Before I introduce today's release, there's two things I want to talk about:

The first, I've already raised some concerns about in the forums... but it seems that many of our regular readers are not visiting the forums these days. Hopefully, you ARE at least checking the front page news when I post. In the past week or two, we have had a number of comment posts on things that shouldn't be in the comments posts at all and are unacceptable interactions with the authors. 

Neither authors or any editors who support our authors are being paid for their work here and we admittedly don't always spend the time and effort on proofing things that we would as a professional publishing house. That means that miss-spellings, miss-translations, incorrect words and even grammar mistakes occur along side typos and formatting glitches. We generally do a pretty good job of minimizing these... to the extent that I would match our work against most independently published ebooks... and even a lot of published materials. But yes, we do make mistakes. Ideally... if it doesn't disrupt your ability to read the book, it shouldn't be an issue; right? You don't write a typo note to Baen Books every time you find something wrong, do you? Why then, should it seem appropriate to do it here where you aren't even paying for the stories you read?

If you are trying to be 'helpful'... I'll remind you that every author can be PM'd. And the first thing that you should say when you PM an author about a typo is to ASK them if they want a couple typo notes on a story? Because it is entirely up to the author whether they get fixed once the story is posted. Mostly, I don't bother unless the mistake is going to cause problems later (confusing a plot point, or so on). This is because I have to choose how to use the time I have available... and I'd rather acknowledge that I rushed a piece out the door to make sure we got new content to you, and continue to work on more new content... than spend time tweaking something that has already been released so that it is 'perfect'.

The WORST thing you can do is start demanding in comments or feedback forums that the author needs to fix something. This is horribly inappropriate and changes the tone for all comments and posts around it. It's the kind of entitlement that starts authors down a conversation about being unappreciated... which can end in the author going somewhere that readers can't/don't treat authors that way. 

                                            

The other thing to discuss is that I set up the comments on the stories to give people a quick and convenient way to thank the authors. They are NOT designed to support conversation and discussions about the stories. If you want to discuss characters and/or plot points with other readers, please take it to the forums. Monitoring, moderating, and maintaining the comment system is more involved than keeping the forums running, requires specific action from me daily, and is not stored efficiently (meaning the comments take up more storage space than similar length comments would take up in the forums). So please... remember, the comments on the stories themselves are meant for quick responses... mostly targeted as a thank you or other praise to the authors. If you want to talk more about the stories, log in and join the discussion in the forums. Don't feel that logging in takes away from any anonymity you might have as an internet visitor. You're welcome to use a 'throw away' email account, as long as that account will not bounce an admin mail if one is sent to you because of a login problem or something... and there is no requirement to use your real name or even a recognized nickname. 

                                            

And finally... to this week's content release: back from a bit of writer's block, Bek has been throwing stuff in my inbox left and right for the past couple weeks. For those of you who forget what that means, 'when last we saw them' our drow were in New York looking for crown jewels for a certain island Princess. Jadis and Vamp, along with a few others, were around as well. Spark some memories? It's time for Part 3 of "Diamonds Are a Vamp's Best Friend" and it can be found in the Original Timeline stories.

 

 

 

 

Many Americans are celebrating Independence today, with fireworks and all the outdoor fun. Hopefully, everyone will do so safely and still have all their fingers intact when they come back to read stories this week.

After a bit of a gap, and having only Gen 2 stories for you for several weeks in a row, we're shifting back over to the original timeline, E.E. Nalley has put together a little something called "The Boys of Summer" that he would like to share with you.

 

 

  

Now, I know a majority of our WU community won't find this nearly as exciting or interesting as I do... but tomorrow evening, at the same time as our regular Monday evening content release; a much more rare event will be happening. See... tomorrow, June 20th at 14:36 Pacific is the Summer Solstice... the point at which the sun reaches its most Northern position in our sky (for those of us in the northern hemisphere). It's the Midsummer Night referenced by Shakespeare. And this year, for the first time in 70 years... it will also happen in conjunction with a full moon, which rises at 17:00 Pacific... the same time we release our new content. Tune in a little early and join us in watching the moonrise for this Solstice, hug a pagan, and then read your Whateley story for the week:

 

 

  

  

And once you're finished celebrating the Solstice and Full Moon with us, there's some wonderful new G2 content to read: Astrodragon's "Blood Sisters" Part 2. Enjoy and have a joyous Midsummer Night!

  

 

With the extra time I have available to me during the summer, unless something unexpected comes up, you should anticipate various little changes and clean up things on the site. While I cannot promise to be able to make specific changes (the site has to serve the community as a whole, not just a few that one or another thing bothers), this is the time to ask about specific alterations. Of course, if I'm NOT busy working on the site; it is highly likely that I will get a bunch of writing done... so weigh your decision on asking for site changes with your interest in seeing one or more of my storylines advance. ;)

Speaking of storylines... we're going to release the next part of the core storyline from the Gen 2 team tonight. Story 1-3, Part 2 -> "I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore" from Nagrij and Elrod. We think this one is going to shake things up and give you the first glimpse into the 'real' Whateley Universe in the Gen 2 timeline.

 

 

Summer is traditionally a slower time on the Crystal Hall web site, as people spend more time outdoors and with family. And, historically, this has included author activity... resulting in weeks or even months in which there is no new content available. I think it is safe to say that this will not be one of those Summers. Even going by just what I 'know' is in the works, we should have enough material to get through the Summer without missing a release. And there is always stuff being worked on that I don't know about... in fact, some of these Gen 2 authors have been really quiet down in the dungeon... err, the lounge. They've been quiet down in the lounge... too quiet. I suppose we should send someone down there to find out what they are working on. 

I hope that, as we continue to release things in the Summer that you'll make time to stop by and say hello. 

For this week, we have the conclusion of Nagrij's backstory/origin piece for Lapin, "Down the Rabbit Hole". You can find Part 3 of this story in the appropriate section: the 2nd Generation stories.