Lightning Capital of the World

While the mention of Florida brings thoughts of sunshine, alligators, Disney World, hurricanes and retirees zipping around in golf carts, the state also has the distinction of being the lightning capital of the world.

Recently, I attended a meeting of the Gulf Coast Writers Association (http://www.gulfwriters.org/ ) and heard this horrifying story. A fellow writer's home was zapped by lightning the previous evening. He didn't seem too upset about the TV's or appliances that were rendered useless by the bolt, but his fried computer devastated him. “I think I’ve backed up most everything,” he’d said sadly digging though a stack of papers. “And, I’m hoping I at least printed the recently written five-page synopsis of my manuscript.”

Although I have run across one or two writers that use the ancient method of longhand to record their thoughts, most of us use computers and the above scenario is enough to cause nightmares of epic proportions. I have been paranoid of losing my writing files since living in Taiwan using a knockoff of one of the first Apple computers, and hitting the delete key that was stupidly placed above the enter key, wiping out a letter (the best one I’d ever written, I’m sure) that I’d spent hours composing.

I boohooed to my husband, Kim, as if I had just erased a tome equivalent to The Illiad. From that point he has done everything he can to prevent seeing me in that crazed state again, including backups of my backups.

Recently he discovered another automatic backup option that I thought I’d share with all of you who’d like a safe method of preserving photos, music, manuscripts or other treasured bits on your computer. There are companies (type “online backup” in a Google Search for a long list) that back up any or all files on your computer. Kim selected Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/). Their $50.00 fee seems a small price to pay for peace of mind. Click here to see how it works (http://www.carbonite.com/howitworks.aspx ).

Now I can sit back and enjoy the lightning shows with confidence that even if my computer melts to a little grease spot, my writing efforts are preserved.

Once again I have nothing to report on the progress of The Ride. Sigh. So I’ll see you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/


Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Carbonite, online backup, Gulf Writers, Gulf Coast Writer’s Association, Florida, lightning