Not really Xena or fiction related...
Mood:  irritated
Topic: My boring life
I've been biking after work for almost five months now, but have become increasingly frustrated by the lack of cycling clothes in the stores for larger women. I walk into a store, and find that a "large" or "extra-large" is what used to be a "medium" or "large". I was in my local REI the other day and noticed that depending on the brand, that XL cycling shorts seemed to be somewhere between a 14 and 18.

I want to be healthy, I want to keep pushing, but it's not fun with just three pair of shorts - and one pair is getting pretty old. I keep seeing news stories about how obese Americans are getting, but if we can't buy the proper clothing to DO SOMETHING about it, it's extremely easy to just give up and crawl back on the couch with a bag of chips and a remote control or laptop.

Grrr.

JS Stephens

More of my stories being posted on Xenafiction.net
Mood:  surprised
More of my stuff over at The Athenaeum. They don't lack many more to post - and, surprisingly enough, I'm still in the Top 25 for the week of August 15 - 21, 2005.

Amazing.

JS Stephens

Getting my site ready for the changeover
Mood:  chatty
Topic: My fiction
I'm slowly but surely creating redirect pages that will move you from my old story location to the new home at The Athenaeum. I haven't actually uploaded any of them yet, but when I do, I'll post a note here first.

Also, just due to my persnickety nature, I'll create a special page that has all of the conversion links. It will be something like Story Title, New URL.

Example: First Christmas Alone : http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/js_stephens_first_christmas_alone.hts

JS Stephens

I had no idea
Mood:  surprised
It seems that I've hit the top 25 at The Athenaeum, where my fiction is being transferred. I've never had this type of coverage in the entire eight years I've been posting to the web - frankly, I didn't even know it until another author, dabkey 2005, emailed me today to let me know that I was on the list multiple times. If you want to see this list this week, go to Top 25 List.

Also, be sure you go read dabkey's fabulous tale, And Playing the Role of Herself. This is an absolutely riveting tale of three actresses, and the permutations of their love lives. There are some really interesting plot twists, so don't miss it. Be sure to give feedback to the bard.

Gotta go - it's starting a thunder & lightning show out there.

Peace,
JS Stephens

The winner is...
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: My fiction
The winner in the "who gets to host my fiction" sweepstakes is...(drumroll, please)...Trumpets!

The Athenaeum!

My "author page" is located at JS Stephens' Fiction. The main entry for their site is http://xenafiction.net/. Wicked new graphic, by the way.

So far, they have five of my original stories up. Watch their space for more.

JS Stephens

Stay tuned for details
Mood:  party time!
Topic: My fiction
I'll share the details when I have confirmation, but it looks like my stories will be hosted on another site in the very near future.

JS Stephens

Votes trickling in
Mood:  rushed
Topic: My fiction
Ok, the votes are trickling in and I've been asked to either a) keep my site up or b) to ask some site such as The Atheneaum, The Paradoxical F/F site, or the Academy of the Bards to host my little ramblings versus just letting the stories disappear completely.

Any feedback on actually submitting stories to any of these sites? I'm curious as to others' feedback on how they feel about hosting their fiction somewhere else, which are their favorite hosting sites, etc.

JS Stephens

Actually received feedback!
Mood:  not sure
Topic: My fiction
Interesting - I say I'm taking my site down in a month and I received a little bit of feedback, suggesting that I send my stories to an archive site and/or to keep writing. The possibility of sending to an archive site intrigues me, but writing again? I don't know. Short blurbs to a blog are one thing, that doesn't take long and is a no brainer. Entire stories is different, even short ones take hours or days to write - and I rarely have more than 10 minutes to concentrate before a cat or human is demanding my attention.

So, what's the verdict? Should I ask a hosting site to take my fictional ramblings?

Let me know.

JS Stephens

Planning to shut down the web site
Mood:  hug me
I don't have time to write any more, the muses deserted me, and when I do finally get a creative spark, my gf hollers at me for something. I rarely get feedback, and since I'm too cheap to pay for hosting, I can't tell if the 100 hits a day are real people, search engines, spam spiders, or what.

Therefore, I'm planning to take down my web site, probably the first week of September. I'll keep all of my stories on my computer, and will probably leave a message on the home pages of the parts of my site saying that if you want any stories, you have to email a request.

It was an exciting ride while it lasted.

Pensively,

JS Stephens

World spinning
Mood:  down
All sorts of things happening. Bombings in London. Finding out the daughter of a friend is in deep depression mode. Worrying about co-workers. Wondering if I'll even write again.

Deep blue washes over me. Too damn hot to do outside work. Had to take muscle relaxants for back pain and consequently am sleepy, even after multiple cups of coffee. Feeling like the world is spinning at an angle that I can't quite catch.

No feedback.

No feedback.