Xavier Edwards's Blog, page 8

Parallel Lives

It’s finally happened! After a lot of soul searching, an inadvertent loss of weeks of work, a last-minute lockout from my hosting server, and a little more soul searching about how to integrate what is old and new, and I’ve finally got my new site design and lay out in place.

It might have taken a couple of months longer than I was expecting, and far longer than I was wanting, but I have a nice new site, and a much simpler set of tools to keep it looking pretty. Not only that, but the website address is far more rational – appearing at the top level of xavieredwards.com, and not some random directory underneath it all.

I haven’t destroyed the old site, as yet, given that there are many websites that are pointing directly to some of my older pages. Gradually I will be redirecting those older links to the new content but, in the meantime, the new and the old will live side by side. This post is actually the first content that is purely being posted on the new site, and will not appear on the older formatted site.

Once I have redirected all the inbound links I will be archiving the site for my own historical benefit and then removing it from the internet completely. If I do it right, there should be no way for anyone to reach any redirected content on the older site, so it isn’t going to make any difference to visitors, other than that they will only get to see the wonderful new site, and not the older one.

I am still to determine whether to use proper permalinks for each blog entry, and book entry, and if I do, what format they will take.

Already my rss feeds for both my books, and my blog should be redirected to my new site layout, so anyone visiting off my feeds will be coming onto the new layout. The same should be the case for the sites which re-host my blog content.

Another benefit to the new layout is that paragraphs are now working properly across my site and the re-hosted sites. There were some issues previously, where paragraph delimiters weren’t appearing in the same manner across different sites, but that should hopefully all be addressed now.

If things end up going well, I will also be looking at enabling comments directly on the site, rather than having to redirect visitors to one of the re-hosted locations if they want to leave comments.

Perhaps, now that the redesign is in place, I can stop procrastinating and get back to writing....

Still Alive

I was wondering what was feeling a little off over the last week and a bit, when I realised that I hadn’t put out any updates or, to be honest, done a lot of work. There wasn’t any one reason why things had gotten that way, but my family and I have been dealing with some rather large adjustments to our lives. Major life-changing events always seem to take more out of you than you first expect.
Where I might have been able to draw inspiration from previous major life events, this particular set are unlikely to ever make it into a story from me, at least not into an erotic story. It isn’t a departure from my normal writing, but more of a recognition that some things are best left unwritten.
I do have one eye on the approaching Christmas and New Year period. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to return to the sort of prolific writing that I did last year. This year has been somewhat forgettable, even though I did get a couple of pretty good titles out the door (and some more forgettable ones).
There are plans to issue another Christmas-related title, and I’m hoping to have it released in advance of Christmas, unlike the late release that happened for my Halloween story.

Still Alive

I was wondering what was feeling a little off over the last week and a bit, when I realised that I hadn’t put out any updates or, to be honest, done a lot of work. There wasn’t any one reason why things had gotten that way, but my family and I have been dealing with some rather large adjustments to our lives. Major life-changing events always seem to take more out of you than you first expect.

Where I might have been able to draw inspiration from previous major life events, this particular set are unlikely to ever make it into a story from me, at least not into an erotic story. It isn’t a departure from my normal writing, but more of a recognition that some things are best left unwritten.

I do have one eye on the approaching Christmas and New Year period. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to return to the sort of prolific writing that I did last year. This year has been somewhat forgettable, even though I did get a couple of pretty good titles out the door (and some more forgettable ones).

There are plans to issue another Christmas-related title, and I’m hoping to have it released in advance of Christmas, unlike the late release that happened for my Halloween story.

An Interesting Week

I haven’t been updating things as often as I have wanted on my blog, but it’s for a fairly good reason. Thanks to the readers who have been begging me for sequels to a couple of my stories, that is exactly what I’ve been able to do -- start in on writing some sequels. With luck, one of them will be for my most popular Christmas story, which should make many, many readers happy.
The other main reason why things have been a bit delayed of late is that I have been busy trying to migrate my site to a different design. While most of the content is in place and is ready to go, it is the blog content which is taking some time to sort out, given that I have to move it all manually. The upshot is that the new design and layout looks really nice, it’s just slow going getting everything in place.
Once the new site is ready, I can turn my attention back to my writing, marketing, and continuing to make my readers happy.

