD-ROM disks. The main file that isn't backed up turns out to be the 52,000 words of my NaNoWriMo novel. If that file is lost, I doubt I'll ever return to the novel because I don't know if I'm jazzed enough about the story to start from scratch. There are other novels I prefer to write instead. If the data is still there, I'll probably finish the novel then set it aside for a while before editing and trying to sell it.
Right now, I'm limping along on my 5-year-old laptop computer and recovering some other files that were backed up by virtue of the sent folder in gmail, including my resume and a couple of crossword puzzle submissions to the LA Times.
So, while I'm thinking about it, what are my fiction plans for the upcoming year? As mentioned, assuming my NaNoWriMo novel partial survives the computer crash, I will finish that. There is the M-Brane SF Aether Age anthology, which I'd like to be in, and I suspect Christopher Fletcher would like to have something from me included. I want to write four short stories in 2010, and want to either win Writers of the Future, or disqualify myself with sales to pro markets. Either outcome will elevate my SFWA membership from associate to active. I'm one sale short of that right now. After that, I want to go back and finish Rigel Kentaurus, which I've been working toward finishing on and off for about 3 years.
Anyway, if I can recover the data I need from the disk image tomorrow, I will fell much better about everything, even if it means I lost all my NovyMirror masters. The video I'm working on for somebody else still has the masters on the camera. Starting from a frest OS and software install would not be the worst thing in the world since I intend to stay with XP until I buy a new laptop computer. But, I suspect I will buy several hard drives, including a large external drive for major backups.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
M-Brane SF #12 aka Ergosphere
As announced several months ago, I guest edited issue #12 of M-Brane SF. Christopher Fletcher has announced the table of contents and produced a cover image. He also announced that in addition to the usual pdf version of the magazine, he is issuing the collection of stories under the name Ergosphere as a print-on-demand trade paperback.
And here is the lineup of writers appearing in this issue:
Pretty Maids All in a Row Caren Gussoff
A Single Shot Lawrence M. Schoen
Hard for Us Michelle M. Welch
The Mushroom King Michael Canfield
Humans in the Zoo Paul Williams
Becoming Connie Thea Hucheson
After Babel Joe Pitkin
Generation Cleansing Michael Andre-Driussi
The Secret Names of Buildings Maura McHugh
Havana Augmented Tim Maughan
These are some very good stories, and I had a difficult time selecting the one to lead the collection. I ended up selecting Caren's story because hers would match the style of the artist best. The artist, by the way, is my niece, Hazel Abaya. She is a manga-influenced pencil artist, and this is her first published piece of art. Anyone interested in commissioning her for zine art can contact her through me until she gets her own web site.
And here is the lineup of writers appearing in this issue:
Pretty Maids All in a Row Caren Gussoff
A Single Shot Lawrence M. Schoen
Hard for Us Michelle M. Welch
The Mushroom King Michael Canfield
Humans in the Zoo Paul Williams
Becoming Connie Thea Hucheson
After Babel Joe Pitkin
Generation Cleansing Michael Andre-Driussi
The Secret Names of Buildings Maura McHugh
Havana Augmented Tim Maughan
These are some very good stories, and I had a difficult time selecting the one to lead the collection. I ended up selecting Caren's story because hers would match the style of the artist best. The artist, by the way, is my niece, Hazel Abaya. She is a manga-influenced pencil artist, and this is her first published piece of art. Anyone interested in commissioning her for zine art can contact her through me until she gets her own web site.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
I Has Been So Negligent
Wow, suddenly a month goes by and I haven't posted. It's just like the old days when I was working for Yertle the Turtle.
Gosh, we have some news now. November was National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. I wrote 52,000 words in November, which is about 60% of the novel. That makes me a NaNoWriMo Winner! (Cue the Dixieyland band.)
That's probably a good chunk of the reason for missing a month's worth of blog entries.
Well, so here's some good news. My first SFWA eligible sale in a long time went live today. The story is called "Catalyst" and can be seen here, in the online zine "Flash Fiction Online."
So that's the good news. The bad news is that my main computer, the server that ties all the wireless network together and also holds most of my work, died today while I was working on a video project for somebody. Timing was bad. My writing is all backed up...all but the NaNoWriMo novel, of course. The video is backed up on the camera, but in raw form. I need the cpu power of the desktop computer to be able to process it.
I do keep all my data on a slave hard drive so it's completely independent of the boot drive. I did that intentionally to to prevent a total catastrophe in case something like this happened. That strategy saved my data once already, about five years ago. The problem smells like something to do with the boot sector because the computer is in an infinite reboot loop. It won't even boot from the operating system CD.
I took the computer to Data Doctors this afternoon. They should be able to tell me what the smeg is going on. Hopefully it's something easily fixed.
Gosh, we have some news now. November was National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. I wrote 52,000 words in November, which is about 60% of the novel. That makes me a NaNoWriMo Winner! (Cue the Dixieyland band.)
That's probably a good chunk of the reason for missing a month's worth of blog entries.
Well, so here's some good news. My first SFWA eligible sale in a long time went live today. The story is called "Catalyst" and can be seen here, in the online zine "Flash Fiction Online."
So that's the good news. The bad news is that my main computer, the server that ties all the wireless network together and also holds most of my work, died today while I was working on a video project for somebody. Timing was bad. My writing is all backed up...all but the NaNoWriMo novel, of course. The video is backed up on the camera, but in raw form. I need the cpu power of the desktop computer to be able to process it.
I do keep all my data on a slave hard drive so it's completely independent of the boot drive. I did that intentionally to to prevent a total catastrophe in case something like this happened. That strategy saved my data once already, about five years ago. The problem smells like something to do with the boot sector because the computer is in an infinite reboot loop. It won't even boot from the operating system CD.
