I have been sick, and have really only been feeling well for the last couple of days, so I started the month sick. It was a sinus infection. I don't know how the rest of you handle sinus infections, but for me, it makes me feel like I can't think in a straight line. So I really haven't done much of anything. Now I am starting to feel better, or so I thought, but today I awoke with a headache and a very stuffy nose so I am hoping it is just the cold weather. Taking meds and drinking hot tea is very helpful so I am very excited to be healthy.
Another issue, and I have been dreading announcing this, is that I have lost a lot of what I have written on book 4, ZOMBIMERICA. Something got on my computer and I lost a lot of the new stuff I had written, and two stories. I have no idea what happened, but something ate through my computer and ate not only these things but several pictures, and one cover I had been working on for a short story I had just finished. I am pretty sure it had something to do with me trying to add iTunes back onto my computer. For some reason iTunes has failed and I cannot put it back on without crashing my computer. This was my third attempt to add iTunes back on my computer, and since I have lost so much I don't think I will be trying again. The bad part isn't the photos, I can scan them again, and it isn't the short stories since I had printed them out to edit them and take them to my writing group for critique, no it was the work on book 4 that has been troubling me. I usually write things longhand then type it up, but lately (in the past few months) I have just been typing things up. I haven't been printing it yet, nor have I been backing anything up because I usually wait until I have so much done before I do any of that.
To say the least this is a setback of epic proportions for an author. Whenever you lose something that you have put your heart and soul into it rips a piece of you out, not only because I am disappointed in myself, but I am also disappointed for my fans who have been waiting for the release of book 4. Hopefully this is just a setback and not a break, and in the next month I plan to work dutifully on book 4, ZOMBIMERICA, so that, if nothing else, I can recoup my losses.
These are not the only things that have made December unplesant for me, but these are the things that affect you, my fans and readers, so I needed to be upfront and let everyone know what was going on.