The “Shorts” section got back on track a little today.

First, I finished the first draft of “Devan: First Taste”.

Second, I finished coding the story comment section for the short stories.  It now properly stores the comments, alerts me via email that a comment has been made, queues it for approval, deletes it if I decide not to keep it, approves it to appear on the page and updates to display the count/comment in the appropriate place.

What’s left to do before launch of the Shorts section:

Have “Devan: First Touch” edited by Roust.

Give “Devan: First Taste” some time to simmer, do my first pass edit, and send it off to Roust for editing.

Finish coding two background utilities that let me manage the listing order of the shorts on the main page and edit existing shorts listings.

Finish the covers for First Touch and First Taste.

( Maybe ) Get “Devan: Deflowered” written, edited, and the cover finished.

The “Maybe” is because I may decide to launch with just the first two stories, if I finish all the coding beforehand.

Once the coding is done, all I have to do is write the story, save it in the proper format, add it to the database via my handy-dandy background utilities, and it will display immediately.

New exclusive shorts could appear at any time — and possibly frequently.  Even when my brain is mush, I may be able to write a hot little encounter between characters you already know.  It will be something that can keep me feeling productive, and spark creativity when I’m feeling blah.

All the routines I need for list order I’ve already figured out and coded for the utility that lets me manage the same thing for series listings on “My Work”.    Ditto for editing existing listings, which I use in multiple places within the background utilities.  So, no breaking new ground there.  It’s just modifying existing code.

I might just be able to get this launched while I’m on vacation this week 🙂