How Stupid Can I Get?

Welcome to Behind Closed Doors!  Today, author Roz Lee shares with us her experience with something many of us have gone through:  accidentally wiping out something we’ve spent hours working on.

About the author – 

Roz Lee has been married to her best friend, and high school sweetheart, for over three decades. These days she splits her time between their home in rural New Jersey, and Southern California, where her husband works. Even though she’s lived on both coasts, her heart lies in between, in Texas. A Texan by birth, she can trace her family back to the Republic of Texas. With roots that deep, she says, “You can’t ever really leave.”

Roz and her husband have two grown daughters they couldn’t be more proud of, and are currently raising a ten-year-old Labrador Retriever, Betty Boop, who isn’t aware of her canine heritage.

When Roz isn’t writing, she’s reading, or traipsing around the country on one adventure or another. No trip is too small, no tourist trap too cheesy, and no road unworthy of traveling.

Sometimes I just have to wonder, how stupid can I get? Today is one of those days. I’m closing in on my two favorite words – The End – with my current work in progress. This morning, I even skipped my usual early hour trip to the gym in order to put in some serious time working toward that light beckoning me home. All was going well. I’d managed to write ten pages, mostly dialogue. The scene was emotional, and a pivotal moment between my hero and heroine. I broke away for a few minutes to do some mundane things – like laundry – and came back to it. Still feeling satisfied with where I was, and where the story was going, I decided it was time to take a serious break, perhaps to come back later in the day.

So…I moved my cursor to the little red box in the top right corner, and clicked on it. Bless Word’s heart for popping up a little box asking me if I wanted to save the changes I’d made. At that moment, I had a brainstorm. One little thing I wanted to change before I forgot it. I moved the cursor away from the ‘yes’ selection. My mind had already wandered to the minute change I wanted to make. I should have remained focused on the task at hand. Instead of moving the cursor all the way over to the ‘cancel’ button which meant, no, I’ve changed my mind about doing this, my finger reflexively hit the enter key – with the cursor directly over ‘no’, which we all know means  –  no, I don’t want to save the changes I’ve made to the document.

A day’s work disappeared in the blink of an eye. No way to retrieve it. All gone. Bye, bye.

Jumping off a bridge began to look pretty good, but for a solid five minutes, I stared at the screen in disbelief. I whimpered like a kicked puppy. All that time – lost. Worse – all that wonderful, emotional, pivotal dialogue – gone.

Hours , and a Grande Hot Chocolate with all the calories and fat the Barista could possibly cram into it, later – it still hurts. I’ll write the scene again, and perhaps it will be better the second time around, but I can’t help but feel a kinship with artists who work in transient mediums. I’ve always wondered why anyone would bother to build a magnificent sand or ice sculpture, knowing that it would only be there for a short period of time before nature claimed the medium back. Or what about those artists who painstakingly ‘paint’ in chalk or colored sand, only to see it washed or swept away soon after? As a writer, I like to think my work is more permanent, but today I was reminded that it is only one human error, or one computer glitch away from being as transient as skywriting.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson – one about saving my work more often. To be honest with you, I thought the program was set to auto-save every so often. Maybe this is something I made up in my own mind, but if the program will do that, I’m darned sure going to see that it does it from now on. There is much I don’t know about computers, and truth be told, I do good to operate my cell phone. Maybe that’s stubbornness on my part. I’ve never taken the time to learn all the wonderful little things that my electronic gadgets can do for me. Perhaps it’s time I did.

I did manage to complete my latest book without losing any scenes, so I hope you’ll check it out. FOUR OF HEARTS is available from Red Sage, Amazon, B&N and All Romance eBooks.

Here’s the blurb –

Marriage hasn’t tamed Candace Callahan’s sexual curiosity, something her husband Ryan is grateful for, but when she asks him to tie her up for her anniversary present, he knows he’s going to need the help of their friends, Richard Wolfe and his wife, Fallon.

Dr. Fallon Enright is the resident sex therapist aboard the Lothario – the cruise ship co-owned by her husband and Ryan Callahan. When Ryan asks to participate in one of their couple’s rope bondage classes, Richard isn’t sure it’s a good idea, but Fallon assures him all will be well.

What begins as innocent curiosity, blossoms into a polyamorous relationship none of them could have expected, but they are powerless to ignore. When the tabloids expose their new lifestyle, the foursome must choose between the love they feel for each other, or accepting society’s moral constraints.

And an Excerpt –

Ryan froze with his lips against the pulse in Candace’s neck. His erection surged with new vigor against her stomach. Why couldn’t his wife ask for something easy for their anniversary? Something like diamonds, a villa in France, hell, even an expedition to the North Pole. The image in his brain coalesced, and he knew he would give her whatever she wanted.

            “You want me to tie you up?” he asked as soon as he found his voice.

            “Don’t even try to tell me it doesn’t excite you.” Candace wiggled her soft mound against his cock. “I felt that.”

            He had no intention of denying his interest. Only a fool would, and Ryan Callahan was no fool. He continued his exploration of his wife’s creamy soft skin, all the while forming and reforming the new image in his head. His lips left her neck, slipped to her shoulder where he tasted every inch of skin, before angling lower toward the perfect swell of her breasts. His hands held hers pinned flat on either side of her head. He’d tied her hands once, when he’d spirited her away from the Lothario and onto the Vixen, but that had been role-playing more than anything else. He was pretty sure she had something more in mind. He hoped to God she did.

            Her request shouldn’t have been a surprise. She’d spent a lot of time lately talking to his best friend’s wife. Rope bondage was Fallon’s new research topic, and a passion shared with her husband Richard. Ryan inched his way lower, and teased one nipple to a marble hard peak with his tongue, before taking it in his mouth. Candace drew in a sharp breath and arched her back, encouraging him to suck harder. He obliged his wife.

            His wife. The moniker still sent a thrill through his body every time he thought, or said the word. Candace Callahan. His wife. God, what a wondrous thing that was. For nearly a year, she’d been his constant companion, his lover, his…everything. Before he met Candace, he’d been lost and alone, searching for something he couldn’t name. Now it had a name. Love.

            “Well?” Candace prodded on a gasp as Ryan switched breasts, sucking the poor, neglected one in his mouth without preamble.

            Surely, she knew the answer. He couldn’t deny her anything. Still, he made her wait for his reply. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t given it any thought himself. There wasn’t much he hadn’t imagined doing with Candace.

            He released her hands and slid lower until he lay pillowed between her thighs. He brushed his thumbs over the neatly trimmed auburn triangle that drew him like a compass needle to magnetic north. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils and fueled a primal need. He swept his tongue through her juices. She ground her swollen flesh against his face, and he knew she’d forgotten everything but this. He dedicated himself to keeping the status quo for the foreseeable future.

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