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My day job has been a gong show of late, troubleshooting AFF's woes has remained on my mind. Hoping to start the first phase of unlocking the site this week. So don't be surprised if you get an email asking to re-verify your email and to change your password.

Caught the ass hat hacker in the act….. The ass is a member and targeting the story manager story info update. Restored the db from an earlier clone and have now laid a trap….

While it may seem quiet of the surface, it’s been quite busy behind the scenes for AFF. We’ve been busy doing a security sweep of user accounts. Accounts with invalid or disposable e-mails have been purged. Currently, we are merging the over 5 k users with duplicate (or more) accounts down to a single account per user.

It’s a good day when you get a first look at the cover art for your book, and it’s completely amazing!

So, as I’m sure many have noticed, I’ve been busy trying to work myself to death for the past five years or so. So, in that time, I’ve worked ridiculous hours with very little time off, and often multiple shifts in a day. As a result, I was more than a little unproductive here. I retired the end of March, and spent the first fourish months doing nothing but sleep. Have one final test from my doctor on November 22nd, so should be done with all that shit for a bit as well by then. In the meantime, I am now checking all the email addresses I always did before, as I now have the time. Am easing back into the archive repair, minor hunting, and other things I did as well. Sorry for the absence, but, glad to be back

Wear a mask. That is all...

The wee corgi is home! She’s a little bit stoned on meds, but she’s home, and I’m so glad to have her here!

I have cover art! NineStar Press is republishing my Witch’s Apprentice series, and Ghost’s Sight, the first book, has cover art. I’m really excited, and I can’t wait for the release date!

No prostate cancer for me! So that’s pretty good news to get just before Christmas.

Verification & password reset e-mails are rolling out.

Story Manager is now Live!!!!

Archive repairs & recode are sitting at around 50% done. Archives are next followed by the story manager. If you like what you see so far please donate to the site and if you feel generous say it’s a bribe for me to work faster .

Last night, I was adding "heavy cream" to my grocery list, and the two words my phone suggested after "heavy" were "breasts" and "balls." Phone, you know me far too well.

I wanted to share a real zinger for anyone who needs a laugh today. For this to make sense, you need to know three things: 1, I'm bi with a very supportive straight husband; 2, I'm in the closet IRL because of homophobic loved ones, and 3, I'm "out" online under my pen name. Oh, and 4, my husband Cold is an adorable smartass. I spent some time today working in our big hall closet, up on a stepladder. When I heard Cold come through the front door, I warned him to be careful coming through the hallway because "I'm kinda in the closet." "Kinda?" he retorted. "You're entirely in the closet." I could hear the unspoken bi joke like a cat hearing a can opener. "I'm only in the closet IRL," I reminded him, "online, everyone and their gay stepdog knows I'm bi." Cold poked his head around the door. "Either you're in the closet or you're out of the closet," he teased me. "You can't be both. You're not Schrodinger's bi." And that's how I realized it is entirely possible to laugh yourself right off a ladder, and that, despite getting older, Cold IS still able to catch me before I can fall on my oversized rump. I'm still grinning about this, and it's been over an hour!

Ok, so last time the news was nerve-wracking, but I’m happy to report that things have improved substantially. My little brother is fine (his symptoms never got worse than the mild ones I described last time), and my middle brother’s wife has tested negative several times now, so it seems she was never infected. Still sort of nervous about my aunt, but that’s two out of three COVID-related things that have turned out well so far. With all that in mind, I have some reviews to catch up on. I know Invidia has started reading Mortuus Orbis, and of course JayDee has left reviews of every chapter, and @Sinfulwolf has left three wonderful reviews on the finale of WitS, so over the next few days I’ll endeavor to respond to all of those. As for what’s coming up next, I have at least two things to work on in the near future. Both of them are science fiction stories tied to another work, one that’s not on AFF and I don’t really want to describe here. Suffice it to say I make weird friends for who I am. Then again the first friend I made here was JayDee so maybe not that weird. In the case of the longer one, my co-writer has asked if she could just start writing, so I have to make an effort to keep pace lest I be left behind (as well as work out precisely which of us will be writing what scenes). I know Sparrow may be concerned at the moment, but I don’t quite know what the co-writing process with her will be like, so it may not eat up as much time as one might fear, and after the weekend, I will endeavor to be on Discord more often. I have another idea for a story called Below, but that doesn’t have anybody waiting for it, so it can be placed on hold until other things get done. Bringing it all back to the beginning of this post, thank you to everyone who wished my family well and offered prayers and support. You have no idea how much I appreciated all of that.

Every member of Congress who has been humoring Trump about his election loss for the past 2 months had a hand in what happened today. I have spoken.

Because I think we need wondrous things in our lives, I decided to donate to help purchase JRR Tolkien’s home to help create a Tolkien Centre: https://www.projectnorthmoor.org/ I don’t know if anything will come of it, but I feel like I should do some little thing for all the joy he’s given me for all these years.

Keep yer fingers crossed that we get staffing issues finally settled for where I work. It has been BRUTAL. Sixty hours worked since Saturday. And I’m not done.

I am away for a week and will be without internet… wish me luck! Hopefully, I will get some writing done. I plan to extend and write more of an original story that @CloverReef has helped me with – thank you so much! If all goes well, I may start posting that upon my return. Later!

