After a few days' worth of hacking (well, a couple of hours a day), I've added EPUB support to Fanficauthors.net. 

From wikipedia:
EPUB (electronic publication; also sometimes ePub, EPub, or epub) is a free and open e-book standard, by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Files have the extension .epub. EPUB is designed for reflowable content, meaning that the text display can be optimized for the particular display device. The format is meant to function as a single format that publishers and conversion houses can use in-house, as well as for distribution and sale. It supersedes the Open eBook standard...

In a more open language, it's a way of displaying stories on iPhones, Android, and other mobile devices, including a load of the new ereaders. it isn't, however, supported by Kindle, that uses a proprietary format.

While I've tested it as much as I can, there still may be problems - especially as I don't have a device capable of reading them.  I've tried one of the examples on O'Reily's Bookworm, and run quite a few of the archives through the epubcheck tool.  As such, there is a beta flag next to the download link.  I don't normally like doing this, but being unable to do rigourours testing of anything other than creation and validation, there's not much else I can do.

Irritatingly, the major problem I had was creating the container, as the mimetype file has to be both the first file in the archive, and NOT COMPRESSED.  The zip software I was using was compressing the file, and debugging it was a pain in the rear.  Second problem was the actual xhtml itself.  In order for FFA.net to be as compatible in it's base form as possible, I deliberately use things like the bold tag, rather than a style="" attribute.  The xhtml, of course, required the opposite, so some playing around was required.

Getting close to the end of the bugs that need fixing.

• Added "Print" link back.  Sure, the browser already did the correct thing when you hit print, but dash-it-all if people didn't like that thing
• Added prettier error messages.  Because sometimes, a web page just likes to look good.
• Added favicon, if only to stop the endless request appearing in my logfiles
• Changed the chapter upload procedure so sending stuff live is a lot more obvious
• Rewrote the email notification to actually work this time
• Added "Keep me logged in for a week" button for those that aren't on a browser that saves session cookies...
• Fixed error when authors add completely invalid html that even Tidy doesn't like
• Fixed invalid link to new account creation from review boxes - now people won't get meaningless COPPA warnings
• erm, yeah, and get around to point 4 on the previous post... (to do with the news invalidation etc)

Still to do:

• Work out why using p and b tags together ends up with a strike-through
• Fix the author review emails to have the correct admin link

Update:

A series of events lead me to find that a lot of chapters had FONT tags in them.  These were the cause of the font-resizer/font-changer not working properly in some cases.  So, I started cleaning these files, to find there were more problems with the word cleaner.  Going through all of these meant that I fixed the strike through bug, as well as a load of others.

And as for the author reviews - I just wasn't populating the template with the vars.

As with any new software, there are always some bugs:

1. Word count on updated chapters is massively out
2. Editing stories/chapters updates the posted dates, leading to dates being massively wrong
3. Some people are having problems reading Mature reading stories
4. Cache invalidation for new news posts doesn't work
5. FAQ page doesn't work in IE8
6. Email validation doesn't work when entering manually
7. Some chapters are missing content

These will be addressed as time permits.

Welcome to, what is technically, version 3 of the FFA.net codebase.  Version 2 was never released - although a few of you may have seen it on Kinsfire's personal website.

The main difference for you is the user tools, that should now actually work properly and let you manage your accounts a lot easier.

Another key change is that all usernames are now unique.  If your name has been forcibly changed, you can use the tools, once logged in, to change your name to something a little more user friendly than a number being appended to your existing name.  Note:  The user-rename tool will only be available until the end of January.

All your user data has been transferred across, however, all non-valid accounts (people who haven't received the link) have been wiped out, as has the thousands of spam reviews.  Speaking of which, anonymous reviews are no longer possible,

The main new feature is the ability to see everyone's review history, this has been the main thing that people have asked for.  Clicking a username in a review will take you to the page.

There is also now individual RSS feeds, as well as group RSS feeds, all hidden under the auto discovery item on your modern browser.  And speaking of modern browsers, if you're using IE6, I'm really not interested if the site does or doesn't work.  I know that some people are stuck on it for various legitimate reasons, but as I do this out of my own pocket, I'm simply not willing to invest the time and energy into making it work.

If you do find any bugs, please either use the contact form, or post them on the yahoo group.

While I'm here, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped test, with special thanks going to hga and tgrave, and especially Ralph for their bug finding and reporting skills.  

As always with new code, it's probably going to be a bit of a bumpy ride for the next few weeks, but I'll do what I can to make it as painless as possible.

