Writers in the Storm

by Eldred Bird

It started like any other writing session. Drink in hand, I made my way to my office and plopped down in front of the computer. The welcome glow of the monitor lit my face as I settled in for what I felt would finally be a productive writing session—my first in quite some time.

Fresh ideas swirled as I opened the data directory and positioned the mouse pointer over my current work in progress. I clicked the button and waited. Nothing. I clicked again. Still nothing. I double-clicked and triple-clicked.

No response.

Panic began to set in as I attempted to open folder after folder. Still nothing! I listened for the familiar whir of the Network Attached Storage (NAS) on my desk next to the router but was met with silence.

I rebooted the drive, hoping beyond hope it would reconnect. I could hear the drive spin up, the heads jumping back and forth across the surface of the disc, searching for the missing ones and zeros that made up my life’s work.

The drive slowed, and then it stopped. I tried again, then again, with no success. Death hung heavy in the silence.

My data was gone.

A Writer’s Worst Nightmare

A real modern horror story, right? The scariest part is this actually happened. To me. This month. The NAS running the private cloud in my home failed one week before I was going to replace it with a newer model. All my writing, as well photos and household data, were inaccessible.

Adding to the stress was the fact that I hadn’t run a full back-up in years. How embarrassing is that? I was an IT guy in my pre-writing life. I know better than to get into this predicament.  But, between crazy life and parental strife, that vital habit had fallen by the wayside.

It felt like my entire life had been wiped out.

Recovering from Disaster

The first step in recovering from this kind of failure is don’t panic. (I know, I know. Easier said than done).

Remaining calm is key to not causing more damage.

Here are the steps, in order, to increase your chances of recovering from this kind of crisis:

1. Unplug the drive

Unplugging the power and network connections are the first steps in preventing further data loss. If you’re dealing with an internal drive, shut the computer down. Shutting things down will prevent further physical damage to the surface of the disc, increasing your chances of recovery.

2. Call a professional

Unless you do data recovery for a living, don’t mess with it yourself. Odds are you will only make it worse. As I mentioned, I’m a retired network engineer and IT professional, but I recognized very quickly that this was beyond my skillset.

3. Do your homework

Not all data recovery firms are created equal. Price is a consideration, but reviews are more important. You may only get one chance at this, so be picky and ask a lot of questions.

If you’re in the Phoenix area, I highly recommend Desert Data Recovery. They work miracles and do it at a reasonable price. Nicky also has a lovely British accent that’s very calming, a more important quality than you might think in the middle of a crisis.

4. Search for hidden files

While your drive is with your chosen recovery service, search for older versions of files in case your data can’t be retrieved.

Places to look might be old external drives and memory sticks floating around the house or office. Also, check out the Recycle Bin on your computer’s desktop. If you haven’t emptied it, there may be previous versions of your work you can use to rebuild. If you have an online cloud account, check to see if any of your data is backed there.

5. Restore deleted files

Even empty drives and memory sticks may yield some data when you run an Undelete utility on them. There are a lot of choices out there, but my personal favorite is Glarysoft File Recovery. They have a free version that works well, but for big jobs I would recommend the pro version.

My Journey to Recovery

The good news is that my story has a happier ending than most. The data recovery service was able to fully recover 100% of my files from the malfunctioning drive.

I immediately made a full copy of the recovered files and put it in my safe in case there were any other problems during the restoration process. Crisis averted…for now.

A New Strategy

As you can probably guess, things are going to be much different in the Bird house going forward. Backing up data will be taking a much higher priority.

To make the process easier, here are the steps I’m taking:

1. Data Organization

As I am restoring my data to the new NAS, I’m taking the opportunity to reorganize the files and folders into a more logical order. This will help speed the backup process, as some files are updated more often than others and require more frequent maintenance.

2. Culling Duplicates

One thing I’ve found a lot of while going through the recovered data are multiple copies of files, especially images, strewn around the drive inside various folders. I’m terrible about remembering where I’ve saved things and then end up resaving them somewhere else.

Eliminating the duplicates not only saves drive space, it also speeds up the backup process because there’s less to backup.

