BronxWench – yes, I was able to get the chapter reposted with edits done in Word. Thank you for your advice. I also restarted after the crash because my computer was running slower than our landlady during office hours. (Read “It was basically just sitting on its butt and getting paid for it.”)
It doesn’t surprise me that the chapter loss was probably related to the crash; I had a feeling it was. The situation happened because I had Spotify open, one of the cats decided he needed Mommy-time right now so hand it up, he plopped his tush right on the keyboard, and somehow he managed to click the touchpad on the obnoxious ad I’d muted. This opened a new tab in the browser, (already open) the tab froze, the other tabs froze and stopped responding, then the browser crashed completely. Chances are there was nothing malicious about the ad or site – my computer’s a ‘12 or ‘14, if I’m remembering correctly, and tends to not tolerate gifs and videos worth a lick, and my antivirus hasn’t made a peep. The page probably just had too many of those new-fangled moving talking pictures on it and ol’ lady Toshiba said “No witchcraft here.”
Geez, JayDee, that stinks! Hate having to rewrite things entirely, and for it to be a long review? That had to be so frustrating! Honestly, I was lucky in this instance–I’m importing these chapters from another site and editing before posting, not typing them directly into the post box. Sure, I lost a lot of corrections, formatting, and scene expansions, but the chapter itself was already backed up. Since this, I’ve been doing edits in Word (like I should have all along, TBH) and posting them after backing them up. If I’d lost the chapter completely, as in without any backups? Yeah, I’d probably be a lot more upset. (like “Where’s my Scotch, I’m about to start cussing a blue streak” upset) As it is, a cup of tea and cuddling the cat was enough.
No, “Woozle” didn’t get in any trouble for sitting on the keyboard – he got a treat. It was my fault for being on the computer instead of spoiling him. I’m a good people-servant.