Thursday, March 01, 2007

Ain't technology grand?

Last evening I received an e-mail from an editor. She was accepting a story and asked if I would e-mail it to her so she wouldn't need to retype it. I happened to be sitting at the computer when her e-mail arrived, so I shot the story back to her within five minutes.

I attended a business luncheon today and, when I stopped at the office* before continuing on to a client's office this afternoon, I found a voice mail asking if I'd sent the story. I sent the story again and then phoned her. Even though neither e-mail had bounced back to me as undeliverable, she had not received them. Neither e-mail was stuck in her spam filter, and neither of us knew why the e-mails failed to reach her or where they had gone. She planned to talk to her company's network gurus to see if they might have a clue what had happened.

I don't know the end of this story. I don't know if her network gurus solved the problem or if she had to retype the story.

What I do know is that problems like these--though less common than they were a few years ago--continue to interfere with my working relationships. We have all come to rely so heavily on e-mail and the Internet that we may think ill of the person at the other end of the wire (editor or writer) for failing to respond or failing to meet a deadline when, in fact, there's a technological glitch interferring with our communication.
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*Sounds more professional than saying, "I stopped at home," doesn't it?

1 comment:

D.A. Davenport said...

Michael, I just discovered your blog and I am enjoying it very much. I am amazed at your volume of work!

I have been seriously writing for about a year now...a dabbler until just recently...and have had 3 stories on the recently deceased Flashing In The Gutters. I just had my first piece accepted for an Anthology to be printed this July in Australia.

I love the short story and flash fiction formats. It forces me to distil my work and insists on absolute clarity at all times.
I'd like to know why you have chosen short stories as your major form of writing.

I am also curious about how you feel about Ezines as a forum for writers. Do you feel that they are as viable a vehicle as print magazines for a writer seeking to have her work read and noticed? Do you have a preference?

Thanks for listening.