A big shift to Substack for most writing

CAMP SWAMPY, OREGON - There isn't really a place called Camp Swampy, at least not here in Scappoose, Oregon, where I call home aboard my floating home across the river from Sauvie Island, northwest of Portland proper.

I nicknamed it that one dreary winter day three years ago when the rain never ceased and the everything was soaked - including me and my dog Biscuit. The name comes from the Beetle Bailey comic strip, where the army camp that Beetle and his fellow soldiers are stationed along with their commanding officer, General Halftrack.

Sometime amid moving around from Oregon and visiting the deserts in Southern California, the SF Bay Area and the California and Oregon coasts, I started posting a lot of my writing on Substack with a site titled Write On and On. That's a play on my newspaper column published weekly in the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva, NY titled Write On.

The FLT Write On continues to, well, write on and is published every Friday. But I have been tinkering with Substack, posting 123 times by last count. I jumped on using this online posting vehicle in part because I want use it to publish my fiction. My one foray into that was a success. I published The Devil's Pipeline, a novel that I published in paperback several years ago. It received plenty of hits from readers. 

My next big Substack project is to publish an in-process novel in serial form, a la what Charles Dickens did in the 19th century. Most of his famous works appeared in newspapers, a few chapter at a time.

In process? It means I will be writing much of it live, even the day before (or day of) when chapters appear. Gulp? Yes, it's risky business. But as long as I don't write myself into corner, it should be fine.

More on all that later in another posting. And if you don't see it here, take a peek over on Substack.

Back writing a renamed 'Sons of Covid' novel

RIVERS BEND MARINA, Oregon - A lot of water has washed past my riverside home since I last posted here.

The two biggest bits of news to report are that Sons of Covid will now be Captain Jack & the Sons of Covid. Plus, this latest novel in the Jack Stafford series will be published via Substack.com at my 'stack': Write On and On. A printed version is in the works to be published once the novel has been released electronically.

THE NOVEL WILL BE PUBLISHED in serial fashion - a series of chapters at a time - similar to what Charles Dickens did in the 1800s, publishing his works via newspapers. Nothing like deadlines to encourage a writer - and the characters of a novel - to get cranking.

Instead of the wild finish ending up occurring in the Southern California desert, the characters have taken the book to Northern California to the Lava Beds National Monument.

Captain Jack & the Sons of Covid features many of the same newspaper/journalist characters readers met in The Fracking War, Fracking Justice and The Devil's Pipeline. There are a number of others, including one fellow named Lawton Eavil. (It's pronounced AVIL.) You can take from that I am using the Dickensian method of naming characters.

IF THE SUBSTACK-SERIAL RELEASE WORKS WELL for Captain Jack & the Sons of Covid, there are several other Jack Stafford tomes in the pipeline. Next up would likely be The Multnomah Mermaid, set in Northwest Portland.

The writing gridlock close to clearing away

SCAPPOOSE, Oregon - Sons of COVID, the planned fourth Jack Stafford novel got stalled on the fiction-writing railroad tracks in early 2021. In January specifically. You might remember what happened January 6.

Events of that day, followed by a move from the San Francisco Bay Area to a riverside home in rural Oregon kept that novel idling. I was in search of a way to angle the plot believably in a real-world gone mad. The way out of the woods has proven as treacherous as the evil that led to the insurrection that could have toppled democracy as we know it in the United States.

Such is the life of fiction writing when you use real-world events as the backdrop for fictional story. Not a novel technique I would advise, though in my first three novels it certainly worked well.

But in the last six months, a combination of column-writing success, helping launch a new magazine (Dynamic Aging 4 Life) and discovering the likely root cause of some crippling fatigue all added up to reviving my fiction writing projects. Plus, while the last section of Sons is in process a new project based on the life and writing of Jack London is shaping up. More on that in coming weeks.

In mid-March I will be heading to the Southern California desert with a group in a tour/workshop led by the Wanderland Writers organization. We will hit the Salton Sea, Borrego Springs, Joshua Tree and other spots in search of, well, that's the fun of it. We don't know exactly what we will find and/or what we might want to write about.

For me, it might be the final chapter of Sons of Covid might shift from Northern California to a barren desert showdown.  