3. Scheduling Regular Backups

The most important change being made is the regular scheduling of backups. I can assure you that these will be performed religiously in the future!

In addition to the new network drive, I now have two additional large-capacity external drives that will be put into rotation. The latest backup will be stored in our fire-safe and the older one will be plugged into my desktop computer.

Backups will run automatically from the desktop computer, as it’s the one machine in the house that is always up. After each backup runs, the external drives will be swapped with the latest going back into the safe.

Some Final Thoughts

After going through this experience, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of regular backups. There are so many options that there’s no excuse anymore. Cloud services like OneDrive, Apple’s iDrive, and a multitude of other online services make it easy to keep your important data safe. Removable drives, USB drives, and network attached storages are also options.

Bottom line—find something that works for you and then use it!

Do you have a backup strategy? How consistent are you at backing up your files? Share what works (or doesn’t) for you in the comments below.

About Eldred

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking, and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives). His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

by Lynette M. Burrows

Being an independent author-publisher isn’t for everyone. I chose that path, but my path is mine. You must choose your own path. If you are weighing your options, this “Things I Wish I Knew Before I Published” series may help. Part I and Part II discuss big picture issues to consider. This is part III, the last post in this series.

Things I Wish I Knew About Rules 

The advice you can find about the “rules” of writing and publishing goes from one extreme to another. Some say there are no rules. Others give you a list of rules. 

Traditional Publishing

When you consider traditional publishing, remember that these big publishers are corporations and they have both public and more private rules. They call their public rules “submission guidelines.” Often those guidelines are about how to format your manuscript. 

The harder to find or see rules are those common to corporations. Certain departments handle certain things. One publisher may tolerate stories that include guns or sex scenes. The next one won’t. Often these corporations do not share internal policies such as risk tolerance or political leanings or their alignment with causes you care about. 

Even the editors you submit to have rules. They don’t call them rules, yet they have certain expectations. They expect stories to be entertaining, to progress from beginning to middle to the end. Each editor has genre expectations and life events that influence their interpretation of your story. Some editors are flexible and open to having their expectations exploded by a skillful author. Others will not be.

What can you do? Know what’s important to you. Research the publishers and editor you’d like to publish your work. Ask questions of authors, agents, editors, and librarians. Can’t do it in person? Try social media.

Don’t be so eager to be published that you sign your first contract without knowing what it means to your book and to your values. Decide which issues are a no-deal for you in advance.

Rules in Independent Publishing

You may get the impression that there are no rules in independent publishing. You’d be wrong. There are tons of rules. Amazon has a set of rules. So do Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Draft to Digital, and Ingram Spark. There are cover sizes and images they will and will not tolerate on covers. Genres they will and will not allow on their sites. Advertisers have rules, too. Those are a tiny part of the rules associated with independent publishing.

While independently published authors don’t have to contend with corporate editors, we have to please the readers of our genre. Readers have expectations and those are their “rules.” 

There are also the expectations or rules we impose upon ourselves. Sometimes, independent author-publishers impose harsh, unrealistic, unsustainable rules on themselves. 

What I Wish I Knew About the Rules Before I Published

The anonymous “they” say that you need to know the rules before you break them. I wish I’d understood the unsaid part of that advice. If you break the rules, there are consequences. Sometimes, the consequences are that the editors and readers love what you did. But if you break too many rules and expectations, you may alienate some editors and readers. Your book may not sell.

As an independent publisher, it's up to you to understand the rules and what consequences may result if you decide to break a few.

Things I Wish I Knew About the Writer’s Life

No matter the publishing path you follow, you are a writer. A writer’s life is not as advertised. Hollywood films set up expectations that writers solve crimes or have exciting adventures. Magazines and other media hold up the rags to riches stories of fabulously successful and wealthy authors as something all writers can become. 

Hollywood vs. Real Life

While it depends on what you call adventures, few writers get much in the way of real-life adventure. Many of us do some traveling associated with our writing, but it’s rare that a writer is a successful detective or devious murderer or a terrified kidnap victim.