Technical things you should (maybe) be aware of:

1. All emails now come from @mail.fanficauthors.net - so please add that as a trusted address.  I've added rDNS and SPF records to the dns server.
2. All RSS feeds have changed address - you will need to update your software to get the new updates
3. All RSS feeds are now much more verbose, so you can see what has been updated
4. There is a new /recent/ page, that will show you the latest updates from an author
5. The site is now completely UTF-8 compliant
6. If you have javascript turned off, you will see reduced functionality.  As the only external links on the site are to google (either for stats or jquery hosting) I'd advise white listing the .fanficauthors.net sites.
7. All images have been removed from stories, there is a new gallery feature in the admin for authors to attach stories to.
8. The default time is now set to Europe/London, so the dates on stories may have changed because of it.
9. The font tools are now only available if you are logged in.

I've also taken the opportunity to clean up a few old things.  Some of the more self-indulgent author notes have been truncated, and the Hope epilogue has been removed.  

ETA:

So, bug reports have been coming in - not to many, which is nice.  Fixed items:

1. Logging in displays incorrect error message
2. Site options don't save the font
3. Resize page doesn't work
4. CSS invalid in authorNames
5. FAQ page referred to non-exist content

Well, when I wrote the last post, that was indeed the plan.  What wasn't forseen was that our landlady would sell our current place from under our feet, forcing us to move 2 months early.

With this panic finding a new place to live, we've had to deal with the wonders of British companies (such as NTL - now Virgin) who have conspired to leave me with no broadband for at least two weeks, probably more.  And as I'm going to be off work, I really not be able to access anything.

So hopefully, when I actually get moved, settled, I can get back to doing fun things... like fanfiction.

I've updated Once More (with thanks to Ishtar) with a newer version that should be clearer about some things.

I'm around 95% sure that I will start posting Happily Ever After at the end of Feb/start of March.

After the wonderful fun of being hacked over the weekend, the forum has been changed to something that doesn't run un-sanitised user data through an eval() command.

The import was mostly successful, however there are a few issues (link is on the top of the forum).

The guys over at http://www.thehogshead.net have done the first of several parts of a Podcast review of Hope.

I've just listened to it, and quite enjoyed it. It's pretty in depth, and while you can tell that it's the first one they've done, I thought it was pretty good.

I've also agreed to answer any questions over on their forums - so if you're interested, check it out.

I'd like to welcome Lady Alchymia to the NSNS section of our site...

Today is fanficauthors.net two year birthday. Of course, back then, it was just me and Crys - and there was no code base or anything of the sort.

Since then, we've had 19 thousand registered users, 288 stories, 1590 chapters, and 11,788,908 words written. We've sent out over two million emails and received over 29 thousand reviews and served over 70 million pages.

Not bad for 18 (and one more close to going live) authors.

As Meg pulled out the big guns...

Current List:

Best Man - Harry/Fleur, roughly based on a PottersPlace3 challenge, but done with respect.  Complete and ready for posting. (38 pages)

Once More - Harry/Gabrielle, strange little story that I kinda like.  Not really sure how to describe it.  Complete and ready for posting (33 pages).

Matryoshka Vignettes - Harry/Daphne - 20 intermixed stories, all from differing perspectives.  Complete and ready for posting. (217 pages)

Perfect Slytherins - Tales from the First Year - Harry/Wednesday Addams - Written before Ishtar started posting Family Values, this is a much darker look at the idea of Harry raised by Gomez and Morticia.  Complete and ready for posting. (63 pages)

Happily Ever After - Harry/Gabrielle - Otherwise known as Sleeping Handsome.  A classic Jeconais story.  Full of things that will make you smile, make you cheers, and leave you with a smile on your face.  Complete in 8 parts, just entering beta. (245 pages)

Castles in the Sky - Harry/Gabrielle - a shorter follow up story, continuing directly from HEA.  WIP (15 pages)

Hope 10 - Antwerp (56 pages), Hope 11 - Sydney (45 pages) , Hope 12 - Xanadu (65 pages).  End of Hope.  In beta.

The Greatest Trick - Harry/Lavender -

“So, why do you think I should get a girlfriend?”

“Because,” Hermione said grumpily.  “You’re becoming a handful and I don’t think that I’ll able to handle you on my own anymore.”

Harry smirked.  “Then don’t.”

“You are NOT riding that damn motorbike, Harry Potter.”

“No James this time?  I’m disappointed, Hermione.  Does this mean I can wear you down?”

“Riding a motorcycle is suicidal!  A flying one doubly so.”

“But according to the prophecy, only Voldemort can kill me!”

“I hate you,” Hermione said firmly.  “I’d try reverse psychology on you, but you’d completely miss the point!”  She stood and walked off, “I’m going to get a drink.”