Keep your fingers crossed for me, looks like I actually get a day off Thursday!

Just going to leave this here:

WARNING: Personal politics ahead... So the petition against Trump making a state visit now has over 1.5m signatures. For context, the UK has a population of about 52m people who are over the age of fourteen. This evening, I was off out protesting in Sheffield. For such short notice there were a lot of people, so many we closed the main road in front of the town all. At one point I was out on the edges, when a woman asked me what it was about, since she had just finished work. I told her; so she joined in. Of all the slogans I heard chanted tonight, “Trump – better out than in!” is probably my favourite. Followed closely by the “Theresa the appeaser!” mentions from the speakers. Also memorable is the moment when a girl stood up in front of the microphone and declared: “I am a muslim woman! And an activist!” to rapturous applause. I’ve got to admit, I have (especially in my younger years) participated in many anti-racist and anti-fascist protests, marches and rallies, but this is the first where I felt protest and civic duty really merged together into one.

Y’all, my husband needs a warning label. I’m sitting here, sucking on a peppermint and minding my business with headphones on—the better to block out his party chat trash-talk—and I hear THIS: “You ain’t had pussy since you came out a pussy.” I don’t know who was laughing louder, the recipient of the burn, Cold, or me, but I very nearly had a Star-Brite lodged in my throat. This guy kills me.

You all redecorated… Hope everyone is doing okay. x

Profiles unlocked (Adding, editing, and recommendation / reading lists.) Reviewing for logged in members should also be unlocked now.

Happy New Year to all my AFF friends and family!

Still hoping to get back and read! There’s a new Thundercloud chapter fer wossnames sakes! If I end up reading the christmas stories same time as halloween so be it, but I’ve either been busy, away walking, or had no internet. Bit of a shitter. Away again after today for a while.

How y’all doing you lovely smutmuffins?

Happy New Year, folks!

It’s been a hell of a year, right? I hope everyone has come through it okay… so far… And, well… I just thought I should warn you all, I’m planning to be around a bit more.

Next year, I really need to create a trick-or-treater bingo card. Items would include at least 3 girls dressed as Elsa at least 5 boys dressed as Batman a whole family in themed costumes a mom wearing a decidedly inappropriate costume while escorting her kids around (This year’s was a slutty cop.)

It was 27 years ago today that the daft bugger and I decided to do that marriage thing. I have a sneaky feeling it’s working out.

It’s so damn nice to be writing again after such a long-assed drought.

My Scrabble app does not recognize “jahoobs” as a word. Those 88 points were rightfully mine.

My cat has been trying to convince my dog to cuddle him for a good two years now but the dog is too scared. So the cat just spent the last few hours using a big farty dog ass as a pillow. That, my friends, is dedication.

For everyone celebrating today, a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, both real life and my extended online family. I’m thankful for a warm home, and food on the table. I’m thankful for so many things today, and grateful, too.

woohoo! Two days off in a row! So far. Keep yer fingers crossed!

Have a great independence day, my unfortunate neighbours South of the border! just close your eyes and imagine you have Idris elba or bernie Sanders or whatever your particular flavor of politics is as president for the day.

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my Neko-baby, Willow Darkling!

So, why do “family friendly” places get so upset when you try to create a family there?

So, NineStar Press has offered me a contract to republish Ghost’s Sight…

From my family to your, the brightest blessings of this holiday season, and all the best in 2017!

So I’ve been away for months now, and it was for what might honestly have been a stupid reason. Last Christmas, I’d wanted to submit a story called Meaningful Gifts, and I didn’t finish it on time. I took two weeks off in January, and actually managed to make a lot of progress on it, but I still didn’t finish. If I’d taken three weeks I probably would have finished it, but that didn’t happen. I was so deeply ashamed of not having anything to contribute that I felt like I couldn’t show my face around here, so I just disappeared. Recently, I’ve realized that maybe not successfully submitting a story, even if it’s a story people are waiting on, isn’t as bad as I thought, so if it’s ok, I think I’ll be coming by here more often. I’ll finish Meaningful Gifts eventually, but hopefully the fact that I didn’t manage it last year isn’t as bad as I feared. In the meantime, I’ll work on reviews for a few other people’s stories and just try to be more active here in general.

I had a mini break alone last week. I had dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant. Everyone around me was eating fancy meals with glasses of wine and champagne that they were clinking together. I had pizza, mousse for dessert and a mug of hot chocolate. I’m a takeaway and fast food joint kind of guy. These are not my people.

Story manager unlocked for posting new stories and chapters. (this is a test run so make sure you have backups of what you post.)

For all our members who use yahoo.com, the initial run of emails triggered Yahoo’s security protocols. Some of the emails were delayed or just not delivered, because Yahoo decided we’re spammers. If you never got the email, please let us know in the Software > Archive Tech Support thread, in the pinned post, READ ME.

Final grade for the fan fiction terminology final assignment is in, and the assignment earned me an 8,5 (out of 10), which resulted in a final grade for the course, of 8. Not too shitty…

Wishing our Foeofthelance a very Happy Birthday, and many more, lad!

Why do all the ideas that sound awesome and inspiring at night sound so ridiculous and boring in the morning? Is it the sun?! Is the sun ruining all my fun? Bite me, sun!

Today’s upgrade went MUCH better!