Not long ago I was getting a collection of linked short stories together to format and send out because that’s what you are supposed to do as a writer. One of the first things the recipients will ask is, “Have any of these been published previously and, if so, where where they published?”
Wow. Yes, well, ahem, all the info should be right there. Yes. The publication info for the ones that have seen the light of day _should_ be right there, but where did it go? Lost in bad version control?
I’m afraid that, and the location of my missing sock, may forever be a mystery. Well, not really. It is due, in a sense, to bad version control relating to multiple computers over several decades each with their own slightly incomplete file directory trees. So, over thirty years or so every time something would get published or finished or polished up I’d stash the information in the logical-at-the-time spot.
Yikes!
Solution? I designed a standard directory tree file structure that intrinsically captures dates where that’s important, and sets up flexible prioritized directory areas based on my current working whims. Furthermore, all the redundancy across all my devices and the cloud backup storage, have been merged and deduped.
Of course, one never gets everything perfectly sorted out so I am resolved to correct and organize as I encounter errors and those interesting rabbit holes of past files and memories as I stumble upon them.
Now that I have better bibliographical data, I can now put that data in the proper spot, and also post them when they lead to things online you might be interested in seeing.
That will lead me to the next post. The link to a piece I had in the Gay & Lesbian Review a while back which never really got a post here, and the link never made it to the proper spot in these pages. Guess I get distracted from time to time.