Back up your work! Right now. Do it. Back it up. Preferably to a thousand different places. Whatever it is.

So I haven’t posted any updates in a little bit and here is why.

Despite the fact that I know better – I really really KNOW better- I didn’t have Scarlett backed up to anything other than an old USB drive I’ve been using for a donkey’s age. Everything else? Backed up elsewhere. Scarlett? Nope.

Well, the USB crapped itself. After working for an entire day with various recovery software, and then even shipping it to a professional recovery service with a stellar reputation – second only to actual law enforcement forensic data recoveries – it’s gone. A year and a half of writing, 90,000 words, over 200 pages. Just gone.

There’s no getting it back.

BACK UP YOUR WORK RIGHT NOW! Even if you know better. Even if you usually do.

For now, clearly Scarlett will not be done by end of year. I’m pretty much stuck starting from scratch. So I have pushed Scarlett back to the end of NEXT year, and for now will instead be focusing on Vhantalya’s rewrite/final edits, and getting Reboot finished. I’m still aiming for summer on both of those. More specific dates will be upcoming as I know them.

That’s all for now.

I’m seeing an eggnog and fireball in my future.