The Writer's Life 4/2 - Evil vs. Good

The evil forces that have infected my PC have struck again. Somehow they are able to get into my Word files and change them to Read Only. It isn't fatal. I can simply copy a particular file, paste it into a new one, and rename it. When they did this to the one for Close to the Edge, in which I'd just added page numbers, I plugged in my Cruzer backup stick to recover it. A strange message appeared. One of the dangers listed was the entire contents of the device being erased. I hit the X in the corner to get rid of it and suddenly it appeared as if the erasing were underway. I shut down the computer as quickly as I could and had to pull the Cruzer out without waiting for the prompt it requires, which also poses a danger to the contents. When I plugged it later, the contents were encrypted, in HTML, I assume. I'm not sure this would be the case if it were plugged into a different computer, but I'd hesitate to risk infecting another. Fortunately, I have copies of other manuscripts files at several different places, including my Desktop. I also still have typewritten manuscripts I can work from, although that would require a lot of work. I wonder why this evil genius persists in attacking my machine. I hope it's because he hasn't gotten what he wants out of it and is trying to get me to download other harmful stuff that will be relevatory, which I will not do. Perhaps he or she is simply a sociopath. The best solution would be a new computer. Wiping the hard drive clean might do the trick, but it would be too risky to upload any stuff from my Cruzer. I want to keep my laptop for as long as possible. I've been using an old version of IE, which for some reason doesn't get plagued by the pop-ups that get my Firefox portal. The only real downer to this is that I might not be able to get a print version of Edge up and running at Create Space. I tried to upload the Word file this morning and the site wouldn't take it. In one spot it says the file is among the acceptable alternatives, in another it says it should be converted to PDF. I tried that and it failed, and now the Word file is inaccessible. When I try to open it, a message appears stating that the conversion failed. These evil bastards are good at what they do.


And now on to the good. Given my PC problem, I was in a sour mood when I headed out for the day's session of the floating book shop. Fortunately, a gentleman immediately bought a large pictorial on art. I assumed it was in Polish. It was Yugoslavian. The guy speaks several languages. We got to talking and he said he has two million dollars worth of trinkets, of the type people exhibit on the Antiques Road Show, in a vault at Sothebys, which costs him $80 a month to rent. He also showed me his Christie's ID card. I suggested he not speak of such things aloud, and he said he was well-protected, his wife having been a marksman in the Soviet army. The woman has passed me a thousand times, and I would never have guessed it. My thanks, and to the other good folks who made purchases, especially to Stu and Janet, who bought five books, and to the gentleman who bought the huge Electronics Repairs Manual, which took a lot of weight out of the haul back to the car.
Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/pdxwsnt

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/