what I'm up to (Windows 7, don't fail me now... :P)

As I'm somehow attracting new blog followers, so thought I'd share what happened today. For once I actually have a writing deadline (on my upcoming sci-fi novel Panoptemitry for  http://www.iwritereadrate.com/ [more on that later]) so I've messed with my Windows settings to make it only able to kick me off for a 'magical update' once a week. So if that is gonna happen, the magic day is Friday.
You know what that means -today it supposedly did its thing and asked for a restart.
Trusting me, I click Ok.
Big surprise: my machine won't start back up.

Did I mention that most of the 32,800+ words I already have written exist only on this laptop?


Sure, there was an earlier version of maybe 4-5 non-sequential chapters Calibre-converted on my Kindle, but as I'm now writing on chapter 12, that's more than half of what I've written! Plus all of my notes...
Eventually, after a few annoying unsuccessful runs through start-up repair  my computer came back on.
Of course the machine wants to retry its update. I'm cool with that. I'm on the internet so much, I don't exactly want to miss out on some kind of update that keeps my files/programs running right.

I'll out smart it here, I think; just Calibre-tize the newest version of EVERYTHING and give Fred that whole story!(If you wonder, Fred's my Kindle. Just the first thing that came to mind when the Kindle asked me for a 'device name.')
So I start up Calibre and it tells me to go download the update [#0.8.61 I think]; you know my paranoia about updates, with hardly any thought, I download and run it.
-couple of postpones for the Windows update here-
Finally Calibre's ready to go supposedly, but now Calibre wont start.
-maybe another Windows postpone or two as I search through my files-


Thanking whatever computer god is out there, I see I never trashed the last few Calibre updates I downloaded. (hats off to you Calibre writers, a week never passes without 1 or 2 new versions)
The newest one I have on hand is 0.8.57
After I run this update (downdate?), I am able to create a .mobi of the newest version of my story and pop it onto Fred.

Still trusting something to watch over my notes (don't ask me why), I let the Windows update run. Oh sure, there were still a few snags and running's of startup-repair, but now I think my Windows is happy enough to go awhile longer without an update.

Now I can get back to my story, that I plan to finish by September!