Computer Gremlins, Blog Touring, and The Romance Writer

     I loathe being late. For anything. I show up early to dentists' appointments, and if an invitation says to arrive at 8, if I'm not there at 7:50 I tend to get irritable. So being half a day late delivering a blog, to me, is the eptiome of unacceptable.
     I can take some small comfort in being able to legitimately say it was not (entirely) my fault. We take it for granted that we can visit any website or obtain anything we require from the Net and our computers will still grant us instantaneous communication, entertainment, and connectivity. But when one of those allegedly safe sites allows a little visitor into our virtual fiefdom, it can wreak havoc.
     Case in point: The Noble Romance Authors' Blog Tour is in full swing. Just in case you've been hiding under a rock and have somehow NOT heard about it previously, here's the link: http://www.nobleromanceauthorsblogtour.blogspot.com/. I and eight wonderful ladies from Noble are doing an around-the-world tour of each others' blogs, and there are wonderful prizes, free reads, swag, and even Amazon gift certificates and a $100 Eden Fantasys gift card up for grabs!
     And this has what to do with the computer virus I so obscurely alluded to above?
     EVERYTHING!!! (It is, however, worth mentioning that I'm certain none of the stops on the blog tour had ANYTHING to do with the virus. I know where it came from. And I've thanked them appropriately. Jerks.)
     You see, for the last fifteen hours, I have been all but cut off from the online world, and worse, the prizes I had on offer are free reads. The virus that found its way past my computer's fortifications made them all disappear. (Not really: it hid them. Funny. Very f***ing funny.  Remind me to compliment the creator on their cleverness and ingenuity before I wade into them with a spork, should they ever be unlucky enough to find themselves on the same continent as me.) This, naturally, resulted in a very sharp spike in my stress level.
     With the blog tour and the virus, I had also managed to forget, various reminders, post-its, and a tattoo in a place I'd be absolutely certain to notice it notwithstanding, that today's my regular day to be here. <headdesk>
     Luckily, all is well now. I'm gratified to say that despite a slightly rocky start while some last-minute details were ironed out, all is well now and the tour is rolling right along. My computer is now operating to its usual questionable standard, all my files are visible to the naked eye, and I can leap back into the fray.
     All of this proves that Winston, a distant cousin of the late, unlamented Murphy, was absolutely correct when he gave his lesser-known but no less accurate corrollary:
     The likelihood of a complete communications breakdown is in direct inverse proportion to the importance of the information to be relayed. If it doesn't matter or you didn't really MEAN to click the Send button (blushes furiously, raises a hand, and suffers a sudden coughing fit), it'll sail right through. But when you absolutely, positively HAVE to get it out NOW (contracts, edits, blog posts) that's when everything will go to Hell in a handbasket.
     Enough of the soapbox. Come visit us on the tour, have some fun, win some free goodies...and watch where you surf. There's sharks everywhere.
     
     Until next time,

     Best,

     J.S. Wayne

     Writer: (n) A supernatural creature with the ability to alchemically transform caffeine, nicotine, and a dictionary into literature.