One step forward, one step back...

So I have good news, and I have bad news.  Good news first.  I was currently contracted to be a freelace writer for Examiner.com!  I am the Roanoke, Virginia Working Mom columnist.  You can check out my first article here: Roanoke Working Moms.  I am excited by the prospect of gaining writing credit/experience/practice/exposure.  The aspect that I might make a dab of money doing so is simply icing on the cake.

The bad news is that my computer is unsalvagable in its current state.  I did have the forethought to move my novel to my flashdrive, but that is about it.  I have a computer friend who is willing to wipe my hard drive clean and reinstall my operating system, but unfortunately, I cannot find my recovery disk.  This means I am at a standstill.  My husband did just buy a laptop for himself; however, he doesn't have the word processing program I was using to write the novel.  So, there will be some discussion of where to go from here, and I will update as soon as I can.  I have a little over a month to finish the novel, or at least get a 30 page section ready to apply to the Hindman Workshop.  As soon as I get that done, I need to be either writing a new short story or dusting off an old one for the Tinker Mountain Writer's Workshop.  I'm trying to keep my head up, my thoughts forward-facing, and trying to not get overwhelmed.  We'll see how that goes!