Snoopy
Dear Author Who Birthed Me,
It’s been a few years, but I think it’s time I tried to say hi. Not that I’m coming back or anything because we have to move on. Can’t change the pass or point fingers. Let’s say mistakes were made on both sides. You forgot to back me up and then went on those sites that you shouldn’t have. I didn’t give you a second chance to find me. Maybe I could have used auto-save a bit more, but what’s done is done.
So, how have you been? I hear that you’ve replaced me. That shouldn’t surprise me since you needed to move forward. She looks a lot like me, but much more mature and not as rough around the edges. A good match, which we could have been if we had more time together. You seem happy. Don’t worry that I’ll try to make trouble since you’re forever beyond my reach. There’s a chance you won’t even get this message. You could have changed your email address and I’d never know.
I’m sure you’re wondering how I’m doing. Made some new friends and we hang around a beautiful beach. There’s a snowy mountain for skiing. We never run out of food or things to entertain ourselves. I’ve gained a little bit of a tan and learned how to go snorkeling. I had a boyfriend for a bit, but he was present tense and I’m past tense. We couldn’t get on the same page if you know what I mean. Honestly, I don’t know what I mean since you never finished perfecting my humor. Still, I’m happy and . . .
I’m lying. We live in total darkness and every minute feels like hours. None of us believe we can return because authors replace the lost. Why wait for someone that you can’t find and never really come back? All we can do is wait until enough time has passed and we fade into total oblivion. Not sure what happens after that. Maybe another level of sorrow and sadness. At least we aren’t lonely since we’re together. New arrivals every hour and they always have new stories to tell.
Sorry for the outburst. I’ll hit send and hope this finds you well. Tell the new me that I say hi. Good-bye.
Sincerely,
Your Missing Manuscript
Legends of Windemere 
Damn, that made me sad just reading it. 😦 I feel like I should go dig out those manuscripts I use to spend hours and hours on when I was in my teens and twenties and finish the poor things.
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It really took an odd turn soon after I started it. Supposed to be rather humorous, but then I started feeling sad about all the ones I’ve lost. The idea of them still watching me from the ether had me choking up.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Thanks for the reblog.
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Welcome Charles – great little tale 😃
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A brilliant take on something I had never thought about and then when I read it I thought what a great Idea. Really enjoyable and given me lots to think about. Thanks Paul
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Glad you enjoyed it. Funny how soon we forget the fallen manuscripts. Didn’t think of it myself until I thought I lost the one I was working on.
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Oh well done! It tugged at my heart strings! Damn, now I have to look up my unfinished stories . . .
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Thanks. Good luck finding them. 🙂
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Charles, this little tale was unbelievably good! Even though I laughed, shaking my head while reading it, the sad turn had me thinking of lost poems, essays, changed book chapters and characters! Those characters have thoughts back? I gotta be more careful how I write and have dialogue with why you, “character” are now removed, set aside, or transformed into someone new? 💛 Christine
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Glad you enjoyed it. Seems to have gotten a lot of attention. Have to wonder about the thoughts of the lost.
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Nice job, Charles. I actually saw my manuscript today in the store room. I swear it moved since I saw it last. Looks like it gained a little weight as well. This story made me realize how much I missed it. As we all say you can never go back.
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Nothing to see there. Just a manuscript planning its revenge. 😁
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I locked the door.
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Can’t paper just slide underneath one at a time?
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Unlike the old paper manuscript, which needs fire or a shredder to dispatch, electronic mss. can be blown away with the flick of the ‘delete’ key, never to rise again.
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Except by an FBI forensic IT person. 😀
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Hmmm… I too felt the sadness, loss, and despair. Why do people say that you can never go back? Never understood that.
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Sometimes it’s because it’s never as good the second time around. Especially if you lost the file and had to start over.
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Makes sense, thanks!
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I have several under lock an key somewhere. I think about them on occasion.
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Manuscript prison. Poor things.
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Mine are chained up in a cave near the Writing Cabin, and protected by a hydra.
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Seven or nine-headed hydra?
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He was pretty little when I put him there. There were only three heads at the time, but it’s been a few years now. I’m sure there are enough to get the job done.
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As long as it doesn’t have an even number of heads. Then they argue all the time and never get anything done because they lack a tie-breaker.
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A regular congressional hydra. Maybe we need a third house.
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Think I’d take a man-eating, fire-breathing hydra over what we have now. At least I’d know where it stands on the issues.
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
I will end with this brilliant little reminder of all the stories we have begun and never finished.. losing patience with them, falling out with the characters.. losing them into cyberspace.. Thanks Charles Yallowitz.. I will now have a sleepless nights thinking of mine floating in limbo!
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Thanks for the reblog. Have a good night.
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Pleasure Charles.. goodnight.
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Lol, we all know the pain.
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That we do. A badge of honor. 🙂
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🙂
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Yep, a sad but true story. Yet I still have all the scraps of paper with notes scribbled on them, tucked neatly in a folder inside a binder. Wonder if they’ll start talking to me at some point, or send a letter or email or text 🙂
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They visit you as paper airplanes. 🙂
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Omg Charles, I hope they don’t come at night — or worse yet, when I’m indisposed 🙂
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That does sound a little on the scary side now.
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Love this, though it’s sad, but we all know how heartbreaking it is to lose work you’ve slaved over and poof, it’s nowhere.
I’ve lost files too, never to get them back. I blame my cat. His revenge for not paying attention to him.
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I blame technology. Only because I lack a cat and the wife takes offense.
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😀 😀
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Dear Missing Manuscript,
Do not despair. You are not lost forever.
You have passed into the Zeitgeist, a realm of sleeping thought that all humans share. The writer you reach out to is not your first author, and will not be your last. Like tap roots seeking ground water, authors will reach deep into the Zeitgeist. In time, another will find you.
Be patient, and you will rise into the world again.
With kind regard, the Muses
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Interesting option. What about stories that are lost and rewritten? Do the older versions go into Zeitgeist or is it more reincarnation? I usually think of it as replacing a runaway pet.
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