K. Marvin Bruce

I remember the days when computer files were saved on disc.  Diskettes, actually.  All my stories were carefully backed up in duplicate.  I felt secure. Technology progressed, as technology will.  The floppy disk gave way to higher capacity storage systems—I had a Jaz drive, once upon a time.  These cassettes, reminiscent of an 8-track, held an enormous amount of data.  But not enough. Computers came with CD drives then, but you couldn't save onto a CD—like the early PDFs.  Then they made CD writers common hardware with your computer.  I began saving everything on CDs.  Large tubes of them fill a forgotten desk drawer. Then came the terabyte drive.  Holding more storage capacity than a moon-launch computer, this little device, used weekly, safely holds my secrets.  Stories are secure at last.  My computer wants me to save them to the Cloud.  And pay for the privilege. So I dutifully backup my hard disc onto the ter...

My computer died.  While there’s no good time for that to happen, when you’re traveling and there are no Apple stores nearby is perhaps the worst such time.  I was able to beg, borrow and surf on friends’ machines, but since they didn’t know me as Marvin, well, access was limited. This is one of the problems with a dual identity.  Not that my inability to check my email had any impact on the stories/novel I’ve got out for consideration.  When my computer was replaced yesterday, I had no emails at all. Being computerless, as a writer, was a strange and interesting experience.  With one exception, my publications are all online.  The files are all electronic.  Even though I travel everywhere with a notebook, and a backup notebook, I was cut off from my own work. Now that I have a new computer, and a much diminished bank account, I was able to recover all my old files.  I use a Mac because a Mac is the only kind of computer to use. ...