Lost story found!
Shortly after Dave wrote “Plainview” and its sequel “The Blood Cools,” both published in the December, 2010 issue of Crimewave, I was inspired to write a story which fell in between them chronologically. A “tweenquel,”of sorts, it was called “So Long, Al.” In it, the Plainview police chief was retiring with a single regret: he never brought that killer to justice.
It was close to being finished, but still had a few gaps to fill. Then the unthinkable happened: my hard drive crashed. I regret to say I wasn’t a dedicated backer-upper in those days. Thinking it lost forever, I confessed my crime to Dave, and imagined him sighing with relief. Well, that’s not accurate; he was actually encouraging me to write it!
A few days ago, I was cleaning out the cabinet above my computer, and I happened upon an old flash drive tucked way back behind some CDs and manuals. I mean, it was old – a 132-megger. I plugged it in, and to my surprise, “So Long, Al” appeared. I immediately emailed the file to Dave, entrusting him as my extra-safe backup. Hopefully, after we finish “A Killing Snow,” I can return to it.
Moral of the story: well, it’s obvious. And I do. Back up my stuff now. Come to think of it, I sort of did then.
Hoing and Hileman 
Get a free Gmail account (if you don’t have one already). Put your drafts on Google Docs on Google Drive. Share those drafts with editors and collaborators like Dave. Then everyone can both see, and work on, the latest draft version, simultaneously. Full previous-version automatic backup. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to emailing drafts back and forth again.
Skip
Thanks for the tip, Skip. We’ll give it a try!