Jack Stafford returns this fall in 'Sons of Covid'

   MODOC COUNTY, Calif. - Jack Stafford and his three crusading newspapers - the Horseheads (NY) Clarion, Rockwell Valley (PA) Tribune, and Vashon (WA) View will return for readers this fall chasing the news - and bad guys - in a new novel, Sons of Covid.
     The novel follows in the wake of three previous Jack Stafford novels: The Fracking War (2014), Fracking Justice (2015) and The Devil's Pipeline (2018).

     Sons of Covid takes place as the nation struggles to contain a raging pandemic, control corporations running amok and attempts to reinstitute social justice and equity across a badly divided country.
   Stafford and the staff of his newspapers, websites and Clarion Newspaper Syndicate find themselves investigating a swirling morass of government corruption, corporate greed, right-wing extremists and environmental degradation.
     As they publish news stories and columns, they run into a wall of malefactors intent on stopping them by any means possible.
     As with earlier novels, Sons of Covid will be divided into five sections.
   The tentative titles are:

• The Armies of the Night

• Captain Jack

• The Tynn man

• You say you want a revolution?

• Butch and Sundance

Millport Landing in NY to sell The Devil's Pipeline

   MILLPORT, NY - Millport Landing, an art gallery, coffee shop and artisan display area will have copies of The Devil's Pipeline available for purchase in the next week.
     The Landing is adjacent to the famous Catherine Creek and joins The Hector Wine Company, Rasta Ranch Vineyards, Fox Run Vineyards and the Finger Lakes Times as outlets for the book.
     "There is some irony - good irony - in having a Millport sales point for the book," author Michael J. Fitzgerald said.
     "In the first book in the Jack Stafford series, The Fracking War, Jack gets a speeding ticket driving through Millport," Fitzgerald said. "Lots of Finger Lakes readers told me they have had the same thing happen."
     Credit for finding Millport Landing as a place to sell the third book in series goes to Yvonne Taylor of the Seneca Lake Guardian & Gas Free Seneca.
     The fourth book in the series, tentatively titled The Wolverine Rebellion is being drafted.
     "The reviews have started coming in to me - via email," Fitzgerald said. "I encourage everyone who has read The Devil's Pipeline to also put their remarks up on Amazon.com."
     The review link can be found here: REVIEW.

Millport Landing - overlooking Catherine Creek

Thumbs-up review published of 'The Devil's Pipeline'

   GENEVA, New York - The Devil's Pipeline got a solid thumbs-up review today in the A section of the Geneva, NY Finger Lakes Times newspaper.
     On page 2 - not buried in the classified section.
     In a review headlined,"Fitzgerald's 3rd book a 'devil' of a good read," staff writer David Shaw said ..."This book is a page turner. Fitzgerald uses humor in the right places to make what could be a very dark story a fun read."
  The review includes a sidebar story in which Fitzgerald talks about what led him to write The Devil's Pipeline and hints at what the next book in the Jack Stafford series of novels will bring.

'The Devil's Pipeline' SF book launch a success

   SAN FRANCISCO - A book launch party at Book Passage in the city - organized by Left Coast Writers - went off without a hitch Monday evening.
     About 20 people came to the Ferry Building bookstore to hear Michael J. Fitzgerald talk about his three eco-thriller novels, with the main focus on the newest, The Devil's Pipeline.
     "It was a pretty lively group all asking good questions," Fitzgerald said.
     As part of his comments, Fitzgerald explained the link among The Devil's Pipeline and its two predecessor novels, The Fracking War (2014) and Fracking Justice (2015). All three focus on threats to the environment posed by misdeeds and ruthless policies of corporate energy conglomerates.
     They also all chronicle the crusading journalism of a newspaper and citizen activists trying to defend their communities.

 "The next book is going to have a corporate energy connection," Fitzgerald said. "But it will also be looking at the increasing threats to civil liberties faced in the U.S. There are plenty."
    The tentative title of the next novel is The Wolverine Rebellion.
    The Book Passage event was the second book launch since The Devil's Pipeline was published at the end of November 2018. The first was a local Point Richmond gathering in December at Kaleidoscope Coffee.
     "I'm hoping to do a couple of book events in upstate NY - or even Pennsylvania - where the first two novels are set," Fitzgerald said. 'We won't call them book launches. They will be plain old book parties."
     The Devil's Pipeline is available through Amazon.com, at Book Passage bookstores, in select locations in the Finger Lakes, NY region - and directly from the author here: MICHAEL J FITZGERALD.
   

Author interview posted - book launch Monday in SF

   POINT RICHMOND - A New York radio interview with the author of The Devil's Pipeline done in late January is now available to listen to online.