- WIP 88 pages

And that's it...  The other story, a Harry/Fleur GoF was abandoned because it wasn't good enough.

Edited to add:

I've been asked why I've not posted some of the stories that are ready?  The answer is that when I do post stories between "big" chapters (such as Hope) I get a lot of people saying "That's nice, but where's the next part of X?"  So I decided it would be better if I didn't post anything new until the big stories (TMW and Hope) were completed.

Well, while I've been waiting for Hope to be betad, I've been working hard at Happily Ever After.

As most of you probably know, this is a story based on an idea that our own Dorothy (Ishtar) came up with:

How about a Sleeping Beauty situation where it's Harry who's trapped in an enchanted sleep/stasis? (Plot by Voldemort to make sure Harry doesn't win? Revenge by Death Eaters? Plan by Healers to hold him in suspense while they heal some truly dreadful wound? Lots of options.) Then when they wake him up a few years later, he really is Gabby's age. By this time, Ron and Hermione are grown up and want him to do the political things that are expected of the BWL, but all Harry wants to do is sneak off with his sexy Veela girlfriend ... could be room for some fun there. This would probably spin off GoF quite nicely if an author wants to avoid the angsty Harry of OotP - and you could keep Sirius alive, aiding and abetting Harry and Gabrielle against the more "mature" (read: less fun) trio of Remus/Hermione/Ron.

To be honest, I've not followed this exactly, but I think that Dorothy will be very pleased with what I've come up with.

This is the story that I lost the most of during the great Fanfiction loss of September 06.  It was heartbreaking at the time, and it was only because of how much I like this story that I didn't abandon it.

I actually finished it on Monday, but I didn't realise I'd done so, until I reread it this evening, and realised what was bugging me:  The part I was writing was suitable for a sequel - the ebb and flow of the fic demanded that the first part end before the section I was working on.

With a title like Happily Ever After, you can rest assured that this is a fairy tale.  And I've got references to a lot of them in there, from Hansel and Gretal, to Rumplestiltskin, to Little Red Riding, via The Three Little Pigs.  

Some of you might have seen that I've been teasing with my signatures over this, and I figured we could always have one more.

And they all had boobs! - Gabrielle Delacour

I'm always serious when my throat is on fire! - Harry Potter

Professor, Harry's invading France! - Zach Masters

I really hope that house-elves know how to get blood out of a carpet - Gabrielle Delacour

So, what's for breakfast? - Harry Potter's last spoken words in this part

Obviously, with eight chapters, all around 30 pages long, this is going to be take a while to be betad, and will be posted after Hope.  I'm hoping to be able to post once a week for eight weeks.  At least that way, you won't have stupidly long waits between the last few chapters.

After finished This Means War, I've been beavering away working on Hope.

And the good news is: It's finished and in beta.  Parts 10, 11, and 12 will be posted one after the other at weekly intervals, probably on my traditional Thursday night.  No idea when I will start, that will be dependent, as always, on my incredibly talented betas.

I've just uploaded the final version of TMW10a - cleaner and squeakier than the preview version.

Has been abandoned...

I jest ;)

Seriously, as of 6pm (GMT) on the 10th of December, 2006, This Means War 10 has been completed.  Clocking in at 255 pages (not including Mmail signatures) or 71,000 words, this is the longest single chapter I've ever written, and has taken over 2 months to do.

It has close to 200 Mmails, and draws to a close every plot point that the previous chapters had opened.

Of course, some people will not like it - it's not as funny as chapters 1-8, but then, I'm not the same person I was when I was first writing this story, and this needed to be more serious.

I'm thinking of calling the chapter "Dragons, Werewolves and Goblins, Oh My".

I'm going to split it into smaller chunks and post them, because really, this is a completely ridiculous size for a chapter, and it isn't fair to my betas.

The betaing itself is no doubt going to take a while, so don't expect it anytime soon - just know that they will be working as hard as they can to get this story to you, in the pristine state you desire, as soon as is possible.  Before they even get it, I want to take a day or so away from it and reread it to check I've not missed anything.

After this, I've got three short stories (and by short I mean >30 pages) that will start appearing, before I write the final chapter of Hope.

So - I'm not dead ;)

It's been a long time since I've done a rambling update, but its far to muggy to actually do any writing, and enough people have been asking/pestering/prodding/blackmailing/bribing (note: bribing works best) about what is happening.

So, first off, I'll explain something. My harddrive is littered with 10-20 page small fics that I experiment with, some turn into something, others just sit there forgotten (my Garion/C'Nedrea/Xbell nc17, or my Harry/Hogwarts for example). Because of this, I always have a lot laying around that isn't a serious fic to me, that I write when I feel like having fun.

