Finished the new blog logo and did some initial reskinning.  This may not be the final form, but it does mesh up with the site a lot better now.

Looked around and found the reskinning tool for the forums.  Remarkably easy utilizing the color-picker add-on for Firefox to eyedrop colors off the main site and paste into the forum.  Whip up a quick logo, and the general scheme of the main site carries over into the forums and blog now 😀

Off to write.

EDIT: Just heard back from Roust.  He’s in one of those sections of the country that’s been getting pounded by tornadoes, so the weather is adding to the problem of his main system being in the shop, leaving him stuck on a laptop.

Naturally, his own writing and comfort are paramount to me, so I’m not pressuring him to get the edit done.  As soon as it’s done, I’ll put it in the queue the following Monday.

About to get back to writing, but I took a break to plug in the final few lines of code for something.  I can officially update one of my custom databases now.  A screenie of the backend’s main display ( which is the only way anyone but me will ever see it )

NSFW due to very tiny image with nudity

Latest Releases Screenshot

I’m not making my backend conform to the style of the rest of the site, simply because it’s easier that way.  I’m the only one who will ever see it, anyway.  ( As I mentioned before, I’ll be reskinning this blog and the forum to mesh up with the site better before I launch the new features/contents )

With that out of the way, I need to write the update functions for the Latest Release list.  That should be enough to get me back up to speed on numerous little coding things ( because it requires sorting, doing two different updates of the database, etc ) and make all future backend features move much more quickly.

That, in turn, will take up less of my writing time, while helping me get rid of the irritation I’m constantly dealing with about the website being so static and empty right now.  I’ll be able to code new backend features, get content added, and jump right back to my word processor 🙂

Once the Add function is complete, I’ll write the widget to display it on the main page ( only the mini cover, title, and date ) which will link to a full Last 10 Releases page.  That will be a full new feature and all related functions ready to go.

Back to Lowborn.  I’ve been brainstorming it all day, and I think I’m still plenty awake enough to write.  May pop back in and update this entry with a progress report, if I get far enough to warrant it.

EDIT a little later:  Lowborn 07 is up to about the halfway point — at least the halfway point of the average chapter in the story.  Would be more, but I read back through the last chapter to get back up to speed and did a little imagery enhancement to the end of the chapter, as well as doing the same for what I’d already written on 07.

Finally got a child theme for the blog created ( in order to continue updating my themes properly ) and updated my blog theme.  Got all my custom buttons to work correctly, but the new version of the theme uses a much smaller logo image, so I’ve got to create a new one *grumble*

At least I’ll be able to update and start reskinning it now.

Got that email off to Roust.  I’m sure he’ll get back to me tomorrow with an update on his situation.

I’ve had code running through my head for the last two days.  I’m just too obsessed with getting at least one backend function working properly as a foundation for building the rest of them eventually.

So, I’ve managed to write the initial part of it, displaying the information from a custom database.  I had to really dig into the software code to find the new way it handles things, in order to take advantage of the many layers of built-in security.  Pretty much every function I used in the older version of the software has been changed :p

The good news is that I’m getting the hang of it.  After a couple of victories tonight, I think I have enough of it out of my system to concentrate on writing stories for a while before crashing for the night.  I can fetch data from the database, and fetch it conditionally.  Next, I’ll have to get the functions to update down.  Once I have a grasp of that, there’s little I won’t be able to do, utilizing the code I’ve already written as a foundation.  I should be able to write my backend functions with a minimum of fuss.

Okay, enough about that.  I’m going to email Roust for a status update tomorrow.  Hoping he can get the editing on SOTM 16 done this weekend so I can get it in the queue Monday.  Not going to push him if he’s still on an unfamiliar machine, though.  But, every so often, when things get a little crazy, he forgets that he has a file.  Reminding him might be all it takes to get the edit finished and ready to go *laugh*

I’m going to try to write a little bit, and with all that PHP no longer bouncing around in my head, I might be able to brainstorm plot and characters tomorrow at work, instead of functions and variables.

Only managed about 300 more words on Lowborn between the weather and the young one.  I’ll shoot for more tomorrow.

I’m at least writing every day ( and avoiding the temptation to code :p ) and that’s far better than I was doing for a while.

Now, to see if this update to WP will go through without crashing *laugh*  After that, it’s off to bed with me.

Managed to squeak out another 500 words on Lowborn.  About to get to an important little scene that’s going to figure strongly into the ending, and I’m tired as hell, so I’m going to take a break.  Would have probably written more, but storms forced me to shut down for a while.  Not risking my computer in all that lightning.

At an important ( if not quite so much as the one in Lowborn ) scene in SOTM 18 as well, so I don’t want to work on that while I’m not at my best either.

As promised, I avoided the temptation to code tonight. *laugh*  I did sketch out the database table for my “latest releases” so when I’m ready, I’ll have that on hand and ready to create it.  Then, it’s a matter of figuring out how to call templates under the new system so I can get the beginning of my back-end functions.  There’s examples for pretty much everything else in the new content system, but not for that.  I’ll have to dig around a bit.

The slow part is going to be getting back on the coding horse, and learning the basic ins and outs of the new system.  By the time I finish with my first back-end + widget, I should be up to speed enough to crank out some content at a much quicker page.

One thing I like about the new system is that I can restrict damn near anything — on any page on the site — by the forum user groups or settings selected in the profile.  That will give me the opportunity to do all sorts of things with ease that would be difficult otherwise.

Okay, I’m going to write a little smut in my third pen name, and then hit the sack.  Maybe the weather will cooperate to let me write more tomorrow.