Douglas Fox: Blog

I still have hopes of beginning to post Book 1 of Coming Home this summer. The editor I have been using for this story has gotten super busy. He managed to go through two chapters in the last two months. At that rate, I won't be posting until 2023. That will not do!

If any readers, hopefully with experience at writing or editing, are willing to assist, I am willing to give you a try. Send me an email detailing what experience you may have, if any. I will send you a chapter or two, or another of my completed short stories to try and see if this will work out.

My second step back was a stupid thing I did a few weeks ago. I was cleaning up my story directory and wanted to delete an old file I no longer needed. I did not notice that the focus in Windows Explorer was set on the directory pane rather than the files pane when I hit Delete. Of course miserable MS Windows did exactly what I asked and began deleting everything in my stories directory. I hit cancel as fast as I could once I realized what happened. By the time I stopped it, Windows was merrily deleting files in the Coming Home subdirectory. The main Coming Home Word doc disappeared.

I wasn't too worried. I could retrieve the deleted files from the #Recycle directory on my Raid 5 network storage device… except it turns out the network storage device only creates the #Recycle directory if you explicitly go into the operating system and turn that feature on. Sigh.

I got lazy during the pandemic. Normally I keep my working files on a portable SSD drive that I can use with any computer wherever I am. I would back the files on the SSD drive to my network storage device every few days. I have been working from home for the last fifteen months, so I did not worry about backing up the way I should. I have been working with computers for over forty years. I should know better.

The bottom line is I lost three scenes in Coming Home Book 1. Thankfully one of the scenes was in what I sent out to my editor and I managed to save his files before they were deleted. That scene was restored in a few minutes. The second scene was relatively short and I recreated it in an evening. I wrote the final scene in Book 1 about six weeks ago, so it wasn't too hard to recreate it.

Book 2 took a bigger hit. I have managed to recreate the missing scenes from Book 2 over the past three weeks, so I am back where I was when disaster struck. I think a couple of the recreated scenes are actually better than the missing first draft. Now, all I need is some editing help to get the story ready for posting.

The sad thing about all of this is not what happened to Coming Home. I lost two-thirds of a story called "Forbidden Rose" and all of another short story. Forbidden Rose tells the story of Rose Henry, Will's oldest, and her first time with a boy. Sadly, I had just finished both stories and had done a first read through beginning to end for each. I threw together 2-3 pages of notes immediately of as much as I could remember of the stories. Some day I will get them rewritten.

I have probably rambled on enough. The bottom line is Coming Home is ready and waiting for editing help. If you have experience and some free time, I could use a hand. Drop me an email and I will see if we can work together.

Doug Fox

My next story, "Coming Home" continues to grow as I write it. I decided to post the story in more than one part, so I can get some of it out sooner rather than waiting until I have the whole story complete. This is similar to what Al Steiner is doing with Intemperance.

Editing on Part 1 has started. I also updated the "Lost and Found" epilogue to match up with some minor changes I have made in the timeline for Life in Paradise. Don't get too excited to check out the updated Epilogue when it is posted later tonight. You would need a fine toothed comb to find what has changed.

[If you must know, I changed the length of Chip Brinton's career a little and corrected the name of Jeff Lurie's son. I finally found out his name is Julian not Matt. Matt was just a wild guess I made ten years ago when I was writing "Lost and Found."]

I would appreciate some feedback from all of you. I dislike the "Washington Football Team" nickname the ex-Redskins are currently using. As a placeholder in "Coming Home," I am calling the team the "Redtails." This is one of a couple dozen possible nicknames I have seen. I hope the WFT comes up with a permanent name before I begin posting. Since my story is set in a fictional world, though similar to but not identical to real life, would it bother anyone if I kept the Redtails nickname when I post the story rather than using the awkward "Washington Football Team" nickname if Washington has no permanent nickname?

Hopefully, Part 1 of "Coming Home" will be ready for posting sometime this summer.

Meanwhile, I will continue writing.

Doug Fox

Boy, that was a bone headed goof. Delanie Walker is playing in Rob Gronkowski's place at the Pro Bowl. Of course, Gronkowski is preparing the 2017 Super Bowl and is not in Hawaii. I have put the correction in the posting que.

There are two more chapters to go after this one. I want to thank everyone for their support. I hope you will all enjoy the remainder of the story as it is posted next week.

Doug Fox

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments over the past two weeks. I have turned on voting, now that you can see where I am going with the story.

I will continue to post on Tuesdays and Fridays. Thank you for your support.

Doug Fox

I have started posting my new story. I plan to post on Tuesdays and Fridays. The story has twenty-one chapters. I hope you enjoy Andrew's tale.

I have voting turned off for now. I will turn it on in a couple weeks, when you can see where I am going with the story.

Doug Fox