Finally!

Well after something on the order of 2 years The Guide, and the blogs are working correctly again.

Apparently something in the WordPress core files had corrupted in a way that wasn’t triggering any error messages, just basically making it utterly ignore various aspects of the .htaccess file where the blogs.dir was concerned. It’s embarrassing, really, how easy it was to fix. I mean, it was a sudden spark of inspiration to replace the WP core … and one so bloody obvious that I ought to have tried it a lot earlier.

C’est la vie. It’s working again. Yay!

Jake’s Last Mission • Available for pre-order!

Jake's Last MissionThe entire future of Sweytian/Mugdaran relations rests on one man’s shoulders.

That one man, Jake Kavaliro, would really like nothing more than to retire.  Unfortunately, while on his last patrol he encounters a Mugdaran determined to restart a war that ended decades before.  Now Jake – who’s never been known for his skill at diplomacy – has to go and explain what transpired to the Mugdaran Emperor in person, an emperor who’s only had the position for a very short time and who is already being pressured by others to restart that long ago war.

Available now for pre-order on Smashwords!  For you iBookstore fans it’ll be open for pre-order there very soon as well.

18 April 2014 we learn if Jake manages not to start the 3rd Sweytzian/Mugdarran war.

Nominations time for Indie Author Land

So they’re pretty cool folks and if you are interested, it might be worthwhile to jump over there and nominate your favourite indie author(s).

None of my stuff qualifies right now, but Crown of Eldrete (Kavalior Cousins book 1) by Shannon Haddock does!

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The 50 Self-Published Novels Worth Reading (2013/14)

Nominations Now Open!!!

We need your help in putting together a list of some of the best self-published books from the past year. Read something great? Nominate it. Written something great? Urge a fan to nominate it.

The interest our list has already generated has been phenomenal; in the three days since we opened up nominations it has already become our most popular post ever. That’s great for our ego, but more importantly, it means that whichever books make the list will get the exposure they deserve.

The Rules

1. The book must be self-published or published by a small, “indie-minded” house.
2. The book must have been published on or after 1 January, 2013.
3. The book must be available for purchase, in paperback or ebook format, from a large store – Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
4. Only nominations received on or before 21 April, 2014 will be considered.

Haven’t read a self-published book yet? Here are some we think might be worth your consideration.

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Fully back in business!

The site is back up, running, and possibly a little better than ever.

For those who might be searching for a solution to a MU WordPress self-hosted losing all the images in the media library, except not — you know, all there on the server, editable, etc?  Well look no further than your rewrite rules in your .htaccess file.  Seriously, that’s all it was, but WordPress doesn’t put this line in by itself, you have to do it.  Go figure.

RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]

Here is where I found the solution.

Thank the gods that’s over.  Pre-orders for Shannon’s next book are open.  I’ll put links as soon as I’ve finished getting them all ready.  Book should be out the Friday before Easter (20 April for those who don’t know).

Site has half-nuked itself

For reasons as yet unknown the site has utterly lost its mind.

It is being rebuilt or repaired as soon as I can figure out just what in all Hells is going on.

Most links should work, but many files/images seem to be under the impression they don’t exist.

This is definitely not a host issue — the files are all there unharmed.  This is not, I believe, a server configuration issue as everything attempts to resolve as expected.  I’m just starting to think I should very seriously shop around for WordPress alternatives as, clearly, this thing is not half so well written as it once was (other issues, luckily most of them invisible to readers, have been cropping up randomly now for several months).

Happy Holidays!

Okay, so we missed Hanukkah, but it was around Thanksgiving, and a sale lasting from then until New Year seemed overkill.

That said, for Solstice, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year and anything else that might fall between 20 December and 1 January (for example, I’m fair sure there’s an Islamic holiday or two, but I can’t spell them – no, not even well enough to look them up) all our titles are on a steep sale.

How steep?  99¢ for Stolen Time and, Crown of Eldrete.  Free for Once a Hero…  

Limitations?  Well, there’s no way to apply it (not a practical one, anyway) to the print editions, and Nook & Kindle don’t allow us to set the price to free.  Nook … OAH will be unchanged and there’s nothing for it.  Amazon will eventually figure out (nearly) everyone else has OAH free and cut the price for us.  Grumpy about it?  Yeah, so are we, please direct complaints to Barnes & Noble and Amazon, though, as we don’t get a say in how that works.

Now in more stores!

Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon.

Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All current universal titles, and likely all future ones, will now be available to virtually all online and in-store retailers as well as libraries.

Now, this isn’t to say that we will be on any store or library shelves (excepting virtual); only that we can be.

For those who already own the book, this doesn’t really mean anything to you.

For those who prefer not to buy from Amazon for various reasons — the best of which is wanting to support your local Mom & Pop bookstore — you now have that choice.  Links to other bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Powell’s Books, and The Book Depository will be added for all the applicable titles as soon as we notice they’ve come available there.

Happy Samhain!

For Halloween, Samhain, whatever you want to call it all Universal Nexus titles are free!

31 Oct – 4 Nov.

This applies only to the ebooks, and only to retailers that allow it.

Amazon allows free books, but only if they elect to make them free (or are exclusively on Amazon and you have limited number of promo days).  So the books might go free there — eventually, when Amazon decides to price match the other retailers, and will end when they decide to end it.

Nook doesn’t allow books to be set to free, so it’s out altogether — sorry, take it up with Barnes & Noble.

Announcing the release of The Crown of Eldrete: Kavaliro Cousins, Book 1

The_Crown_of_Eldrete_Cover_for_KindleThe Kavaliros have been legendary warriors and guardian faeshir — warrior priests — for centuries. Three generations ago, one branch of the family went into hiding after the legendary Kalem Kavaliro sacrificed himself. His descendant — a member of that famous band of freedom fighters, Darrien’s Daggers, and the young guardian faeshir that is the only descendant of his sister met while both were fighting to free Marohn from Neo-Imperialists. Quickly, they discovered that the Neos weren’t working alone. No worries though, Darrien has a plan to retake the temple at least.

Then they discover the temple is missing several of its most important treasures.

Trying to recover them, especially the Crown of Eldrete — the symbol of Marohni unity, the distant cousins must deal with shady traders, martial artists, giant insects, and more, all the while one dealing with guilt from failing to protect her temple and fear for her fiancée on a fallen world and the other struggling to not disappoint her father by giving in to her impulsive and reckless nature.

Available now from these retailers:

Print edition us$6.99
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eBook editions us$2.50
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Coming soon to:
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Stupid bloody hackers

Well, site’s back up — obviously.

Long story short there’s some idiot group of punk hackers targeting various sites, among them WordPress powered ones.  We were recently hit.

My host did all they could, and my security settings held up in terms of protecting the site from damage, but it could do nothing about the overload it put on the server.

Since then trying to visit the site has given all manner of idiotic PHP errors.  No idea why, but I’ve tweaked a few files in a way that compensates for it (I’d say ‘fixes’ but I didn’t really — I shouldn’t have had to make the changes I did so it’s ‘compensate’).

In any event, my applause for MacHighway, they did what they could and did it without the slightest fuss, all ready and responsive and lots of other superlatives that tech supports ought to be but all too often aren’t.  Seriously, need hosting?  I can’t recommend these guys enough.

Theoretically, the site should do a better job of staying up now.  But until the hackers pulling these idiot pranks finally get caught or bored I wouldn’t hold my breath.  Also — if you frequent any WP sites, assume they’re a target or an eventual one too.