Well, I took another plunge with regards to adding/updating the content on the website.  After looking at and experimenting with demos for the programs for several years now, I decided to give ProFantasy professional mapping software a go.  14 day money back gurantee, so if it doesn’t do what I need, I’ve got that long to retreat, at least *laugh*

My Danica’s World overland maps were already based off one part of the suite — Fractal Terrains — which I’d downloaded the demo for and saved my world map file.  Once the demo ran out, I was just using screen capture to grab the sections I needed and working from there.

Playing around with updating the maps over the last couple of days, I simply wasn’t happy with the results.  That brought me back to ProFantasy’s page again.  After mulling it over all day, I finally went for it tonight.

I grabbed a bundle including Fractal Terrains ( world generation/editing ), Campaign Cartographer ( Overland Mapping ), City Designer ( City Level, which I’ve never posted, though I did create one of Montbank in simple bmp format for my own reference ), and Dungeon Designer ( Structure interior level )

Going to start out with the new version of Fractal Terrains and see what I can’t do about fixing one thing that’s always bothered me on my world map — the Great Crater.  It’s a major feature of my world, right in the middle of where most of my stories take place, and I was never happy with how it looked on the maps.  The new version is supposed to have specific crater generation.  Handy.  Hope it works well.

From there, I’m going to start with something simple and recreate one of Zoraster’s outposts in Dungeon Designer.  That’s a small structure that will let me learn the basics of the program.  Probably post an image in the forum when I’m finished.

Just a little note about what’s going on behind the scenes.  For now, I’m still downloading and installing everything ( HUGE files ) so I’m writing on Lowborn 07 during the hour long download sessions *laugh*

Getting ever closer to the conclusion of this chapter.  Once I finish it, I’ll get a basic start to Ch. 08 ( the ending ) and then move on to concentrating more on SOTM 18 ( as well as editing 17 for posting )

Then I have the long process of editing Lowborn.  I’ll have to read the whole story several times in order to make sure my continuity and everything is good.  Then, I’ll knuckled down on the nuts-n-bolts editing, chapter by chapter, and start sending them to Roust.  Once a couple of chapters have been completely edited, I’ll start posting the story.

Now, back to writing it 🙂

Coming up to the end of Ch. 07 of Lowborn.  I just took a quick break to do something before going back to it.  Hoping to finish this chapter tonight, so I can get rolling on the final chapter of the story.

What I paused to do was roll out phase II of the new website.  You can find the details on the new Web Updates page, accessed from the widget on the front page.

Let me know if the main page is loading too slowly with the new widget for recent web updates.  I’m going to do some speed tests and optimization all along the way during the course of restoring the website, so any opinions on the loading times are most welcome.

If it’s all good for you — good!

Also starting the editing process on SOTM Ch. 17.  It will probably be a bit yet, but it’s moving toward release.

Now, back to Lowborn.

Almost ready for phase II of the new website rollout.  I have all of my administrative functions working properly, the front page widget is working as it should.

( I also fixed the Latest Releases widget to not display html special characters if one happened to get cut off by the excerpt code.  This was evident when Heart of the Wood was still the latest release )

The page to display the web updates is done and working as expected.

Just need to do a little more testing behind the scenes ( mostly to make sure the correct filtered images are displaying )

I’m considering adding a navigation bar with the front page options, which are the major sections of the website, to the top of every page.  Originally, I was going to only have a back link to save space on the page, using the floating menu for quick navigation, but most people don’t seem to be turning it on.

Not sure whether that’s a function of not realizing it’s there, or whether it’s proving troublesome for y’all.  If you haven’t tried it, go to the forum ( you can use the “Logged in as” link on every page to get here quicker ) and your settings, then the profile tab.  At the bottom, you should see the option to activate the floating menu.  It makes navigation as things are much easier.

Feel free to express opinions as a comment on the blog, or on the forum.

The young one came down sick, so I’m having to check on him every few minutes, but with the bulk of the phase II rollout now behind me, I’m going to try to get some writing done tonight.

Hope to be able to update this post with some progress on Lowborn in a short while.

Well, I got a little more done on Lowborn 07.  The weather seems to be determined to keep me from writing.  Within five minutes of opening Wordperfect, the weather alert box goes off, letting me know that yet another thunderstorm is riding up my ass.

Looking a little better today on that front, so I’ll see what I can do.

I’m nearly done with the remaining static pages for the next phase of website rollout.  Just have to finish my email contact form, and I’ll be ready to roll on to the website updates widget, the page for web updates, and my backend to manage it.

Almost all of this will be cut-n-paste from the Latest Releases feature, so it should go quickly.

Decided to go with my own Q&A spam prevention on all contact forms.  Capcha technology breaks down every so often anyway, and I’m a small, low traffic site.  Hoping it’s enough, but I’ve made it expandable if the necessity arises.

If anybody is annoyed by the Capcha to sign up for the forum/website and that’s discouraging you from signing up, give me a yell.  I haven’t set it to be extra difficult ( thus, easier for spambots to decipher ) but if it’s still a pain in the ass, I can go to the Q&A bot blocking.  Just leave a comment here ( no sign up required, though I have to approve your first comment )

Hmmm… does that use Capcha as well?  Can’t remember *laugh*  It probably does, come to think of it.  That’s kind of counter-productive, isn’t it?

If nothing else, I’ll have my contact form up soon, and you can send me a “please turn off capcha!” message that way.  My Q&A one is easily read by any human.

Been doing a lot of musing.  That idea for a Dark Nude Day story is framing up pretty well.  Also have a really cool idea for the first major ( non stroke ) multi-parter as Les.  Branching out into some Sci-Fi Action with this one.

Naturally, going over scenes for SOTM and Nobles stories as well.

Going to hit my word processor on either SOTM or Lowborn after finishing this post.

As far as the website, I’ve been working on some nuts n’ bolts stuff.  Almost finished the legal sections, and have a working form mailer going.  I’m working on the template for the sitemap ( will have two forms: visual, with screen shots as well as wording for navigation, and a text link sitemap )  Doing some planning for the characters and maps sections for the “My Worlds” as well.

Doing a lot of static page work right now, taking care of all of that before I move onto the next dynamic work, which will be the “website latest updates”  I want to have that in place before beginning to add new content to things such as “My Worlds”

Still optimizing my code and bringing it up to current standards, as well.  Figured out a couple more useful functions in the process of working on the form mailer that I’ll be taking advantage of in “My Work” and the associated backend functions.

I’ve been posting some images and other musings about the website on the forum, so check that out if your interested in more info about website progress.  Most of that is taking place in a thread for content suggestions, which naturally is open for just such suggestions.

Also posted some preview teasers for Lowborn and the next chapter of SOTM on the forum.