Hard Drive Meltdown--but a new job!

[Celine Chatillon]

Howdy everyone...

I thought I'd explain some of my AWOL-ness lately here at the SiN Forums. My PC suffered an irreversible hard drive melt down a couple of weeks ago. Everything lost. Little hope of ever recovering any data (unless I win the lottery and I pay several thousand dollars for an attempted retrieval that has a very low rate of success). I've been feeling thoroughly bummed, too.

I've also been working third shift on weekends... I'm not a night owl I've discovered. Sure, standing around munching on popcorn and sipping soda at a party at 2 AM is one thing, but when you're responsible for the lives of the residents of a drug rehab ward--and that includes giving out medications in the dark of the night--it's a lot tougher on the body. You don't want to mis-medicate anyone. And then you come home at 8 AM and you find your body says, "No sleep--sun is up!" And no matter how you try, you can't trick it into sleeping more than two or three hours at any one patch all weekend long.

In short, it sucks. You get worn down quickly and you pick up the germs flying at the drug rehab... A summer cold is no fun, either.

But good news, as of today I have an offer of a full-time daylight hours position! And I don't have to pass out meds in the dark of the wee morning hours, either... I can't say anything more until I've talked to the Human Resource department, but I can say that I'll have similar hours and vacation periods as LSB author Darragha Foster. Maybe she or others can give me tips on how to field those "So you're an author, what do you write?" questions from nosey co-workers and parents.

That's enough of my current woes and excitement. It's now back to your regularly scheduled SiN Forum fun...BTW, My next LSB release is BEAUTIFUL DREAMER and it's to be released this coming Monday!

So, brighten my life (which has had its share of dark spells lately) and buy my latest LSB hot-romantic-screwball comedy release. Hopefully, it'll shed a little sunshine into your day as well.

[Darragha Foster]

similar hours and vacation periods as LSB author Darragha Foster. Maybe she or others can give me tips on how to field those "So you're an author, what do you write?" questions from nosey co-workers and parents.

School systems are tricky. I never mention I write. I let them ask. And they do. Word gets around. I keep my website "family friendly" in case a little monster gets ahold of my pen name and go apoplectic. "Mom! The school secretary has men kissing on her website!" or something like that. I have my book covers posted on my bulletin board, which no-one really has cause to look at--but when they do, I'm truthful. I tell the kids I write kissy-face romance books that their mother would like. But they're middle schoolers and it goes in one ear and out the other for the most part.

I work 210 days per year (Full time is 260). Right now I'm on a 6-week break. I still get paid because my salary is stretched out over 12 months. I love it. I made one hellofa lot more money as a paralegal, but damn...the stress...

I do dispense medications. But not in the dark.

Congrats, Celine! Post more when you know more!

Darragha

[Nina Pierce]

Oh, Celine ... I love teacher's hours. It worked perfect for me. All the same vacations as the chill-ins. It was a wonderful "mom" job. Of course they're all grown, but I still loved the summer off part. And like Darr I stretched my salary over 12 months so nothing changed as far as income.

Hope it all works out the way you'd like it to. And yay! on the 30th. We're release buddies!

[Mima]

celine, i'm so sorry to hear about your hard drive. note to self: back up this weekend.

congrats on your job!

[Rachel Fox]

Hey, kiddo. Congrats on the daytime job.

Will you still be able to do Archon? You can be my roomie. I got a room at the Hampton.

Hugs--

Rachel

[Savanna Kougar]

Celine, hope your day job comes through! Hugs and sympathy kisses.

[Mike]

Lose any LSB ebooks? I can round 'em up for you, I do this regularly for customers.

[Celine Chatillon]

Yeah, I did lose some good LSB books...Hmm, let me see, just about every book on the web site. You can send them all to me on one big hard drive. That'll solve two problems at once. (Hehehehe!)

Those kids are sharp, I can tell, Darr. They probably remember more about your covers than they let on. I've never "advertised" my non-G rated writings to fellow co-workers. If they're interested, they'll ask and I can tell as I feel I can trust their judgment. I guess I can tell people about my children's book, but since it has a religious angle and this is a public school, that might get me into more trouble than just writing plain ol' "porn".

I was accused of writing "porn" when I was writing sweet romances, you see... That's why I figured I might as well publish what I was being accused of.

[Celine Chatillon]

Originally Posted by Savanna Kougar

Celine, hope your day job comes through! Hugs and sympathy kisses.

Aw... thanks y'all for caring. It's been a rocky year for me. I hope it gets much better very, very soon. I have a feeling it will.

[Jeanne Barrack]

Originally Posted by Savanna Kougar

Celine, hope your day job comes through! Hugs and sympathy kisses.

Just what she said!!
Jeanne

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Celine Chatillon

Yeah, I did lose some good LSB books...Hmm, let me see, just about every book on the web site. You can send them all to me on one big hard drive.

That's in the mail, complete with a magnet to attach it to your new PC

Post here or email me the email addys you used when ordering, and I'll send you new links for whatever shows up

[Celine Chatillon]

Interesting news flash on the hard drive that went kaput... My geek guy says it's possible that it's the "circuit board" that died in the hard drive and if we can find an exact copy of this same hard drive and open it up and put the disks into this working hard drive we could get the data off it. Hmm... it will cost for the hard drive, but it's less than several thousand bucks that some firms charge to retrieve things off of crashed hard drives.

I think he's checking on eBay and places for the hard drive substitute so maybe I'll get my stuff back eventually after all? At this point, I'm willing to try just about anything.

[Mima]

good luck.

for what it's worth, my dh's drive crashed and we did use one of those expensive firms and they did get everything back.

[Savanna Kougar]

Celine, sending you to good thoughts!