Catastrophic Computer Failure

Unfortunately, the title of this post is not in reference to a new sci-fi story I'm planning to write. At least not yet. I may have to do something with that in the future.

Nope, I woke up this morning and turned my computer on, as usual. Instead of the BIOS display I'm usually greeted with, though, I got 6 short beeps in succession and two absolutely blank screens. This was repeated a number of times, and my ipad was consulted for what the significance might be.

After much research and fiddling around inside the laptop, but mostly because of the research, my best guess is that the graphics card in the laptop is toast.

Sometimes I really, really hate computers.

I've got a semi-viable backup computer in the form of an old laptop, and several truly useful backups in the form of Dropbox and Carbonite. Thank you profusely to the fine folks at both of those companies. Since the issue is the graphics card (I think) and not the hard drive in the machine, I'm sure all my data is perfectly fine, but I can't access it.

I can keep on writing though, because I do keep all of my writing projects in folders that are regularly and redundantly backed up online to various places.

As soon as I have a regularly paying day job again, I'm getting TWO computers. Redundancy FTW.

Merry Christmas to All, And to All a Free Story

Merry Christmas everyone! I've spent the day goofing off and recharging; it's funny how a solid year of writing can take something out of you, especially when you attempt 3 NaNoWriMos, complete two of them, read a ton of books and publish several stories. Whew.

But that doesn't let me off the hook with the writing, so I'm posting this seasons' greetings. I'm going to try to write a Christmas short story tomorrow for Christmas Day as well, so send me some Christmas wishes to help me through that, it may be difficult due to time constraints!

I seem to be developing a bit of a new holiday tradition of buying Christmas gifts in real physical stores, generally around 3 or 4pm on Christmas Eve. I could use some Christmas wishes to help break this terrible cycle next year. I got out alive this year, and the trip was a success, but who knows how much of that is luck?

Since it is Christmas, My Abstract Life is going on sale again, not for one day, but for three. You can grab it for free until the 27th. Just like last time, if you see a price other than $0, it's very possible that Amazon hasn't finished performing the price adjustment yet, so try again in a few hours. Just do your family a favour, go get the story after all of your festivities with family and friends are over! It'll still be there, I promise.

My best to you and all your loved ones this holiday season, no matter which holiday you celebrate, if any.

My Abstract Life Christmas Present

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.it
• Amazon.co.jp
• Amazon.com.br

We're Still Here!

Congratulations, Planet Earth! We survived, and the world is still here despite the end of the Maya calendar. To celebrate this happy and entirely expected circumstance, My Abstract Life is free all day today over at Amazon's Kindle store! You don't have much to lose; it costs you nothing, and you still have the rest of your life ahead of you.

Note: Sometimes it takes a while for Amazon's price changes to take effect, so if it's still showing a price above free, check back in a few hours.

Individual Store Links

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.it
• Amazon.co.jp
• Amazon.com.br

TWiSmageddon Celebration Hangout

No story update tonight, I've been getting stuff done in real life in preparation for tomorrow/tonight's TWiSmageddon Google+ Hangout.

The idea of the hangout is that the hosts of This Week in Science (Dr. Kiki Sanford, Justin Jackson, Blair Bazdarich) will be doing a live hangout on G+ for 21 straight hours, talking about science and other cool stuff and confirming in each time zone that yes, indeed, the world hasn't ended and no, there's no sign of a giant wall of fire or some other cataclysm that might herald the end of the world as we know it.

There're going to be lots of people taking part, including myself and many other TWiS chat room participants, but also including such notable luminaries as The Sword & Laser's Tom Merritt, Dr. Carin Bondar, Joanne Manaster, and possible/unconfirmed other notables like Andy Ihnatko and the Frogpants Network's Scott Johnson.

Naturally, I'm a little freaked out at the prospect of being on camera for this thing, being both a sufferer of social anxiety and being a bit camera-phobic, but I've survived various GeekBeat.TV hangouts and being on The Sword & Laser's video show briefly, so I'm sure I'll survive this too.

Full details about the event can be found at the TWiSmageddon Event on Google+.

An Improbable Journey Free eBooks Have Arrived

Sorry for the delay on this! I've uploaded the free eBook versions of An Improbable Journey; they're now available on the An Improbable Journey book page.

I've also gone into the pages for both Determination and An Improbable Journey and added individual Amazon Kindle store links for every country which has one, so if you don't usually shop at the American Amazon.com, you'll have an easier time of it. I will be doing the same thing shortly for My Abstract Life, so stay tuned.