Monday, March 13, 2017

A Nice Surprise

I spent a portion of my time Sunday cleaning out my e-mail box. I was trying to find an e-mail I opened and before I could save it, the computer crashed (because of course it did). I tend to keep older e-mails NEW until I no longer need the information from them, and I usually (USUALLY) save them in another folder, for just this case.

Did I do it for this one? Of course I didn’t!

Problem is, AOL (at least my software) is acting wonky. All e-mail software acts wonky in one form or another. I really hate them all, but I hate AOL the least, so that’s why I stick with it. Anyway, I clicked on Incoming/Saved e-mail and was told it had over 90,000 e-mails and would take a while to sort.

Apparently it only wants to sort 50% of the e-mails. What’s up with that?

See—wonky!

So I set out to delete e-mails I don’t need, hoping to finally get to 2017 and find the e-mail I DO need. But then I got distracted.

Don’t we all?

I found a set of e-mails from 2010 from an e-mail address that looked vaguely familiar, and it had to do with critiquing her work. I opened one, but it didn’t display her name. But a character’s name (Isleen) jumped at me. Hmmm… I recently read a book with that character name. Coincidence? I wasn’t sure. So I kept clicking on the e-mails and then I found her name: Abbie.

No, it couldn’t be. But then I saw another character’s name (Xander). They were both from that book. And now her e-mail address looked MORE familiar, so I went to my COFW membership roster (because I’m the treasurer and keep track of that sort of thing) and found the name I know her by now and there, listed beside it, was her other name. Her real name. The name on the e-mail address.

And the funny thing is, I was reading her second book.

I had actually critiqued Abbie Roads’ first book. Well, at least 10 pages of it.

Gosh, I hope I said good things!

Oh, and I still haven’t found that e-mail I wanted. After all that, I wanted to finish reading her book. And I did!

Hubby is getting his port inserted (installed?) today. Don’t know when I’ll get back to my computer. I’ll most likely have to drive him to class tonight (not sure I want him to drive after having anesthesia). Fun, fun, fun!

So… Do you save your e-mails? How far back do yours go? Am I stupid to keep mine? I know a lot of people delete e-mails after reading them. Mine automatically get saved to that Incoming/Saved folder anyway and I just can’t seem to get myself to hit delete on all of it.

Happy Monday!

Stacy

6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's wild you're reading her second book and didn't even remember critiquing her first one.
Personal ones I keep, but I try and delete the other stuff not long after it comes in. (Like Goodreads notifications.) I can usually find what I need by searching name or date. I had to find someone's phone number this weekend and I managed to find it in an email from four years ago and it only took five minutes.
Hope everything goes well today.

JeffO said...

I have far too many e-mails in my inbox, but I do delete all the junk at least. I think my wife just puts everything in the 'archive' folder. When I got myself a gmail account (which I did primarily for writing), I swore I'd keep the inbox clean. Now, I have 767 e-mails piled up (though I've at least read them all). So much for that!

Maria Zannini said...

I save a lot of emails, especially business related ones. I try to store them in sub folders so they're easier for me to find.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Alex - To be fair, the pages I critiqued were for a YA, but she said she had an adult version, too. Glad she went with adult! :)

Jeff - I always SAY I'll keep the inbox clean...then I don't.

Maria - I do my best to put important e-mails into separate folders. In this case I forgot and I think it's gone. When I had computer issues last year and had to add AOL a gazillion times, I forgot to check the box to have everything automatically saved to my Incoming/Saved folder. Explains why it only went back to April 2016! Urgh.

Jennette Marie Powell said...

I delete most emails, but save those I think I'll want to check on later... and I almost never do. So I have stuff in my inbox going back to 2010, when I got my current computer...

Given that she's now published and you're enjoying her books, chances are your critique was helpful to Abbie--which is what's most important!

Stacy McKitrick said...

Jennette - Mine go back to 2009, when I got my first laptop. I figured out how to move my e-mails from the old to the new to the next new.