Most of the time, we sit at our writing device of choice and write. If we aren’t careful, we develop physical limitations because of too much sitting. Most of us self-isolate. It’s nearly impossible to get into the creative zone and socialize at the same time. 

It used to be very unlikely for a writer to earn a living. Thanks to independent publishing it is less rare today, but for every Stephen King or J. K. Rowling, there are thousands who do not earn enough to break even.  

The Get Real Numbers

Getting numbers specific to fiction books can be difficult. In July 2006, Publisher’s Weekly reported: 

— in 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. The average book in America sells about 500 copies. Those blockbusters are a minute anomaly: only 10 books sold more than a million copies last year, and fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000.

Keep in mind, the Nielsen BookScan does not gather statistics on most independently published books. If you’d like to see statistics from 2020, Chris Kolmar has compiled an informative post.

But don’t let the numbers scare you. Independently published books that don’t go out of print may sell fewer than 1,000 copies per year for many years. In the long term, also called the long tail, the book may earn out and make the author money. 

What I Wish I Knew Before I Published

I wish I knew how much I would love it. I work way more than I ever did at my 40+ hour per week regular job and it doesn't feel like work. If I had known, I would have published sooner. But all anyone can do is make the best possible decision based on who they are, what they need, what they want, and how best to achieve those things. I hope this series of blog posts has helped you see your path a little more clearly. 

What is the best thing about your writing life and publishing path?

About Lynette

Lynette M. Burrows loves coffee, reading physical books, and the crack of a 9mm pistol—not all at the same time, though they all show up in her stories. She writes thrilling science fiction about characters challenged to rise from who they are to what they can be. 

Her series, The Fellowship Dystopia, presents a frightening familiar American tyranny that never was but could have been or may be. In My Soul to Keep, Miranda will fight the tyrants, even if they are family, even if it means her death. Book two of the series, If I Should Die, will be published in late spring 2022. The series companion novel, Fellowship, and all her books can be found wherever books are sold online.

Lynette lives in the land of Oz where two Yorkies have fooled her into thinking she’s the one in charge. You can find her online at her website, on Facebook, or on Twitter @lynette

Image Credits

• Top photo by Vlad Deep on Unsplash
• Second image by Arek Socha from Pixabay 
• Third image on left Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash, on right image by 1820796 from Pixabay 
• Final image by 1820796 from Pixabay 

by Lori Freeland

Commas cause confusion. I think we can all agree on that. It doesn’t matter if we write fiction, nonfiction, articles, blogs, or news stories. Even English teachers sometimes struggle. And while the comma may be a tiny piece of punctuation, it does pack a pretty powerful punch.

Using commas incorrectly can mess up more than just your grammar. It can play with the meaning and context of your message. Of what you’re trying to say. Think of your page as a road. Commas in the wrong places become speedbumps that slow down the ride. But commas in the right places pave the way for a clear, smooth ride.    

So let’s jump back in where we left off. If you missed the beginning of this series and want to get caught up or do a quick review, check out the previous posts here: To Comma, or Not to Comma Part 1 and To Comma, or Not to Comma Part 2.

Note: Watch for a list of quick comma reference sites at the end of this post.

Adjectives

An adjective has an important job—to modify the noun. Modify just means describe. Commas help adjectives do that.

Coordinating Adjectives (These need commas)

Coordinating adjectives equally describe the same noun. They both carry the same weight. There can be two or more, and we always use commas to separate them.  

• Correct: Maria is a mean, ungrateful teenager.
• Incorrect: Maria is a mean ungrateful teenager.

Mean and ungrateful both describe the same noun—teenager. She’s a mean teenager. And she’s an ungrateful teenager. Since she’s equally both, we add a comma between the two adjectives to show that. And we might think about shipping Maria off to boarding school.

Side Note: Make sure not to get comma happy and stick one between the final adjective and the noun. This is more of a problem with three adjectives than two. See below. But like with a single descriptor, we wouldn’t want to separate the adjective from the noun it’s describing. And that’s what commas do—they separate.

• Correct: Mark is a mean, ungrateful, rude teenager.
• Incorrect: Mark is a mean, ungrateful, rude, teenager.

