I never really did consider myself a blogger. I prefer to be known as an author, a writer and a reporter. Because if being a blogger means that you write an article or two everyday and receiving feedback for it, then I could have been a blogger since 1999, because I started to write faithfully, devotedly and oh so passionately that year.
I wrote for various websites, submitting my fictional stories, and I get feedbacks for that, and the feedbacks that I get for my stories are way more than I get when I… ‘blog’. Comments came in hundreds per day, and I had troubles replying to each and every one of them. Unlike blogging that’s pretty much Malaysianized, my fictions were international. I had friends from all corners of the world.
And I not only get feedback and comments… I earned loads of brownie points too through my fictions. I had fans who admired me for my creativity, my quirks and my hopelessly romantic stories.
I had loads of fans, whom I upgraded their status into my personal friends begging me to continue writing when I decided to officially go on hiatus in May 2002 so that I could concentrate in pursuing my studies. It was not an easy decision… to go on hiatus because writing has always been a part of me, and it was slowly killing me inside that I could not tell stories anymore.
You see, I actually feel as if I’ll go senile if I didn’t write. It must be the Tun Dr. M syndrome. Can’t keep still and can’t stop being sarcastic…. and can’t stop writing. 😀
I kept in touch with most of these fans turned friends during my hiatus, and I am so proud to say that even though I stopped writing, they did not stop loving me for who I am. They became good friends, though I have yet to meet them in real life.
As of late, I discovered that one of the sites that I wrote for back in 1999-2002 was down indefinitely and there is no sign that the database would be recovered. I didn’t know what to feel. There’s a lot of my exclusive masterpiece being stored in that site that I didn’t backup for soft copies.
Do you know what that means? That means…I lost a lot of my masterpiece dating from 1999-2002. And I can tell you, that is a lot. I was really sad, almost inconsolable, even. I didn’t know to whom I should talk to. How many of you out here would understand how I feel anyway? You folks didn’t know me during the time I was an online author. You folks came to know me as Cleffairy, a blogger, not an author with another pseudonym.You folks… did not know my history, because I re-started my career as an author under another pseudonym.
I didn’t know to whom should I tell that I feel like a huge chunk of my life had disappeared to oblivion with that news… all because of those exclusive works.
And then, something miraculous happened. A friend of 10 years… whom have been following my writing since I started to publish my works online on various site appeared in my gtalk, and told me she kept copies of my work and would forward to me for safekeeping when she heard of the site closure.
She kept soft copies and hard copies. My jaw dropped. I never knew that someone liked my writing to be bothered enough to print it out.
I never considered my old writings worth to be published. They’re immature, and is infested with errors. That is the reason why I didn’t bother to uh… keep soft copies of it before the site was down indefinitely. *sigh* I’m nuts, aren’t I? I don’t miss certain things til they’re gone, and thank God for the little miracle that he showed me.
Cleffairy: Moral of the story: Back up, folks, back up… you’ll never know when your bloody PC will goes berserk on you and you loose years worth of data!
Wow..its really miracles..I wish to know you long before..by the way keep the writing alive..love to read your blog..
Yes, indeed… it’s really a miracle… I thought my works was really down the drain. Thank God for those friends…
wow…good to have such nice friend. At least your hard work not down the drain
Really thank God leh… else, i would go sob sob for a couple of days.
Wow!!! A true-blue writer… Glad you got it all back.
I’m glad too… I didn’t know that I’ll miss it until I found out everything was gone, and I didn’t have copies for my works! 🙁
its good to keep some backups sometimes its a case of Where to keep them that is safe.,
Yea… that’s another thing… dono where to keep…online storage are not so reliable too… 🙁 Btw, welcome to my blog. Your first time here?
U r a born writer, Cleff.. don’t throw away that talent! This is God’s blessed gift for you.. use it for the expansion of the books industry!
*horrified* Not easy to survive in publishing industry.
Since i came to your site in the beginning, i have this feeling that i like what you wrote and continue to like what you will be writing.
Keep it up, who knows one day, just one day, you will be just like another celeb writer,,, ya
LOL… dowan to be celeb… just be rich and enuff money to eat, can liao. LOL.
Great stuff..may b u can store in ur email (when ur fren 4ward to you) as part of back up thingy. Hope u will share ur stories here..:) I helped a fellow blogger once..love his stories…saved his writing. One time he lost all his online stories…have 4warded it back 2 him…:) Amsure he now save it well.
Ya, I stored it in my email and my HD. LOL.. learned my lesson liao. Haizz… human are really strange… they don’t know how to appreciate things until it’s gone. Me included!
Haha really very lucky wor. Even if back up, also have to be smart. Don’t back up in same hard disk drive. 🙂
Yalorr… tsk… if backup in same HD, den the HD kapoot, den die oso! LOL.
wow… cool… would LOVE to read some of your stories… =)
i know you have a book called Royal Masquerade, it’s sounds really interesting, unfortunately i really don’t have the extra $$ to purchase for now =(
Gosh, Yanz, thank you for your support. Unfortunately I dun have an extra copy with me, else I would have reviewed it for me. 😀
ps: Sorry about the price… it’s not up to me to set the list price. 🙁