Aaaargh!!!

And here's a friendly reminder to back up your files, all of them. My extra computer died and I've just heard from the repair shop that while they can recover the data, the hard drive is a goner.

Luckily I didn't lose any poetry, because I moved it all to my new computer and because I back up my poetry files regularly. But guess what I did lose? The spreadsheet of every place I've submitted poetry to (in detail by poem and date and result) for oh, my entire publishing career. That particular file I thought I was backing up regularly, but when checking my backup storage places, apparently NOT!

I didn't move that crucial file to my new computer because my new computer doesn't have the software to read it, so I just left it on my old computer. So it's just this one file that is causing me problems (and my iTunes, which I hadn't moved so that my new computer wouldn't get slow, but which I can get back thanks to some programs I found online that will read my iPod and put it on the new computer). However, the repair place can recover this one spreadsheet for me, for about $30, and I can download a trial software package to view it and convert it to something I can read on my computer, or if not, at least I'll be able to print it out. Hopefully.

Anyway, more detail than you needed. But do heed my friendly reminder to back up everything, not just your writing files, but everything you need to support your publishing.