     The half-hour conversation with radio talk show host Michael Warren Thomas of station WYSL (1040 AM) in Rochester, New York covered Fitzgerald's latest novel but also touched on the novelist's two earlier works, The Fracking War and Fracking Justice.

     Michael Warren Thomas hosts four programs each Saturday. Fitzgerald's interview was on Discover The Finger Lakes which focuses on events and people the Finger Lakes region. This was Fitzgerald's fourth appearance on the program.
     In the interview Thomas noted how Fitzgerald's fictional works reflect real-world, real-time events interspersed with the actions of the journalist characters, as well as cast of villains.
     Thomas also asked about the current anti-press climate being pushed by President Donald Trump in which he labels the press "the enemy of the people."
     Fitzgerald noted that Trump's barrage has been damaging. But Fitzgerald said he is equally concerned about how much the decline of newspapers and journalism - particularly in small towns - continues to be devastating to civic life.
     "People need a source of information that they trust," he said.
     The full interview can be heard here: MWT interview with Michael Fitzgerald.

Book Launch Monday at Book Passage in SF

Michael J. Fitzgerald

   San Francisco - The Devil's Pipeline and its two predecessor novels, The Fracking War and Fracking Justice will be featured Monday at 6 p.m. at Book Passage in San Francisco's Ferry Building on the Embarcadero.
     The event is an official book launch party of Left Coast Writers and is open to the public.
     The Book Passage event will include a talk by Fitzgerald, a question-and-answer session with the audience and a book signing.
     Copies of The Devil's Pipeline will be available for purchase at the bookstore.
     The latest novel has drawn praise from three Bay Area writers, Rita Gardner (author of The Coconut Latitudes), Steve Early (Refinery Town and The Remaking of an American City) and Elizabeth Claman (The Prodigal Wife and other novels).
     "Fitzgerald's third novel might be his best," Claman said.
 

The Devil's Pipeline distributed in the Finger Lakes

   HECTOR, NY - Three locations in the Finger Lakes now have copies of The Devil's Pipeline for sale: the Finger Lakes Times (in Geneva), the Hector Wine Company (in Hector, of course!) and Rasta Ranch Vineyards (also a fine Hector wine stop and cultural experience).
     The three received their first shipments of the novel this week.
     Several other area wineries currently selling The Fracking War and Fracking Justice will likely have copies in coming weeks, too, including Fox Run Vineyards in Penn Yan.
     I'm looking for vendors in Watkins Glen, Rochester and Syracuse. If you know anyone who happens to own a bookstore or shop that might want to carry a few copies of the new novel, please let me know.
     The book is also available via online sources - or directly from me if you want an inscribed copy or to send a gift copy.

Time to write a review of The Devil's Pipeline?

     The early reviews for the novel have been very good and I hope that in the next week or so the compliments I've been getting via email will make their way to be posted on Amazon.com.
      Three local readers in California told me they think this novel is the best of the three and asked if there is a movie in the works.
     Be still my heart! I hope some screenwriter/producer/film mogul picks up a copy of the book and thinks the same thing.

A parrot is always helpful to writers

     If you have finished reading The Devil's Pipeline - and are willing to post a review on Amazon - here is the direct link: AMAZON REVIEW.
     Thank you in advance for taking the time to scribble a few lines.
     And now it's time to get back to the draft of The Wolverine Rebellion.

'The Devil's Pipeline' book launch Feb. 11 in SF

   SAN FRANCISCO - The Devil's Pipeline (2018) and its two predecessor novels, The Fracking War (2014) and Fracking Justice (2015) will be featured Monday, Feb. 11 starting at 6 p.m. at Book Passage in San Francisco's Ferry Building.

Michael J. Fitzgerald

      "The event is officially a book launch for The Devil's Pipeline," author Michael J. Fitzgerald said. "But as it completes the trilogy, I'll be talking about how the other two novels uncovered environmental and social horrors, too."
      The event is an official book party of Left Coast Writers and is open to the public.
     All three eco-thriller novels chronicle the work of crusading journalists who battle against powerful energy corporations.
     In The Devil's Pipeline a mega-energy conglomerate collides with a pacifist Iowa farm community housing a family that witnessed the Kent State University massacre in 1970. The company wants to push a pipeline directly through the farm. The community stands firm against it.
     The first set of reviews have given the novel high marks.