Fics like Hope and TMW are serious fics, I treat them with a lot more respect than the things that I write for myself.

There is also a pattern to my work, that I like to do part of a multi-chapter fic, followed by a stand alone short story.

After being away from writing because of the new/old job, I settled down to write a quick fic before getting back to Hope. I though that a Harry/Lavender fic would be fun, because there is a hell of a challenge in writing a character that no one really likes, keeping her in character, and having a realistic romance. There was also a secondary challenging aspect of not going for me "We're going to end up married" type romances that I normally write.

The problem with it, though, was that at around 50 pages, I realised that the set up was perfect for a Horcrux hunt fic, the like of which (I don't believe) has ever been seen before. It was when I hit 85 pages and had thrown in a few new ideas, and possibly my favourite Harry yet, and I decided I had to put "The Greatest Trick" to one side, simply because it was going to be to big.

That didn't stop me, though, from wanting to write a short story to get things flowing, and I stumbled across a plot bunny Dorothy (Ishtar from ffa.net) was giving away, and it went something like this...

How about a Sleeping Beauty situation where it's Harry who's trapped in an enchanted sleep/stasis? (Plot by Voldemort to make sure Harry doesn't win? Revenge by Death Eaters? Plan by Healers to hold him in suspense while they heal some truly dreadful wound? Lots of options.) Then when they wake him up a few years later, he really is Gabby's age. By this time, Ron and Hermione are grown up and want him to do the political things that are expected of the BWL, but all Harry wants to do is sneak off with his sexy Veela girlfriend ... could be room for some fun there. This would probably spin off GoF quite nicely if an author wants to avoid the angsty Harry of OotP - and you could keep Sirius alive, aiding and abetting Harry and Gabrielle against the more "mature" (read: less fun) trio of Remus/Hermione/Ron.

This really appealed to me, if only for a chance to poke fun at myself and Hope, and to write a story mocking my own fairy tales. So I started writing, thinking I could do it in 30 pages, and move on.

Well, I hit 50,000 words yesterday, and I'm starting to think that it's a little to big to be a oneshot, even for me. And I've ended up with the most complicated female lead I've written, some nice human bits and *shock, horror* OC parents that aren't to perfect for their own good.

I've now abandoned the idea of writing a short story, and I'm going to spend another few sessions (session being when I actually have the time and motivation to write) before I stop and go back to Hope.

Now, I can see the obvious question here, why aren't you posting anything, damn it!

Well, the answer sucks, really. Its down to my limited amount of time. Given the choice between writing, going through stuff and publishing it, working on ffa.net or doing nothing, writing will win every single time. I'd much rather write than do anything else, and as time is at a premium, writing it is.

I'm also afraid to mention TMW here, you can see previous posts that refer to my personal ambivalence to it, but I'll do it anyway.

I had one of my betas stay with me last weekend... well, weekend before, Gardengirl, and we got to talking alot about fanficiton - which was something I really enjoyed. I don't get to actually talk about it with people very often.

She asked me who the spy was in TMW, and for a change, I actually told her, and went through some of the plot, and that kinda re-awakened my interest in writing it. Of course, the problem now is the same thing, lack of time.

I guess that's where we are. I'm writing, in dribs and drabs when I get a few minutes, but not really having the time to do anything else. Sometime soon I'll not feel like writing, and then I'll be able to start trying to get some things betad.

I've done a bit of house cleaning, and put all my abandoned stories in one place - and yes, that include the Great Ferret Hunt - it says abandoned everywhere!

When the forum is back from it's hiatus, I'm going to post all the drabbles here as well.

For some good news, the server handled my update last night with ease, so we're starting to look around for new authors to join us. 

I've been through and collated a load of drabbles, ideas and other such posts that I've done over the past year or so on my Y!Group and put them all in one place.

http://forum.fanficauthors.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=33

You'll find everyting from Bugs Bunny in Hogwarts to a Tomb Raider crossover...  

I've finally finished part 9 of Hope  - it clocks in at 71 pages and 25,000+ words.

We have Quidditch, an official duel, enough tooth-rotting fluff to keep everyone happy - and we find out what happens when Gabby refuses a direct order...

It's now in beta, along with the M!Vignettes, so Hope 9 - London is on the way... in fact, I have something like 225 pages of fanfiction being betad at the moment.

And no - I don't know when they will be ready - my betas have lives as well, and are doing their very best.

Well, if you can see this, the DNS has propogated and you're looking at our new home.  Not much different to our last one (although the paths were annoyingly different) but this represents a split between Phoenixsong and fanficauthors, effectively doubling the capacity with a clear upgrade route if needed.