Monday 10 June 2024: Playing with covers… (again)

While we were on holiday, I received an email every day from Jetpack telling me that my site was unresponsive. Usually less than an hour later, I had another email telling me it was back up and running again. Jetpack said it was server overload. My host didn’t necessarily agree, but they gave me some pointers anyway, in case I kept on getting the same message.

Last week, I had the message again for 2 days, then Jetpack said it needed updating on my dashboard. I updated it, then Jetpack insisted that it wasn’t connected, even though it was. Eventually, the bot agreed that it was indeed connected and everything, I thought, was hunky dory. I stopped getting the emails and I hadn’t even got around to the tips my host sent me.

Then things went wrong again. First of all I didn’t get my usual email telling me there was a new post on Words Worth Writing. I always get this message, but last time this happened, WordPress.com (that’s how long ago it was) told me I had to subscribe to the blog. So I went to subscribe again… and there it was gone!

I looked into it and found that other Jetpack users were reporting the same thing, and one was advised to deactivate, delete and reinstall the Jetpack plugin. I tried doing that, on Friday, but I still couldn’t find the subscribe button. So I fired off a support ticket.

Please let me know if you are a subscriber and you aren’t getting notifications of new posts. They may have replied by now, but I want you to be aware that I’m aware.

The second thing I noticed after updating Jetpack was that my posts weren’t auto-posting to FB. They stopped posting to profiles a long time ago, and they reduced their total number of monthly posts to 30 about a year ago. So my FB page (not profile) was the only thing on there. Only now it wasn’t. And I couldn’t find that button either.

I fired off another support ticket, only to spot a comment on where it may be. I searched and, Lo!, there it was. So I reactivated the auto-post. I’ll find out today if that’s working or not.

Honestly, it’s a good job I wasn’t snowed under with work as, once again, I had to do someone else’s job for them and fix someone else’s mistake.

The poet was shattered after his mammoth journey back from Ireland the night before, but he had a 10am meeting on Teams. He got up for that, did a bit of work, and pottered about the house a bit before going back to bed. But he couldn’t sleep, so he got up again and getting ready for Friday night’s gig. He was driving the van this time, as the driver/lights man was on the sick.

They had to ask someone else to do the lights, because I didn’t want to do them and I don’t like it when they assume I will. My friends were coming to Friday’s gig, and I like to spend time with them. Obviously, I would have done it if they were stuck. But as I’ve had a go (had a few, in fact), I thought it might be nice if someone else had a go.

While he had his meeting, I stayed in the living room and read a bit more of HERE COMES THE BODY. I’m really enjoying this, and at the same time making mental notes of where the author has put everything. Her story and my story are wildly different. But hers is a good example to measure my own against.

I did last week’s backup and this week’s diary. Then I started to play with book covers again and I finally came up with one I liked for STEVIE BECK AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL (aka THE 5 OF WANDS). I’m still waiting for the actual playing card from my artist (aka the poet), but I came up with a design I like for all of the shorter stories. I’m still working on the longer ones…

This Halloween cosy mystery is supposed to be a novella. But the major arcana stories are supposed to be novellas already, so I might have to make the new short a novelette and add it to the short stories. The four aces will stay the same design – the relevant Tarot card on a background of cards – but these short stories have a slanted Tarot card in vintage colours against a pertinent background for that story.

THE 2 OF WANDS is the short story I wrote for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS last month. I called it THE HORBY BELLS. Now it’s going to be called STEVIE BECK AND THE HORBY BELLS: THE 2 OF WANDS – A SHORT HORVALE MYSTERY. The jury’s out on whether I call it a cosy or not in the title. It’s COSY in British English but COZY in American English and I want it to show up in the right searches.

Anyway, here’s how it’s looking at the moment (this story is already written and waiting to be revised before being sent on its way or published):

Oh, and just for the fun of it, here are the 2 covers I created for the Whitehorse Farm themed novellas:

It isn’t HALLOWEEN AT WHITEHORSE FARM that I’m working on at the moment, I just thought it would be a great addition to the Nettie Campbell stories

The poet had a bit of a practice, running through some of the songs he’s less confident with. Then we had tea (he made chorizo and rice), and then we got ready to go out.