STROLLING DOWN MEMORY LANE.

Read my post Strolling Down Memory Lane, today at Romancing the Blog!

DISCONNECTING AND RECONNECTING...

I have two computers, and I think that's more than enough, even though they both recently suffered difficulties at the same time --- which is why I haven't posted lately to my blog. One computer had hardware problems, the other, software problems (of a sort).

It was my primary computer that got hit with the hardware troubles. First, my hard drive died --- and with very little warning. Most of what I had on it was backed up. But one of the things I did lose was email I'd saved to respond to. So if you emailed me or signed my guestbook in the past few months, and you didn't receive a reply from me, that's why.

Simultaneously, I discovered that my primary monitor had been slowly degrading for some time, not showing me colors properly. Among other things, what looked like gold and beige on my own monitor were actually pea green and chartreuse on everyone else's monitor. Not good, of course, for creating graphics! *g* So in addition to a new hard drive, I had to buy a new monitor, too.

My secondary computer got struck by a nasty virus. I don't know what the virus was. But it managed to get through all my defenses, and although my antivirus program did detect it, by the time said program had figured out that it couldn't clean and/or quarantine the virus, only delete it, the damage had already been done. The virus froze my computer and wreaked havoc on my operating system.

Fortunately, my husband, John, had backed up my entire computer the night before. So it was merely a matter of cleaning my computer and restoring it to its pre-virus status --- something that required time, but nothing more.

At any rate, both computers are now up and running again. Did I miss them during their down time? Honestly, no. I know from long experience that one of the best ways to reconnect with oneself is to disconnect from the outside world.

In the meanwhile, my editor called with a list of revisions for my latest manuscript, The Crystal Rose. All sensible suggestions, as usual, mostly involving expanding and embellishing what's already there. One of the things I really appreciate is having been given sufficient time to do that. This is one of the reasons why I adore both my editor and my publisher. :)

So I've disconnected, reconnected, and am now brimming with ideas for The Crystal Rose. I'm off now to see which ones my hero and heroine like best! *g*