I Almost Lost My Book With Just A Few Chapters To Go

Something really frightening happened to me last Friday afternoon when I came home from work. I hopped on the computer as I always do to work on my upcoming weight loss book called (what else!) "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" and I got a message that the document could not be opened. I'll admit I started breathing pretty heavily at this point.

I then tried it again and again with the same message. I shut down my iMac and pulled it back up again, only to have the same result. WHERE IS MY BOOK?!

After working nearly non-stop on this book pumping out a chapter a week since the beginning of April, I was beginning to think I was going to have to start all over from scratch. While I had a printed rough draft of each chapter, I had made many updates to them that were saved in that file I couldn't open. It would mean weeks of hard work would go down the drain.

But thankfully I have a friend in Greenville, South Carolina who is pretty good with IT issues who told me the file I had it saved under was corrupted. What does that mean, I asked. He said he might be able to salvage some of the book, but it will likely be jumbled and distorted.

Well, I got some good news and some bad news from him. The good news is the book is still all there word-for-word what I had saved. The bad news is it is in a funky font (Here's a sample of it: T h e s e e m i n g l y i m p o s s i b l e) that cannot be changed. In other words, I'll have to retype the entire book before I send it off to my publisher via e-mail.

I do have the option of sending them my book in print form, but it will delay the release of the book by many months. I will finish writing the book in its entirety over the rest of the month of June and take the firt couple of weeks in July to retype and revise it once last time before the publisher take a whack at it.

It's one of those things I'm sure I'll look back on someday and laugh about. But when I almost lost my book with just a few chapters to go, it was no laughing matter.

I'm finishing up the final touches on Chapter 8 and will begin Chapter 9 on Sunday. THREE MORE CHAPTERS TO GO!!! Thanks to everyone who has encouraged and prayed for me during this writing process. Blogging is a cinch compared to this process! I just hope you like the finished product when it comes out this Fall.

Now, my wife needs me to mow the grass and then I've got to get back to my book.

THANKS for stopping by my blog today!