John
Is it possible that you have had some sort of virus that contamintated the file registery, rather than deleted/removed the files?. Its just a thought - but if that is the case, you should be able to recover using the timed recovery - ie yesterday (or last stable date).
But I did just copy all my files to an external disk - your post prompted me to do that!!

Katy:
Thanks for the tip. But, no, no virus. (I've not yet met a topic-specific virus.)

All are restored now from the CD -- on a different computer.

Back to work.

John, if I uderstand you correctly, someone was actually able to get access to your computer through the internet and delete some of your files. Is that true? I've heard of spybots, but this is too weird. How do they do that? And why would anyone bother to take the time to look around on someone else's computer? Call me naive ...
Maureen

According to one of my editors, the practice of stealing intellectual property is not that uncommon. You have to be pretty computer-savvy to do it, and even then it is hard but she claims it is more common than we might think. It is most often done by computer nerds who want to be writers (or by dilettantes) without ideas of their own and who would kill to get published. As it turns out, the person taking my files has already been identified (he attached one of my chapters to a query -- to an editor who knows me). I can't say more because the matter will go to court.

The only other items I've ever had stolen were several photos of a sharp-shinned hawk with a killed starling. In that case I thought I knew who the culprit was but failed to prove it. (The photos had vanished from one of my photo directories but, fortunately, I had stored them at -- an un-publishable --low resolution, and I had backups on CD.)

I should mention that I upgraded my computer security and no longer keep work files on my computer.

Hmm, the writer who stole your files and submitted them to an editor is either brain-damaged, has no conscience, or is incredibly hard-up. Whoah! I had no idea that was possible. Sounds like you have it covered now, though John.

I am happy that you have discovered the culprit and i hope he gets what's coming to him. Wish I was on the jury.

Can you give us any more information about the disappearance of these files?

One of my paying jobs is network programming, and I find it alarming and, I must say, unusual that anyone could access your computer over the net and remove specific files. I'm especially having trouble reconciling the images of a want-to-be garden writer and a network hacker with the know-how to get onto your system.

Can you tell us what sort of security blip allowed this to happen? About the only scenario I can imagine is that you had exported the directory where you write - to the entire network, and someone stumbled upon them. Even that is quite remote as a possibility, because access to an exported directory might allow copying files, but not deleting them.

Curious ... very curious. I use lots of different schemes to move files around between servers, desktops, and laptops in all the places I work, and I've never had anything "taken" - I always thought that was because I use common-sense security measures, but maybe it was just because no one ever wanted any of my files.

Nan:

I can't for two reasons.

1. I myself am not quite sure what happened since I don't understand computers that well. But the friend who solved the case, told me it was easy to follow the trail to the perpetrator's home computer. (He had just solved another case where the director of an organization got an anonymous email about hanky-panky in the office. He traced that one to a former employee who confessed having sent the email.)

2. The matter is under criminal investigation.

As for "want-to-be garden writer and a network hacker with the know-how to get onto your system" -- it's not just want-to-be garden writers, but also wannabe food, wine, and travel writers who will do anything to get published. I think it's a kind of disease. I also believe it's something that those of us whose work has been published find hard to grasp since getting published seems so easy.

There must be something about being a published writer that drives uncreative minds nuts. At least that's what a psychologist friend told me. But since I know as little about psychos as I know about hackers, I can't really elaborate this further.

The good news is that I have my files back. They're now stored on a computer that will never be connected to the web and, best of all, that little shock got me working -- and the words are flowing.

(My regular computer is now password protected.)