Here’s one thing you never want to do: lose a flash drive with tons of information on it, some of which you foolishly did not back up. Here’s another thing you don’t want to do: lose a flash drive with a copy of your novel on it. I managed to do both. This one flash drive I had contained too much of my life’s work—class notes, assignments, activities, poetry, and, of course, my novel. That’s not to say I didn’t have other copies of my novel stored away, but because it is still forthcoming (edits being made as we speak), I didn’t want a copy of it  “floating out there,”…