I bit the bullet yesterday. I gave my laptop in for repairs. Remember how it nearly died on me just before the book launch?
Well, it saw me though, just, but things certainly weren’t right with it. It kept crashing. It was unbelievably sloooowwwww. The fan kept whizzing into high gear, and the underside kept getting hot. Last week, it had another near-death experience. So it went off to the computer hospital, still being under warranty.
I was given a loan laptop to keep me working. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am HUGELY appreciative of this fact and as you can see from this post, I am very much online. And yet… not all is well.
For I’m Wordless. And I can’t Excel either. There’s no Power to my Point, no Office to my Microsoft. My desktop is completely bare excepting the Recycle bin and three Notepad files that serve as pseudo-Word-cum-Excel workaround.
Weird, right? You get a loan laptop to keep you working, you kind of expect that it should have at least the basics. Not so. I didn’t discover this until we got the machine home (after an 1.5 hour drive from the shop, don’t ask). I had asked, of course, and had been assured it would be fine, but it wasn’t. Something like five hours of telephone calls later, I have decided to give it up. I shall have to remain a half-enabled author for the next two to four weeks.
I won’t be able to write, edit, process data or open attachments. So if you’re due on CentreStage or visiting my blog in any other capacity and thinking of sending me something: paste it all into the email. Everything. Pictures, and all.
I will, however, be blogging, tweeting, Facebooking and such like to the best of my ability. I will make virtue out of adversity and edit book 2 to within an inch of its life while I can’t write or edit in Word; do more research on book 3; and focus on promotion. Jiggle my work plan round, in other words.
Just wish me luck that the repair won’t take the full four weeks. Fingers crossed!
Oh, and if you have any thoughts or tips regarding more workarounds… I’d love to hear them!! X
Nicky Wells: Love & Thrills 
I can’t reply on the blog; something’s not working! So I’m replying via email and hope it might work?!
Sorry to hear this, Nicky! It can be so hard to work when our tech gets poorly, but it sounds like you’re a woman on a mission and have it all planned out. I sincerely hope you get your laptop back soon.
I’ve been uploading many of our Lazuli docs to Google Drive to make it easier to access and work on the latest versions of everything – short stories, blog posts, agendas, plans, spreadsheets etc. But I guess that idea probably isn’t any help in your current circumstances.
Big hugs and intending for the best xxx
Ach! It never rains, huh… Thank you for your comment, I can see the comment form has gone bananas again. Will have to fix that too, I guess. Thanks for your thoughts and good wishes… XXX
all fixed, see comment below: easy!
Really feeling for you, it’s almost like losing one of your five senses. However, I can tell you’re a real tuffie Nicky and obviously someone determined to hit the problem head on and work your way round it!
LOL, what else can you do? Tough it out, buck up, get on with it. Bashing and wailing won’t make it come back faster. Watch me fall to pieces though when it’s still not back in three or four weeks, ha! thanks for stopping by, Jo! Hope you’re faring better than me right now… XXX
Good Morning Nicky,
Oops I meant good afternoon Nicky, it’s still morning here on this side of the pond; and have to say good afternoon again, because things can’t get any worse. On the brighter side, I love your play on words using the various that components which make up the basic programs on a computer.
Anyway let’s get down to the basics.
1 – Personally I don’t like laptops for a number of reasons.
2 – As I finish typing each day I print out what I’ve done.
3 – Even with my printing my writing endeavor [endeavor] out each day, from time to time I save my entire writing unto I disk, but these days I use a service which does it offline, away from my computer.
4 – I utilize a program called, “System Mechanics” which optimizes the performance of my computer each day during the early morning hours as I’m sleeping.
5 – Since I don’t have a laptop, the last time I had to serve jury duty I brought along the old proverbial and reliable pen and paper to write anything new which came to mind for my writing endeavor. In addition, I brought along a few chapters of what I’ve printed out previously, in case the mood moves me to do some editing.
I know it’s not Monday, but I feel there’s one thing to remember, and that is to:
You just gave me a belly laugh, thank you. You are so right, and nobody says it better than Python. XX Thank you!!! X
I had a feeling you’d love hearing this Python tune because of the “horrific” day you had, and because every cloud has a silver lining as the saying goes. BTW – how did you like the suggestions I gave you to survive being without a laptop. It would be a crime if your muses are giving you great ideas for your third book and you had no way of recording these ideas as they sprang up.
Hope you have a GREAT DAY.today. And I can’t wait to hear the song you have for us today…hopefully I’ll be able to come up with another answer song for you. 😀
Oh no, Nicky! I do hope it gets fixed soon! Have you had a look at Google Docs (think it’s just been renamed to Google Drive, actually) I don’t know if you can write directly into it, but you can definitely edit already existing docs and it looks a bit like Word… Good luck with the replacement machine anyway. I would HATE having to use that, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all! Crossing my fingers that your laptop gets better soon!
Oooh will have to check out Google Docs/Drive if it lets me use existing files. Good tip, thank you: STAR! Thanks for your comment and encouragement. Hanging in there… XXX Hope Kismetology is doing well?
Kismetology has been such a great ride so far! To be honest I’ve been so busy this week that I’ve had almost no time online, when I should have been promoting it and doing other fun things! Hopefully real life will calm down this week and I can get back to being an author! Hope Sophie’s Turn is doing well for you too!
Thank you all collectively for posting comments even though at this moment in time the comment bar is all over the place. I love your determination, thank you thank you thank you. Hope this gets fixed soon too. 🙂
Whoot! For those of you interested, I got an answer from the WordPress support forum. Apparently there was some incorrect code in there somewhere but something like this is easily fixed (and prevented). In fact, if, like me, you’re not an experienced coder/programmer, you should check this link out and enable the ‘auto correct’ option they talk about. Thank you, WordPress! http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/sidebar-at-the-bottom-and-related-issues/
I second the Google Docs recommendation. 🙂 Good luck, Nicky!
I’d also suggest the google docs/drive. Working online nowadays means you can access your work from any computer and is great for times like this. I hope it works out for you.
Thanks, Rebecca, I’ll be checking it out asap, I really appreciate your help and suggestions!!
Thanks so much, Carrie, I’ll muddle through somehow. Computers, huh? thanks for visiting!