Rita Gardner

     "The Devil''s Pipeline is a page-turning eco-thriller," Rita Gardner, author of The Coconut Latitudes said. "It is a cautionary tale about unbridled corporate greed and those who battle against our earth's devastation."
     Labor activist and author Steve Early (Refinery Town and the Remaking of an American City) said the book takes readers to the front lines of environmental action. "Fitzgerald's novel may be fiction, but the conflict between big energy companies and grassroots defenders of land, water and a livable planet is very real," Early said.
     "Fitzgerald's third novel might be his best," writes Elizabeth Claman, author of The Prodigal Wife and other novels.
     The Book Passage event will include a talk by Fitzgerald, a question-and-answer session with the audience and a book signing.
     Copies of The Devil's Pipeline will be available for purchase at the bookstore.

Bill McKibben

     Fitzgerald's first novel, The Fracking War, drew praise from noted environmentalists Bill McKibben and Sandra Steingraber.
     "If you've thought the debate over energy policy was a tad dry, this novel might change your mind," McKibben said. "God hopes it never comes to this!"
     In comments about the novel, Steingraber compared the novel to other novels that influenced public opinion.
     "It was Uncle Tom's Cabin, not economic date, that turned the page on slavery," she said. It was The Grapes of Wrath, not demographic reports that opened the nation's eyes to Dust Bowl dislocation. Out of that tradition comes Michael J. Fitzgerald's The Fracking War. Here within a smoldering crucible of social crisis, is a tale of power, money, fateful choice and conscience aroused."
     Filmmaker Josh Fox (Gasland & Gasland II) thought Fracking Justice captured the swirling political and social morass created by hydrofracking and its proponents.
     "It may be fiction but it shows how the fossil fuel industry is fracturing not only our land but our communities," Fox said.

Launch party for 'The Devil's Pipeline' was a success

   POINT RICHMOND - Saturday's launch party to celebrate the publishing of The Devil's Pipeline was a success all around.
     About 60 people attended, filling Kaleidoscope Coffee nicely.
     The author managed to mangle only a few sentences in his speech.

With Beverly and Don Gerth

     And the audience asked some great questions, the answers to which will be incorporated into the next launch party, Feb. 11, 2019 at 6 p.m. at Book Passage in San Francisco at the Ferry Terminal.
     Along with an amazing turnout of local friends and supporters was the former president of California State University, Sacramento Donald Gerth and his wife Bev. Two former students of the author came also - Jennifer Noble and Jennifer Maldonado.
     Both women were student editors with the campus-based State Hornet newspaper while the author was faculty adviser to the publication and a professor in the Journalism Department at Sacramento State.

With Jennifer Noble (left) and Jennifer Maldonado

   In the author's presentation some details about the next novel in Jack Stafford series (tentatively titled The Wolverine Rebellion) trickled out.
     • The next book will continue the tradition of The Fracking War, Fracking Justice and The Devil's Pipeline by having a strong environmental emphasis.
     • The ongoing assault on civil liberties in the U.S. (and potential ones) will be a major part of the plotline.
     • The first section in the book is tentatively titled "Assembly," a nod to freedom of assembly, one of the pivotal elements in the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

   The Devil's Pipeline is currently available for purchase in paperback and e-book formats via Amazon.com and other online retailers. A signed copy can also be ordered directly by sending an email to the author at frackingjustice@gmail.com.
       In the spring the book will become available for purchase at select bookstores and other locations.

On stage Saturday afternoon at Kaleidoscope Coffee in Point Richmond

E-book version of 'The Devil's Pipeline' uploaded

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - The electronic version of The Devil's Pipeline was uploaded into the chronosynclastic infundibulum this morning.
     If chronosynclastic infundibulum is wildly obscure, a re-reading of the late Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan might clear it up. It's one of Vonnegut's best novels.
     The shorthand definition is to say that the novel was uploaded to Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Nook and a dozen electronic reader formats through a company called Draft2Digital as well as Kindle Direct, the Amazon e-book publishing system.
     Same book, same characters, just available now on your iPad, iPhone, iGuess, Kindle reader or, I suppose, your Apple watch.
     Even though the book was sent to into the ether, it may take a day or two - because of the holidays - for it to show up in all the e-formats.
     In the meantime, the book launch party is on for Kaleidoscope Coffee in Point Richmond for Saturday, Dec. 15 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Everyone's invited...
     Kaleidoscope has excellent coffee, tea, snacks - and wine. What kind of book launch would it be without wine?

