780th Friday Blog Roundup

Remember many years ago when some of us read Baby Trail as part of the online book club? Sinead Moriarty followed up that IF book with three more, all based on her own, first-hand experience with family building, and all are now available on Kindle. For some reason, they’re not looped in with the paper book’s listing, but you can get the first one for free today.

The offer goes from the 5th to the 9th.

Happy reading!

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Vacances” (Des méandres aux étoiles)
• “Happy for a Friend” (By the Brooke)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Infertile Phoenix sums up life after several difficult events perfectly with these lines: “I’m glad to be where I am. It required me to do a shitload of work though. It demanded a willingness to carry a very deep pain for a very long time. But the load has gotten lighter.” It’s not that things are perfect. It’s not that it all goes away. But the load is lighter. It’s what we hope we find in the future.

Kmina’s Blog has a moving post on 02.20.2020 about a roller coaster of pregnancy and loss. I love this line: “There are flickers of light and hope in the world, but gosh, do they need work to keep alive.” Keeping you in my heart, and glad to hear your voice again, Kmina.

Finally, I also bookmarked By the Brooke’s post, “Happy for a Friend.” I love that it validates all the feelings: the happiness for a friend, the jealousy, the anger. We’re complex people and we have complex feelings. She asks fantastic questions in the post that will get you thinking: “What if everything is a gift? What if I remember that I’m entitled to nothing? What if I accept it as a shocking and delightful surprise that three of my children are alive, instead of expecting it as the standard outcome?”

The roundup to the Roundup: IF fiction for free. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 31 and February 8) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.