Lost Manuscript Horror Stories

On a recent misguided and naive tour of L.A., I had all of my luggage stolen. Laptop, camera, microphone, phone. I don't care about that stuff.

I had *two* hand-written manuscripts in that luggage. I don't think words can describe that loss. Penultimate Hustle: L.A. and Army of me, which were at 100% and 80% complete, respectively, are gone forever.

Lessons to be learned all around. If you hand write, take it to Kinko's and have a copy made. And don't dawdle with typing them up. It's exhausting, but it beats rewriting from scratch.

I'm trying to be positive about the rewrites. I don't think I could match what I had done with the Ultimate Hustle text. Army of Me needed work, but not a total rewrite, for sure.

But I'm going to do it. The series and the fantasy novel were both favorites of my girlfriend, whom I write everything for.

I'm currently replotting the books from memory, determined to make them as good as they were before.

How about you? Have any lost manuscript horror stories?






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