Fairly straightforward, right? Now that you have coordinating adjectives down, let’s talk about cumulative adjectives.

Cumulative Adjectives (They don’t need commas)

Cumulative adjectives don’t equally describe the same noun. In number terms, cumulative means things like build on, add to, increase. In adjective terms, cumulative means the descriptors don’t carry the same weight. Because of that, they don’t need commas. We don’t want to separate them.

• Correct: She wore a bright purple headband.
• Incorrect: She wore a bright, purple headband.

The adjective closest to the noun (which is purple) combines with that noun and becomes a unit (purpleheadband).

It’s weird, I know. But if you think of that final adjective and the noun as one “entity,” it helps clear up what you do with cumulative adjectives. If purpleheadband is one unit, you can’t break it up with a comma. It’s superglued together.

The first adjective in the series (which is bright) is going to describe that entire unit (purpleheadband). It’s a bright purpleheadband.

Grab a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, and let’s try another one.

• Correct: The architect drew up plans for a unique custom cabin.
• Incorrect: The architect drew up plans for a unique, custom cabin.

It isn’t a unique and custom cabin. It’s a unique customcabin. Custom and cabin become one unit that unique describes.

Still confused? Need a little more help? Here are two tricks that tell you exactly when you need a comma and when you don’t. It’s all about retaining the meaning of the sentence.

Say YES to the comma if you CAN:

1. reverse the adjectives without changing the meaning

• Correct: I climbed the round, tall hill.
• Correct: I climbed the tall, round hill.

Either way you write it, it’s both a round and a tall hill.

2. add the word “and” between the adjectives without changing the meaning

• Correct: I climbed the round and tall hill.
• Correct: I climbed the tall and round hill.

The sentences make sense both ways.

Say NO to the comma if you CAN’T:

1. reverse the adjectives without changing the meaning

• Incorrect: They lived in a clapboard brown house.

This just sounds weird. Can you hear that too?

2. add the word “and” between the adjectives without changing the meaning

• Incorrect: They lived in a brown and clapboard house.

Same here.

Don’t like this example?

Purdue Owl (one of the references I’ll share at the end) uses this one instead.

• Correct: They lived in a white frame house.
• Incorrect: They lived in a white, frame house.

Using the two checks above, we see:

(reverse the adjectives) It’s not a frame white house.

(add “and” between the adjectives) It’s not a frame and white house.

But it is a white framehouse. 

Size, Color, Number

Most adjectives that refer to size, color, and number are cumulative not coordinate. All that means is—don’t use a comma.

• Correct: My four new white blouses are the same size.
• Incorrect: My four, new, white blouses are the same size.
• Incorrect: My four, new white blouses are the same size.
• Incorrect: My four new, white blouses are the same size.

Try to think of newwhiteblouses as one unit that four describes. Try not to wonder why anyone would even need four white blouses. Red or black, maybe. But white? Eh.

Side Note: Watch out for adjectives like “light blue.”

Why? Because light can mean “not heavy” or “pale in color.”

• Correct: She pulled on a light blue coat.

In this context, light doesn’t refer to the color of the coat. It refers to the weight of it. Light modifies the bluecoat as a unit.

• Correct: She pulled on a light-blue coat.

In this context, light does refer to color, and we use the hyphen to make that clear.  

Oxford Commas

The dratted Oxford comma—also known as the serial comma—has become controversial in the world of writing. Some writers hate it. Others will die on a hill for it. But either way, the Oxford comma is currently the correct way to punctuate items in a series in order to make the meaning of the sentence clear.

Let me show you why.

• Correct: Elena really gets into cooking, her family, and her dog.

This means she likes three things—cooking, family, dog.  

• Incorrect: Elena really gets into cooking her family and her dog.

This means she likes to cook her family and her dog. A good thing to know before you accept her dinner invitation.

• Correct: We invited the neighbors, Blake Shelton, and Taylor Swift.

This means we invited our neighbors and Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift.

• Incorrect: We invited the neighbors, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift.  

This means the neighbors we invited are Blake and Taylor. How exciting! Do you think they’ll show up?

