What It’s Worth—Robin

Remember that joke that goes: You know you’re a redneck when… (You can finish the punch line in your head. Or, of course…in the comments section.)

This week, I created my own version of that joke, only it wasn’t very funny, so don’t get your hopes up. Here goes…

You know you’re a freakishly obsessed children’s book writer when…your cell phone, your iPod, and your laptop are stolen from your car and you sob like a baby, not because you’ve just lost almost $2,000 worth of stuff, but because you knew that the only version of your middle grade novel was on that laptop. And now it’s gone. Like I said, not a very funny joke, huh?

Knowing that I’d just lost my novel, I started wailing and heaving and hyperventilating…so I figured it was a good time to call my husband. It took him a while to calm me down and figure out what had happened. Once he realized no one was hurt and the house hadn’t burned down, he almost thought it was cute—that I would be THAT upset about losing my work. But I didn’t find it very cute. I was devastated.

I sniffled through the rest of my day at work, and nodded my head when well-meaning people would say things like, “Well, maybe it will be better the second time you write it.” Thankfully, Jay and Eve said things like, “Dude, that totally sucks.” (They get me.)

Now, just in case my agent is reading this and starting to hyperventilate as well, I must say that this story has a happy ending. First, our insurance is going to cover most of the cost of replacing the items. And second, I found a flash card in a drawer and prayed that I had been responsible and saved my work the last time I worked on it. And my prayers were answered! I had saved the entire thing! Woohoo!

So I think I learned a few things this week…
1. Always save your work to a flash card.
2. You should probably save your work to another hard drive as well.
3. Go ahead and save your work to a disk, too, just to be safe.
4. Why don’t you just hold your laptop wherever you go and never let it out of your sight.
5. And learn to tell a funny joke, would ya!?

--Robin