'The Devil's Pipeline' published and ready to read

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - The Devil's Pipeline made its print-version debut Saturday and is available via Amazon.com.

     The E-Book (in Kindle, Apple Books and all those other electronic book formats) should be available in a few days.

     The final sprint to publication came during several weeks of amazing feats of computer magic performed by Adm. Sylvia Fox. That magic was punctuated occasionally by muttered incantations directed at her computer screen.

     But in the end, the final book product looks (and I hope reads) great. You can read a sample on the Amazon page.

     The official "launch party" will be Saturday, Dec. 15 from 2-4 p.m. at Kaleidoscope Coffee in Point Richmond, Calif.

     Everyone is invited to this celebration/soiree.

     The publication of the novel ends more than two years of on-again, off-again writing, editing, beta reader reviews, proofreading and manuscript back and forth with two different commercial publishers.

     In the end, Adm, Fox and I used an Amazon publishing platform (for the print version) and a separate electronic system for the E-book (the same one we used for the E-book of  Fracking Justice). I'm pleased with both.

    Please come to the Kaleidoscope event if you possibly can. It's going to be a great party. You can ask me there when the audiobook is coming out...

'The Devil's Pipeline' on track for fall publication

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. -  How many times have I written this headline before?
     Don't go back and look. It would be too embarrassing. This novel has been a see-saw battle both internally for the author and externally.
     But this time I can say with certainty publication is imminent. The book only needs a few pieces to fall into place before - Voila! - The Devil's Pipeline should become available in e-book and print.

There's a Devil in there somewhere

   Some of those pieces rest on my shoulders - the writing of acknowledgements, a preface and dedications, along with a number of other similar details.
     Getting the book into actual production is being handled ably by Adm. Sylvia Fox, whose patience is far greater than mine.
     One big piece remaining is the cover design. It was to be done by the same artist who did Fracking Justice.
     But her schedule became overloaded just as I needed the cover to complete the project.
   But in a week or so I hope to meet with a Northern California artist of considerable fame to see if she is willing to take it on.
     Thanks for your patience. There's a Pipeline headed your way.

'The Devil's Pipeline' edging towards completion

   POINT RICHMOND - Pipelines take time to build. So do novels involving pipelines, energy companies, thuggish crime, environmental disasters and the haunting history of the Kent State massacre.
     But today, Draft Vers. 2.0 of The Devil's Pipeline is in the capable custody of one more beta reader in California - accomplished novelist, poet and non-fiction book author, Elizabeth Claman of Atchison Village, who lives just a few miles from where this is being written.
   This draft 2.0 version has already had a thorough sifting and suggestions for changes by my good friend and editor extraordinaire Wrexie Bardaglio.
     Wrexie caught several plot flaws, an embarrassing number of typos and schooled me on some Native American references and facts, all of which makes 2.0 much stronger.

Wolverines!

     At some point in the next few weeks - depending on the verdict from Elizabeth (and needed editing is completed) - a Vers. 3.0 will go to the Los Angeles publishing house that asked for a second look at the draft.
     And when that happens, the in-process draft of The Wolverine Rebellion will move back onto the front writing burner, just in time for spring, when wolverines tend to get really active.

'Fracking War' presentations - and video - in Nov.

   SACRAMENTO - November was a busy month with presentations in Sacramento and San Francisco. December was busy, too - for different reasons, which is why it's already 2018 before this report made it out.
   In Sacramento, I gave a talk at the Friends of the Library at California State University, Sacramento, the university where I spent several decades teaching journalism.
   In San Francisco, it was a lively panel discussion with three other writers at the Howard Zinn Book Faire.
   The Sacramento event was a real homecoming for me.
   The library gallery speaking venue was full. The audience included students, former colleagues and even retired CSUS President Donald R. Gerth and his wife Beverly.
   My introduction was given by longtime amigo, retired Journalism Professor Bill Dorman. Bill helped engineer my appearance and shepherded me through the day - a luncheon, the talk and a cocktail/reception at the home of retired Government Professor Jean Torcom.
   In the talk I took a different tack than previous presentations. I stayed away from reciting the horrors of hydrofracking and focused on the novel-writing process. The feedback at the talk and the reception after let me know it was the right move for the university audience.
   A video of the talk is at the bottom of this column.
   Included were references to The Devil's Pipeline (set to go to an LA publisher this week for a second look) and The Wolverine Rebellion, the characters of which are getting extremely restless for my attention to get that plot moving again.

