Things....

Sunset on the road

As many of you hanging around FM have seen, we're going to a new chat system. It's not something I really wanted to do, but it's what we really don't have a choice. Margaret Fisk has done a wonderful job of working with the one that is 'the choice.' We are 99% certain this is the one we'll be going to.

Some people are going to have problems with the new chat. We're testing it out right now and seeing what accommodations we can make for different people with problems. The great thing is that this chat has different skins, and you'll have a better chance of finding something that works for you for the 'look' but there is only so much that can be done with the actual set up.

The chat will likely not work at all for some people. The same was true of the one we have now, and the one before that, and the one before that. No system will work for everyone. We're going to try to do what adjustments we can to get it working for the most people, but we all have to face the fact that at some point it just will not work. It's unfortunate, but it's also the reality of the internet with the myriad computers, OS systems, connections, programs, security systems, etc.

We'll just continue to do the best we can and see what we end up with. My hope is that eventually everyone will be able to get in and will find the best set up for their computer.

Oh, and for those who are waiting for the changes at FM that I said were going to happen, I put them aside when I found out about the chat. Not that I've had to do a lot of work for it -- Mar has done virtually everything -- but that I knew there would be some problems with a change of this size, and I didn't want to add FM board changes in at the same time. So that will be happening either in October or in December. (We all know that nothing but NaNo happens in November, right?)

In other news…

Two of my publishers have started 'stores' through Lulu.com, which means some of my work will have print copies probably by the end of the year. I am oddly looking forward to this. As I've said before, Lulu does not nice work on the printing side. I just don't recommend that anyone self-publish if they have a chance of getting a 'real' publisher to look at their work. But these books of mine have gone through copy editors, and while they may not be perfect, they've at least had a chance at improvement. (grin) I'll be curious to see how this goes, though.

Russ will be leaving in the morning for the East Coast. He'll be gone for a week. We're pretty much all set to survive here. I'm probably going to spend some time in the other house cataloguing books while he's gone. This will be about the best time to get that place done since I won't be disturbing him as he works.

I have 'things' to get done tonight. Lots of things. So, off I go… probably to mess around some more!