An Interesting Week

I haven’t been updating things as often as I have wanted on my blog, but it’s for a fairly good reason. Thanks to the readers who have been begging me for sequels to a couple of my stories, that is exactly what I’ve been able to do -- start in on writing some sequels. With luck, one of them will be for my most popular Christmas story, which should make many, many readers happy.

The other main reason why things have been a bit delayed of late is that I have been busy trying to migrate my site to a different design. While most of the content is in place and is ready to go, it is the blog content which is taking some time to sort out, given that I have to move it all manually. The upshot is that the new design and layout looks really nice, it’s just slow going getting everything in place.

Once the new site is ready, I can turn my attention back to my writing, marketing, and continuing to make my readers happy.

Night at the Plantation Published

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“Night at The Plantation - A Halloween Story” has been released, just in time for a Halloween street date.

The hottest ticket in town is an invitation to The Plantation for the annual Halloween event. Lauren is lucky enough to be invited, only to find that things aren’t as they seem, and definitely not as she expected.

Her plan to find a man a the party is thrown into disarray when she encounters two brothers, who share a terrible secret between them — the secret of The Plantation itself.

For a story that came out of nowhere, and was looking like it wasn’t going to make the Halloween street date, it has shaped up into a good release.

It was warmly received by both Alpha and Beta readers, and it seems to have hit the spot for people who are looking for something a little special at Halloween. It’s available now, across most stores.

Night at The Plantation Released

“Night at The Plantation - A Halloween Story” has been released, just in time for a Halloween street date.
The hottest ticket in town is an invitation to The Plantation for the annual Halloween event. Lauren is lucky enough to be invited, only to find that things aren’t as they seem, and definitely not as she expected.
Her plan to find a man a the party is thrown into disarray when she encounters two brothers, who share a terrible secret between them — the secret of The Plantation itself.
For a story that came out of nowhere, and was looking like it wasn’t going to make the Halloween street date, it has shaped up into a good release.
It was warmly received by both Alpha and Beta readers, and it seems to have hit the spot for people who are looking for something a little special at Halloween. It’s available now, across most stores.

Night at The Plantation Out Soon

I had the basic idea for what I wanted to write as a Halloween story a couple of months ago and had started working on it where an when I could. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to get it going anywhere and it just stagnated. With Halloween only a few days away I could really feel the pressure (mostly self-imposed) of what I was trying to achieve.
Something unlocked over the weekend, and I managed to write what ended up being 2/3 of the final book in the space of one sitting. “Night at The Plantation - A Halloween Story” will be released on Halloween (perhaps even the day before), and is going through its last couple of quality checks before I prepare it for release.
All of the self-doubt about having lost the touch faded away as the story just flowed from my fingers. I found it going in directions that I didn’t expect, directions that I hadn’t considered, and finding that my muse was still waiting for me.
In the end, all I had to do was to stop trying so hard, and just let the stories flow. The more I placed deadlines and pressure on myself to achieve something, the worse it got.
This is a problem that has plagued my writing this year, as I have struggled against some of the additional workload I took on, and against events that were outside of my control. The books that resulted from that process weren’t my strongest and, when looking at them, I can see which ones were written while I was in a bad place.
My other books released this year, including the experience of both ends of the spectrum with this one, show me that I do still have my muse, and I can be very prolific when the moment strikes me.
Here’s to a happy Halloween for my readers who celebrate it, and to a good PNRe which will be available on Halloween.

Night at the Plantation Out Soon

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I had the basic idea for what I wanted to write as a Halloween story a couple of months ago and had started working on it where an when I could. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to get it going anywhere and it just stagnated. With Halloween only a few days away I could really feel the pressure (mostly self-imposed) of what I was trying to achieve.

