Sorting Through The Wreckage

I'm back online for the first time in a week or so; last Tuesday my harddrive crashed and it took me until this past weekend to get online at all. I've got a tech guy working to see what can be salvaged off the old harddrive but the first thing he told me when I called him was to expect the worst (that was encouraging...). It happened while I was trying to back some documents up onto a flashdrive and the problem appears to have begun in the flashdrive and cascaded into the computer's hardrrive, taking down both in one fell swoop.

If you've submitted a story to IGMS that doesn't mean your story is lost, because we keep back-up copies of all stories on the managing editor's computer. But it does mean that some extra patience is going to be called for while I sort through them all, trying to remember which I rejected, which I haven't read yet, which I asked for rewrites on, etc etc.

Final drafts of the stories for the Winter Issue (number seven) had already been forwarded to the managing editor, so that issue will still come out on schedule, and I'm sure we have enough time before the Spring Issue (number eight) to get this all sorted out, so the delays should be limited to reply-times to writers who've submitted. My apologies to all affected.

I'll be up in Saratoga Springs, NY, for this year's World Fantasy Conference (that's this week, Nov. 1 - 4; I fly home on the 5th). Then I'll get back to sorting out this mess. Today's priority is getting though the thirteen finalists for Apex Digest's 3rd annual Halloween story contest, which are due back to editor Jason Sizemore by tomorrow (I think... Or was it Wed.?).

Thank God we have computers to simplify our lives...