"It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors. We could have become something regular, but we managed not to.
We were lucky, but we were also determined." Roy Blount Jr

"I don’t change the facts to enhance the drama. I think of it the other way round, the drama has got to fit the facts,
and it’s your job as a writer to find the shape in real life."
Hilary Mantel

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Lost and Found


I don't often lose things. I might not be able to locate them immediately, but I've got really good "place memory". Most of the time. Sometimes the remembering takes a while....

About a month ago, I realised that I had "lost" some gold jewellery. Two pair of earrings and a vintage gold cross on a chain I inherited from a grandmother, who bought it in Florence. Couldn't find them anywhere. I searched the Lodge, the cottage, the cars, and the carry-alls and handbags and washbags that accompany me from place to place. No luck.

Heartbroken but resigned, I started shopping round to replace the essential earrings. (The cross and chain were irreplaceable.) At the jewellery retailers and department stores, I couldn't found anything I liked as well as the pair I'd lost, and what I did find wasn't nearly as well made.

Two days ago, prompted by a vague recollection, I put my hand in a certain drawer, deep down--and tucked way out of sight was my "lost" property.

Then there's the case of the "lost" research notes. I'd typed pages of information on my Alphasmart laptop, labelled the file (in a very imprecise fashion, it turns out), uploaded said file to my desktop--and failed to transfer it to the appropriate novel folder. And there sat the information, undetectable. For months and months I've wondered what had happened to my notes covering the 1680's. I was sure I had transcribed the information from an Interlibrary Loan book. But I found no proof of it. Anywhere.

Coincidentally, the very same day I found the earrings and cross, I was moving some files from folder to folder. I found "luttrell1.doc"--sounded promising, though I didn't recognise exactly what it was. Opened it up. Hey, presto--mystery solved!

Timing is everything. I'll be working from those notes today. I didn't much need them until today.

I can be a sadly disorganised organsied person. Just as I am most definitely an undisciplined disciplined person.


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