Something unlocked over the weekend, and I managed to write what ended up being 2/3 of the final book in the space of one sitting. “Night at The Plantation - A Halloween Story” will be released on Halloween (perhaps even the day before), and is going through its last couple of quality checks before I prepare it for release.

All of the self-doubt about having lost the touch faded away as the story just flowed from my fingers. I found it going in directions that I didn’t expect, directions that I hadn’t considered, and finding that my muse was still waiting for me.

In the end, all I had to do was to stop trying so hard, and just let the stories flow. The more I placed deadlines and pressure on myself to achieve something, the worse it got.

This is a problem that has plagued my writing this year, as I have struggled against some of the additional workload I took on, and against events that were outside of my control. The books that resulted from that process weren’t my strongest and, when looking at them, I can see which ones were written while I was in a bad place.

My other books released this year, including the experience of both ends of the spectrum with this one, show me that I do still have my muse, and I can be very prolific when the moment strikes me.

Here’s to a happy Halloween for my readers who celebrate it, and to a good PNRe which will be available on Halloween.

A Chaotic Week

I’ve spent a lot less time writing over the last few days than I really wanted to. I’ve also spent a lot less time looking after my releases and the interaction with my readers than I really wanted to.
Life continues to get in the way of everything else, and I am beginning to consider strongly whether I should take a short sabbatical from everything, just to let my batteries recharge.
Every time that I push forward with something, there always seems to be something to take my attention away. And, it always seems to be something more important.
This last week a few things were put into perspective when I found myself in the teeth of one of the bush fires that is currently burning in NSW. On Thursday, the day that the fires started, I found myself cut off from the main highway between Sydney and Canberra while trying to get home from Sydney. I was then given directions to try and get around the back of the fire, only to find myself squarely in its path. Backtracking to the closed-off highway, I then found that the only other reliable path back to the highway below the cut-off was also closed. My outlandish consideration of driving back into Sydney and then the long way back via the Blue Mountains and Bathurst was shut down rather quick by the fires at Lithgow and surrounding area.
The photo accompanying this post was taken on the road back to the coast to hunt for a way out of danger. Of note, this road is now closed thanks to this fire, three days after the photo was taken. With the gale force winds pushing the fire at my back, and with no one having a clear idea of just where the fire was at that point, it was causing concern for a lot of people. As luck would have it, the only time that people rang to see how I was doing was when I was mid-escape and in a location where mobile coverage was poor. I know that a few people who were concerned about me were not able to get the news they were after until much later than they should have.
Getting back to the coast gave some good news -- the alternate route to the highway was re-opened, but no one knew how long it would stay open. It also gave bad news -- the entire coastal city I had just driven into was given a bushfire alert, something that really made the situation difficult as it wasn’t really the sort of place to normally received things like that and I was even less willing to spend the night there if I couldn’t get back to Canberra.
There was one other possible route back home, but it was also affected by fire, and no one was saying whether that road was open or closed.
I managed to take the re-opened route, but it became apparent that everyone else was trying the same idea, and I found myself in a 3 km traffic jam, halfway up a set of switchbacks on a very narrow road (technically a highway, but it isn’t really even single lane at this particular pass). With the smoke and uncertainty about how long the pass was going to stay open, being stuck in a jam with nowhere to go and no escape was not the most fun experience.
After a lot of careful driving and navigating by feel, I made it to the highway, and eventually home. In the end, I was only 3-4 hours later than I had conservatively forecast, so it wasn’t too bad an outcome for me. For those who lost lives and property in the ongoing carnage, things are much, much worse, and it’s going to be a rough few days coming up.
Looking at the trouble I’ve had getting to write, it just all seems to be small potatoes. I’ve got a Halloween short, and another novella that I want to have ready by the end of the month (it’s at the editing stage), but I am questioning whether it’s worth pushing too hard at the moment.
Having one of my titles scrubbed from the active list by Amazon, presumably due to the presence of certain words in the title, has also caused some pause for thought about what outcomes are really important. It’s back in the list, but the hassle of sorting it out came at the wrong time.