♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #160
Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and your pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item.
What would it be? Why?
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This is one of the top fears a lot of people have. We catch our breaths when we see a story on the news telling the tale. It’s worse when we are so close to the person that it has happened to. And, with all the technology we’ve managed to build around us, why do fires still happen?
This question often bounces around the mind on those sleepless nights, when you’re already worried enough. Or, it comes up in conversations dealing with team building or new friends hanging out, as a way to get to know the inner person. The answer you give says a lot about you. What I like about this question, is that it already assumes the best of you, that you would save your family and pets. Almost everyone would, so we shouldn’t be made to choose, as if that will tell us anything about ourselves, or tell others about us. We all share the desire to preserve our loved ones.
That one item you’d bring with you will reveal your passion and drives and what matters to you most. So you’d probably like me to tell you what that thing is. That’s an easy one, with my kiddo and doggy safe. I’d save my backup drive (or Laptop).
When I was in college, I had allowed a friend to review a few chapters of my book, and they saved the file over top of another one. A giant portion of my book was gone. Unrecoverable. I wept for hours. A lot of hard work had gone into that file, and I couldn’t be sure exactly what would be missing, even after locating what portion of the book. All the words, turns of phrase, could not be recovered, even if I remembered the story perfectly. I was heartbroken.
Today, such a catastrophe would set me back in a huge way. I have books that are in process, and I’d have to repay editors once I rewrote the books. Keep in mind, they’ve been written several years ago. Imagine trying to remember just what was there in that case. In college, it had only been weeks or months. The material was quite fresh.
Aside from the heavy lift, mentally and financially, I’d be set back years in my publications. That would hurt the marketing of my series, and the expectations of readers would go unmet. What a mess losing my work would prove! It’s frightening to think that so much rides on hard drives.
Think of that in the bigger picture, the world of data…Wow! We really need to figure out how to make fires a thing of the past. I’m thinking of all those who lost everything last year in California. Those who lost their homes while they were bringing new lives into the world in my own area. I’m grateful I could help to relieve some of that stress, but those things held dear are gone, irreplaceable. I have a very good inkling of what that feels like.
Saving ourselves that experience is at the top of most of our lists. Let’s go through the links below and see what the other authors have to say about this probing question…
That is so heart-breaking when that happens. I lost 40,000 words once when a brownout occurred during a backup, frying the thumb drive and corrupting the original document. Now I save earlier and more often and send myself an email copy periodically. But, yeah, it feels like you lost a kidney or something when it happens.
Exactly! It’s so painful, in ways that are so hard to describe. And even when you you get it back in a rewrite, you know it’s not the original. It’s not the same. somehow, even if it is better, which I try to convince myself that it is, you feel like it’s an imposter.
You and I answered almost the same way, although our reasons differed. Although I’ve got most of my writing on my backup drive, I’ve also got various versions of my published books saved in email. That means I could retrieve them from almost anywhere!
I have some of them on email. I’ve done that traditionally, for these reasons. I forgot to mention that my photography and art would be lost without the drive. I’d lose the originals, because there’s only one thing I can pick. But I can safely say, I’d lose my mind if I lost my books. I’d need therapy for sure.
I agree. Also, I hadn’t thought of the email thing. Great tip, thanks!
As I’ve grown older I realise that nothing is as important as our loved ones, contentment, and good health. Everything else pales into insignificance.
As I’ve grown older I realise that nothing is as important as loved ones, contentment, and good health. Everything else pales into insignificance.
Amen to that.