I took the computer to Data Doctors this afternoon. They should be able to tell me what the smeg is going on. Hopefully it's something easily fixed.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Black Orchid
The Theme and Variation audio anthology went live last week. My story went live today. You can hear it here.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Theme and Variation
Here is the cover art for the Theme and Variation music-themed audio anthology. It contains my story Black Orchid. You can also listen to the promo, and hear the theme music composed and performed by Michelle M. Welch and Jack Mangan.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Signing
Here is a picture of me at Dog-Eared Pages book store in north Phoenix today. They held a local author signing and here I am sitting in front of a rack of Romance novels signing my science fiction.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Overseeding 2009
One of the tasks I have to do because I live in the desert is prepare the lawn for winter. We use Bermuda grass here in the summer because not many other grasses can handle the extreme heat with 4 months above 100 degrees, and as many as 15 days over 110 degrees (Fahrenheit).
Unfortunately, the Bermuda grass goes dormant when it gets (relatively) cold and it stays brown all winter. HOA obligates me to over-seed with rye grass every October. There is roughly a two week window to get the seeds planted after the last 100 degree day and have new grass by Halloween.
The first step is to scalp the lawn, meaning to mow it as close to the ground as possible. It helps if you stop watering the Bermuda grass a week or two ahead of time.
This year I ran over a sprinkler head and ruined it. That isn't normally one of the steps in over-seeding. In fact, when I mowed the first loop around the edge of the lawn I was wise enough to go around it. When I came back for the rest of the lawn, I was not. Thus, I have an additional job this year--replace sprinkler head.
This is what the lawn looks like scalped.
The old sprinkler head has to come out. Fortunately, I happened to have a replacement in the shed. Unfortunately, it did not have a nozzle and I am sans vehicle because it is in the shop for a brake job. Details.
Sprinkler head replaced, it's time to finish the over-seeding job. There are four items I put on the lawn this year. First, I sprinkled some Bermuda grass seeds where I had some troublesome bald patches this past summer. From past seeding jobs, I am confident it will germinate in the spring. Next, I sprinkle Ammonium Sulfate fertilizer (21-0-0) on the lawn. Finally, the rye grass seed goes down. All my seed this year is leftovers from previous years. The Home Depot and Lowes have guys from the seed companies come in to advise you. They'll tell you the seed from last year is not good. Horse-hockey. The newest bag of seed I'm using this year is a year old. Others are even older.
The green stuff is Bermuda seed. It's about the size of a poppy seed. Tiny. The white stuff is the fertilizer. You can't see the rye grass seed, it looks like you would expect grass seed to look like.
Finally, the entire lawn must be covered in steer manure. It helps to fertilize the lawn. It helps to keep the seeds wet. Most importantly, it covers the seeds so small aviators do not eat them. It also stinks when wet, which amuses the neighbors. But it's under a buck a bag. I have 14 cubic feet for my lawn.
Once the BS is spread around the lawn, you are ready for water.
And we're watering...we're watering. This is what my sprinkler head spray pattern looks like without a nozzle. But, the lawn has to be wet. I'll have a nozzle on by this evening. Once I have my truck back and can get to the store.
In two weeks I should have a lot of little tiny grass sprouts.
Unfortunately, the Bermuda grass goes dormant when it gets (relatively) cold and it stays brown all winter. HOA obligates me to over-seed with rye grass every October. There is roughly a two week window to get the seeds planted after the last 100 degree day and have new grass by Halloween.
The first step is to scalp the lawn, meaning to mow it as close to the ground as possible. It helps if you stop watering the Bermuda grass a week or two ahead of time.
This year I ran over a sprinkler head and ruined it. That isn't normally one of the steps in over-seeding. In fact, when I mowed the first loop around the edge of the lawn I was wise enough to go around it. When I came back for the rest of the lawn, I was not. Thus, I have an additional job this year--replace sprinkler head.
This is what the lawn looks like scalped.
The old sprinkler head has to come out. Fortunately, I happened to have a replacement in the shed. Unfortunately, it did not have a nozzle and I am sans vehicle because it is in the shop for a brake job. Details.
Sprinkler head replaced, it's time to finish the over-seeding job. There are four items I put on the lawn this year. First, I sprinkled some Bermuda grass seeds where I had some troublesome bald patches this past summer. From past seeding jobs, I am confident it will germinate in the spring. Next, I sprinkle Ammonium Sulfate fertilizer (21-0-0) on the lawn. Finally, the rye grass seed goes down. All my seed this year is leftovers from previous years. The Home Depot and Lowes have guys from the seed companies come in to advise you. They'll tell you the seed from last year is not good. Horse-hockey. The newest bag of seed I'm using this year is a year old. Others are even older.
The green stuff is Bermuda seed. It's about the size of a poppy seed. Tiny. The white stuff is the fertilizer. You can't see the rye grass seed, it looks like you would expect grass seed to look like.
Finally, the entire lawn must be covered in steer manure. It helps to fertilize the lawn. It helps to keep the seeds wet. Most importantly, it covers the seeds so small aviators do not eat them. It also stinks when wet, which amuses the neighbors. But it's under a buck a bag. I have 14 cubic feet for my lawn.
Once the BS is spread around the lawn, you are ready for water.
And we're watering...we're watering. This is what my sprinkler head spray pattern looks like without a nozzle. But, the lawn has to be wet. I'll have a nozzle on by this evening. Once I have my truck back and can get to the store.
In two weeks I should have a lot of little tiny grass sprouts.
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