(L-R: Liz Carlisle, Steve Masover, Michael Fitzgerald)

   The San Francisco event was a panel discussion titled "Narrating the Anthropocene: Storytelling to Rouse Communities Grappling with Planetary Crisis," organized and chaired by San Francisco novelist Steve Masover, author of Consequence.
   The other panel members were Liz Carlisle, author of The Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America and Jean Tepperman, author of Warning from My Future Self.
   It was a lively panel discussion, with all of us talking about using fiction to effect social change.
   The panel was less than an hour - the panel-presentation equivalent of speed dating.
   But it was a lot of fun.

'The Wolverine Rebellion' draft crawls ahead

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - The draft of The Wolverine Rebellion is moving ahead slowly, kind of like a camo-clad guerrilla working his (or her!) way forward across a field to sneak up on an enemy.
     In this case, the draft is moving from concept to characterization and notion to narrative.
     As in the case of The Fracking War, Fracking Justice, and The Devil's Pipeline (Pipeline is currently at a publisher's office in Los Angeles awaiting word), The Wolverine Rebellion has many familiar characters from those books, plus new ones.
     And just as in those earlier novels, the characters are asserting themselves as their story - and it really is their story - moves along.
     The one piece of the draft that firmed up today (along with the already completed half-dozen chapters of Assembly) are the five section titles. All are subject to change, of course, depending on how the characters handle things.

Assembly

The Tynn Man

Sins of the father

The Empire Strikes Back

Tsunami Warning

The next novel begins - 'The Wolverine Rebellion'

   VALOIS, New York - At what point does simple resistance - a very popular word right now in the Trump era - move to rebellion?
     That's one of many notions rattling around as the draft of a new novel (working title, The Wolverine Rebellion) takes shape.
     Readers of The Fracking War and Fracking Justice are familiar with who the Wolverines were in those novels.
     In The Wolverine Rebellion it appears they have risen again.
     Or have they?
     It's going to be some time before even I can answer that question.
     Watch here for updates...

'The Devil's Pipeline' draft is in the editor's hands

POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - The first complete draft of the novel The Devil's Pipeline is in the capable hands of Admiral Fox, first reader and frontline editor extraordinaire.

     The draft was completed in a flurry of writing Saturday, May 20. I was sick with an allergy/flu attack for nearly a week before that. But in a fevered state, the final chapters & twists became sooooo obvious, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen them before. Damn characters didn't want to reveal the secret until the very end.

     The draft of the novel came in a few thousand words heavier than planned. The goal was about 70,000 but ended up close to 73,000. Describing a catastrophic fire, a wild parking lot melee, sheriff's deputies firing weapons into a crowd, an Iowa courtroom in chaos - well, the final chapters took a few more phrases and verbs (Verbs!) than expected.

     The chapter/section headings in the final draft are changed slightly from earlier drafts and published information here. And, of course, they might change again before The Devil's Pipeline actually flows into print and e-reader form.

     But for now the section headers are:

Iowa

Welcome to Mars

Drums along the Ogallala

Wrongful deaths

The fire this time

Epilog

'Pipeline' draft thought lost - has been recovered

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - One of the most sickening moments any author can have - and I speak from recent experience - is losing a manuscript, or even a part of a work-in-progress.
     The annals of authorship are full of horror stories of such accidental - or purposeful - losses.
     One of my favorites is a particularly horrific tale, about an author's work of horror - Robert Louis Stevenson and his famous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

     It seems the first draft of the 30,000-word story was tossed  in the fire (on purpose) by Stevenson's wife who deemed it less-than memorable and not worthy of publication. Ironically, a redraft, written feverishly by a very-ill Stevenson, went on to become one of his most famous works.
     And so it was early May 4 that the last 10,000 words of The Devil's Pipeline draft went missing. Not because Admiral Fox had taken a dislike to the draft - she hasn't seen anything except the first few chapters. It was thought lost due to a Microsoft Word glitch combined with author sloppiness in saving two-days work.
     Luckily, the latches on the windows of our four-story condo were firmly stuck this morning when the words went walkabout for an hour or so.

     After searching backup copies, the most recent draft surfaced. It seems in this author's haste to finish, the most recent backup copy was mislabelled and misfiled. It has since been backed up in two offline spots, with an entirely new naming system to avoid any more high-blood pressure episodes.
     Now the explosions, arrests, and courtroom dramas in the formerly missing 10,000 words back in play, all leading up to one last gasping surge of writing this week and into next.