Quick blog security things

Just did a few blog security updates. From my end, everything looks and functions properly after the changes. I was getting almost daily brute force attacks, so I did some additional security tightening, even though none of the attempts had managed to get through the measures already in place.

Make sure you remember your password, if you do have a username for the blog for some reason

( No real need for it, just post using your email and you don’t need to sign up. Website login doesn’t carry over to the blog — it’s separate )

Reason being that I’ve locked down login attempts to 1 retry before a fifteen minute lockout. A second lockout results in a 24 hour lockout.

If they want to keep trying what they’ve been up to, they’re going to have to do it very, very, slowly ( and I’ll probably ban their IP after a couple of attempts anyway )

Still struggling to find the energy to write. I’m just in one of those slumps again. There’s not really much I can do about it when one hits other than muse on stories and wait for one to grab hold of me so hard that it jump-starts me.

Hmmm…

The more I muse over restarting “Flesh”, the more I keep running into the same problems as before.

If I go one way, it’s not horror enough. Considering there isn’t a likeable protagonist in the entire cast, having it in horror is pretty much a requirement. If I go another, it’s creepy, and not in a way I think will be received well. If I go another, it’s too much like “Harvest of Blood” and feels like a rehash to me.

I may think about it, but I think I’m going to shelve the idea.

On the other hand — out of the blue — I had the spark of an idea for a new Laresa story set in a Halloween theme.

We’ll see what happens as the idea congeals.

There are a few lines of dialogue that are holding me back on Lowborn. Mind you, they’re critical lines. They’re the revelation of something that starts in chapter one, and deeply woven into the whole story. This little exchange has to be absolutely perfect, or the story simply isn’t going to have the impact it should.

I’m mulling it over, experimenting with a few versions on “paper” and trying to tweak it to where it needs to be.

Bit of sputtering

Fighting some slow motivation. I’m inching along on Lowborn, but not much else getting done. Just been feeling lousy for the last few days. Don’t have a cold or anything, but just weak and generally “Bhah”.

Going to try to get it together, because I’d really like to finish Lowborn, get a decent chunk of SOTM 19 done, and then get the new version of “Flesh” going so I can make it for the Halloween contest at Lit.

And, we’re valid

Well, all of my pages are valid, anyway.

The forum and blog still won’t validate, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to modify distribution files on such a large package to make the fuckers validate. Considering they’re widespread packages, I should imagine they work fine in all browsers and Google ignores the common validation errors anyway.

Screwed up something and had to create a new version of the Latest Releases page, but oh well. Only required changing links in a couple of places.

Also nuked the “Social Connection” and “Latest Releases” blocks from the forum. Screwed one of them up somehow ( I think it may be the 3rd party utility that creates them having issues working in the new version of the base software ) and they were creating a bunch of white space below the forum listings anyway.

With the website finally back up to speed, I can take a breather and try to get back to writing on Lowborn.

I should really get started on that new version of “Flesh” for the Halloween contest, but I’m going to concentrate on Lowborn for a while anyway. If I don’t make Halloween, oh well. I think I may have enough time, though.

Luck with me

Attracted the attention of one of the gurus on the support forum, and I have two different solutions. Both will take care of the problem, but one is more elegant and has long-term benefits, including teaching me a new way to manipulate the base code of the underlying software without actually modifying it — making upgrades simple and painless.

There’s a learning curve, but that’s the way I’m going. It will take more time in the now, but save a lot more in the future.

In addition, I got some writing done on Lowborn last night and this morning. Brought it back up to 1500 words after the backspace, and I’m back to where the final action of the story takes place again. Should encourage me to get back at it this evening after I get home from work.

Had a flash of inspiration that I love as well. It has ties to the first chapter of the story, the title, and even makes a plot point easier to deliver.

Tickled with that, and irritation at the end of the story not working out the way I wanted was what had slowed me down writing, so that most certainly will give me a boost.

Okay, got to get ready for work. I’m in major muse mode, so I’ll be taking advantage of that on the drive and during the first tedious couple of hours of work, where I don’t have much to do physically or mentally. Most of my job is crammed into the middle of the day — fast and furious.