I committed a horrible
blunder the first week we traveled in Europe, and have learned many lessons
because of it. The upside? I’m thinking, if I write a suspense story about this experience, I won’t feel as stupid as I
feel right now.
It starts with our 180+
mile-an-hour train ride from Paris to Aix En Provence, a lovely experience in
our upstairs coach, watching the beautiful French countryside buzzing by. The ride is so smooth, my husband and I are feeling quite
pampered. I take my computer out of my
backpack and unzip it from its protective container, putting the case to my
side. I’ll do a little work as we speed
across country. Two and a half hours later, we stop in Avignon. We notice people get off the train
quickly; others get on as quickly, and off we go. The train barely gets up to speed when we arrive at
Aix and everyone is wildly pulling luggage out and preparing to get off the
train…it’s a frantic atmosphere that we catch on to, hurriedly putting our
things together and edging to the stairs so we’re ready to get off. The train goes to Marseille next; by the stern looks and impatient whistles from the conductors, their schedule is tight.
So Steve and I gather our
things and get off the train thinking about our next maneuver-catching a bus to
Aix. We get that figured out, bus to
Aix, taxi to our new place, and settle in.
I realize I better power up my computer, so I pull it out of my
backpack, to realize I’ve left the protective container on the train. Worse, I mean MONUMENTALLY distressing, my
external hard drive is zipped into that missing container. EVERYTHING I’ve got on my computer is in my
external hard drive. Yes. EVERY…DAMN…THING!
First, I go on line to determine out how to get my hard drive back. TGV
(the French bullet train) has an English, user-friendly site to claim my loss,
and, amazingly, a drop-down category under lost electronics labeled “hard
drives.” No way to call TGV; e-mail is
my only recourse. Magic would have to be
on my side to ever get this hard drive back (and I’d have to go to Marseille to
get it).
But you’ve already figured
out the biggest problem: All my files, my books, my personal stuff, including a
file with a list of passwords, is readily available to anyone who plugs in my
hard drive. There wasn’t a way to
password protect my hard drive and I did not protect my files
individually. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. After a couple of days here, I discover that
MAC is well-loved by the French. There’s
a huge Mac store here, packed with people all hours of the day. My
external drive, nursed on a MAC, has a large audience in this country. Now I’m nervous. Really nervous.
Important: After you read the
last sentence of this blog, go and password-protect your computer in case it’s
stolen or lost (I’ve done that now), and give passwords to individual files you
don’t want anyone to see (also done.)
You’ve already guessed that my husband and I have changed a couple dozen
passwords by now. I realize we’re
supposed to switch out passwords often, but we hadn’t. It’s done now. Call that a positive.
I don’t want to think about
what could happen to my books should those files get into the wrong hands. My personal stuff? To the blackmailer, I'll say everything I write is fiction. In fact, because I research some of the
darker subjects known to humankind, my files probably look like a
sociopath’s! (I’m saying this to make
myself feel better? Really?)
Chances are my external drive
lies in a garbage dump outside the Marseille train station (where they clean
the train cars). I hope.
As I said, I plan to use this 'loss' plot in a book or short story soon. Lemonade out of lemons, I say!
My goal is to write about trauma, not live it, so let's talk about my last novel. You'll witness the many shades of anxiety in FEAR
LAND. My readers tell me the novel stretched
their learning about anxiety and they’re anxious to have their friends read the
book.
That makes me smile. An engaging suspense story with a touch of
paranormal to let your imagination run free, a high concept, and a chance to
learn something new…that’s what reading is all about!
This is FEAR LAND:
Tally
hates to hear rants from people’s brains.
What does she do when those mind-screams threaten
the
man she loves?
****
Tally
Rosella, an acclaimed psychiatrist who helps children fraught with anxiety, avoids
adults because their brains rant at her.
But the chance to start a second
child study and connect her findings to PTSD, sets her squarely among devious
colleagues at a big California university.
Army
Major Cole Messer, Tally’s new neighbor, won’t admit that trauma from combat
tours in Afghanistan, destroyed his marriage and hampered his ability to
lead. As a teacher of college ROTC and
single parent, he’s focused on enrolling his highly anxious son in Tally’s
study and getting back to active duty.
Someone
is dead set against Tally’s presence at the university, and blowback from her
battles with co-workers put Cole and his son in jeopardy. Watch what happens when people struggling
with shades of anxiety collide with corrupt, revengeful foes.
FEAR LAND on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012JE75ES
Website: http://rolynnanderson.com
