OMIGOSH!

Never fails. Yesterday I post some comments about my “difficulty communicating with Lantz,” and then THIS happens.

Lantz emailed me yesterday. He attached a copy of the synopsis I’d written for my novel and asked that I rewrite it. Bemused, I opened it. I thought, “What’s the big deal?” I had re-written the synopsis a number of times as I revised the novel over the months (make that “years;” I first “finished” the MS two years ago and have re-written it MANY times since).

My last MAJOR edit and re-write occurred in November of last year. At that point Lantz agreed to represent me and I sent him a laundry list of files at his request. These included a marketing plan, a chapter-by-chapter outline, a curriculum vitae on myself, a new synopsis, answers to a bunch of questions, and more.

Well, I THOUGHT I had sent him all that stuff.

When I looked at the synopsis he sent me yesterday I was horrified. It was a very old, poorly written version that didn’t even reflect the current (final) version of the MS!

He had emailed me previously that he had been sending out my synopsis to publishers to look at.

ARRRRGH!!

I scanned through my files looking for the newest synopsis. I couldn’t find it.

Now, I’m a pack rat. I save everything. I even have file folders on my hard drive to contain “archive” files that I may want to look at some day. You know—early versions of chapters, outlines, ideas, that sort of thing. I even have a second hard drive on my PC that I use to back up files in case the “C” drive crashes.

I KNOW I re-wrote that synopsis! Where is it?

I searched through my “Sent Emails” file and called up the one with all the attached files I had sent to Lantz last November. I KNEW I’d included a synopsis. It wasn’t there!

I gave up and wrote a new one. Yes, I have filed it in TWO places with a back-up. With abject apologies I sent him the new, much improved version.

How much damage was done by some (?) publishers seeing that old monstrosity? I’ll never know.

Maybe that’ll teach me not to complain about Lantz’s communications. I seem to live in a glass house, so I’d better put down the stones.