More Than Words: Phrases and Clauses Too

Did you know the Oxford comma isn’t just for words? You can use it for phrases and clauses that come at the beginning of a sentence.

• Correct: Hope, joy, and peace come at Christmas.
• Correct: Dad will ground me, take away my car, and quit paying for my phone if I miss curfew one more time.

Or at the end of a sentence.

• Correct: Christmas brings me hope, joy, and peace.
• Correct: Dad said if I missed curfew one more time, he would ground me, take away my car, and quit paying for my phone.

When Clauses Come In The Middle of a Sentence

Let’s look at something a little trickier. Don’t worry. You won’t run into this too often. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.

• Correct: Mom argued that my sister, who was leaving for college, who no longer needed a curfew, and who was becoming an adult, should not be grounded.

Whoa. Stop. Go back. Hang on there a second. What in the actual comma is going on with that example? Why is that scrappy little mark showing up after “sister” and after “adult” too?

In order for the sentence to make sense as a whole, we need to be able to remove everything between the beginning and the end. In this case, “sister” and “should.” If we do, it reads like this:

Mom argued that my sister should not be grounded.

And it’s a complete sentence on its own. Which is what it needs to be.

When Oxford Commas Aren't Enough

Sometimes Oxford commas aren’t strong enough to provide a clear picture of what a sentence means. In these cases, you have two choices—reword the sentence or add an “and.”

• Incorrect: I listened to advice from my friend, Will Smith, and my brother.

Grammatically, Will Smith is “the friend” in this sentence. But you meant three people, not two.

There are two ways to fix the clarity. Either restructure the sentence or add a few “ands.”

• Correct: I listened to advice from my friend, my brother, and Will Smith. (restructure)
• Correct: I listened to advice from my friend and Will Smith and my brother. (add “ands”)

We are done! For now. Whew. You made it. Pat yourself on the back. Do you feel how much more comma savvy you’ve become? After you recover from this post, stay tuned for next. We’ll talk about modifiers, pauses, people, titles, places, and dates.    

In the meantime, here’s a quick guide with links to my favorite grammar sites.

My favorite go-to or commas is Purdue Owl, where they break down the basic comma rules into a quick guide as well as an extended guide. You can check them out here. Quick Comma Rules and Extended Comma Rules.

But you can also find great information at:

• The Chicago Manual of Style
• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
• Grammarly.com
• The Grammar Monster
• Grammar Girl
• I’m also loving the PerfectIt 5 software. It’s partnering with The Chicago Manual of Style.

Thanks for hanging in there. Now it’s your turn.

Do you struggle with punctuating adjectives? Or just rely on your best guess. How do you feel about that pesky Oxford comma? And have I changed your mind? I love to read your comments. I also use them to make my next posts stronger. So, please, share!

About Lori

An encourager at heart, author, editor, and writing coach Lori Freeland believes everyone has a story to tell. She’s presented multiple workshops at writer’s conferences across the country and writes everything from non-fiction to short stories to novels—YA to adult.

When she’s not curled up with her husband drinking too much coffee and worrying about her kids, she loves to mess with the lives of the imaginary people living in her head.

You can find her young adult and contemporary romance at lorifreeland.com and her inspirational blog and writing tips at lafreeland.com. Her book, Where You Belong: a runaway series novella, is currently free on Kindle Unlimited. 

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Where You Belong

A girl can run from her roots, but she can’t escape her heart.  

Six years ago, after a practical joke gone wrong, Hendrix Marshall blew the single stoplight in the town of Runaway, Wisconsin, and never looked back. But when Grandpa Joe—retired hippie, Jimmy Hendrix devotee, and the man who raised her—ends up in the hospital, she reluctantly agrees to take a cab home. As long as she can keep the meter running.

But then she comes heel-to-boot with Alexander Ryland—former best friend, sometimes nemesis, always secret crush. And his ocean-blue eyes still have the power to launch cartwheels in her belly. Too bad his freestyle attitude makes her certifiable. He’s the reason she left. He won’t be the reason she stays. Even if he’s determined to collect interest on the kiss she’s owed him for the last ten years.