Back That Thing Up!

Yesterday was the start of a big day for me. It was the beginning of a 4-day weekend devoted to nothing but writing. I was going to finish the final edits for my book release, launch my cover reveal, and update my websites and other media with the latest book covers and general awesomeness.

So I jumped out of bed at 5:30 AM and was ready to tackle anything... except the Blue Screen of Death.

I was lucky -  I end up working on two different computers frequently so I do 99% of my work off of Dropbox so I always have the latest version of everything no matter where I am. Before I was a cloud girl, though, I worked out of local copies on my desktop which I'd occasionally think to back up to a thumb drive, or maybe email to myself to "back up." If I was still that version of Ashley - that naive, trusting, and gullible girl - I'd have been screwed today. Here's a small taste of what I could have lost had I not made the move to keep everything in a cloud-based storage folder:

1. 4 novel WIPs along with all of the brainstorming notes I've taken and research links I've saved.
2. All of the free stock photos I've slowly stockpiled over the years with my one-a-week accounts. We're talking several gigs worth of great marketing images and videos.
3. All of my old drafts, saved pearls that I've cut from other books, random ideas, short stories, and poems.
4. All of the finance spreadsheets and records I've kept for taxes and other financials. 
5. All of the music I ripped from my old 90s CDs so I could get rid of the physical media finally. I mean really, who wants to still keep those giant CD books anymore?
6. MY MOTHER-FLIPPING WEDDING PHOTOS.

Since I worked out of Dropbox I was able to run to Best Buy, bet the gaming PC I've been eyeing for a few months anyway, and get right back to work. There are still a few mostly image-related items I had stored locally on the laptop that died this morning, so I'll be working on recovery as I have time over the next few weeks. Otherwise instead of calmly buying a new PC this morning, I'd have been in a mad panic - probably still in my pajamas -  begging the Geek Squad to save my books and all of my memories like a crazy woman.

So have you guessed yet that today's tale has a moral? It totally does. And that moral is: Back That Sh*% Up.