I'm typing this on a borrowed laptop from a friends house after a mini tornado hit our house ten days ago. My home internet came back online today but it is spotty at best and foes out with no warning whatsoever. (I was typing up a new short story when power blitzed earlier and I lost it all. UGH! Glad i had it written out) We still have no phone service. The repairs have been taken care on the home itself (Roof damage, fence down in sections and i still have to replace a piece of siding and then paint) but I'm going to need some detox asap if I don't get my internet service back pretty soon. Anyone know of any good comp withdrawal clinics?
Seriously though. Nowadays, when 99.9 percent of the publishing industry uses online media as their main way to communicate with their authors and readers, having a comp meltdown or losing internet service for any length of time is an author's worst nightmare.
Valuable emails aren't received, messages and correspondence goes unanswered. Info on edits and deadlines or a hundred other things are lost until the writer can log in and check things over. It's my idea of certain death, second only to writer's block. Without internet I can at least type in a word document or when a total meltdown occurs I can still write longhand in a notebook and then transcribe once I get back online. (I often do this anyway. Words for me just flow better when I use that method, though the double work of writing and then typing it up sucks. I have transcription software but speaking an erotic story out loud with three kids in the house is not an option and sometimes deadlines will not wait)
That is another problem with service going down. I've been writing through this whole disaster but now I have a finished short story due in for a deadline and no way to send it. Online research is at a standstill as well. Calling the editor isn't an option since service for my cell at home is a joke and no idea when the freaking phone company will have me someone reliable out to the house to get matters straight. Now I know why people spend a fortune for satellite internet. I'm waiting for the day when my paychecks will support that type of extravagance. Until then I guess I'll beg and borrow and get along the best way I can.
What do you do when your internet is unaccesible?
Beth
Women Gone Wylde
now available
www.bethwylde.com
1 comment:
Oooh that sucks! Don't you have an internet cafe that you can use? Or a terminal at your library?
Or maybe your friend won't mind for you to send the essay using her internet?
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