The Lost Email

Before vacation, I turned in the first revision for Not a Creature was Stirring and spent a week enjoying time with my husband and crafting as the resort we stayed at had wonderful craft classes. Monday's plan was to get back to work and into the swing of on the marketing/business side of writing and the rest of the week would be working on the next book. On my list was checking where I left off in the WIP, scheduling heroine interviews on my blog, filling out my weekly schedule, and double checking the due dates for the other items needed for Creature.

Next on my to-do list for Creature was filling out the cover art sheet and sending in the back cover copy. Usually, I shudder at having to write the cover copy. There's just something about having to condense an 75,000+ word book into no more than 175 words that sends me into a slight panic. It involves days of agonizing over every word and changing it one more time before I send it in, realizing it sounds pretty much like the first draft of the blurb. I do not look forward to writing them at all...except for this time.

I vaguely recalled the pitch that I had wrote for the book. I didn't remember the exact words but knew it was awesome. A wonderful mix of humor, serious, and introduced the main character and the crime perfectly. Or at least that is what my memory is telling me. So, I wasn't worried about writing it. I'd copy the blurb from the email I sent to pitch the book, tweak it a bit, and it would be ready.

Except--the email is gone. I know I saved it because it had my intention to use part of the pitch to write the cover copy. I told myself not to panic because if I accidentally deleted it during my yearly trim down the emails in the inbox, it was in the sent folder. I didn't delete sent folder emails until they were about 3 years old. Nope. Not there either. It just up and disappeared.

In examining my sent folder, I noticed that according to it, I didn't email anyone for about 8 weeks. Impossible since I email myself from one account to another at least twice a week with reminders of items I needed to make sure I did and also ideas and solutions to WIP problems. (And I have checked my other email, not there either.) So, I'm guessing there was a glitch with the server and emails in the sent folder vanished/deleted.

On the bright side, at least I only lost an email that contained the jumping up point for the back cover copy.