The Underland

As a few of you might know, I’m getting married on the 22nd of September. After that, I’ll be in the Dominican Republic for a week. And between now and the wedding date, there is a lot of stress in my life – most of which stems from trying to get all my work deadlines met before I go away.

The upshot of all this is that The Underland is taking three weeks off and will return on October 2nd, 2006.

Hello, Dear Readers! In the unending struggle to increase traffic (which has been significantly lower this week than it has in the last two weeks), I have submitted The Underland to Blogsrater.

Please take the time to click the pink and grey button in the sidebar to head over to Blogsrater and rate this blook! Do your part in our 100 page-views by October campaign! (Anybody who can suggest a catchier name for the campaign gets extra Bentbrook Bucks to spend in their imagination!)

Cheerio!

P.S. Also, click the iPing button. I’m not a hundred percent positive what it does, but I’m told it’s a good thing … I promise you won’t explode the world or anything.

Yesterday, on August 24th, 2006, The Underland exceeded a record-breaking 52 visits. (The previous record was set on its second day, with 49 visits, but most of those were automatic crawling programs from Google and the like.)

Not only did the site break its record, it broke the half-century, and within 10 days of its inception, too. Certainly a reason to celebrate, in my view. So break out the soda and chips, dust off the pianoforte and sing a song! Or, you know, you could just tell your friends to read The Underland. And you could subscribe to the e-mail updates.

My personal goal for the site is to break 100 visits in a day by the end of September. I’d also like to be averaging 50 visits per day by then as well. (The current average is just over 20.) So shout from the rooftops!

Another bit of news: To help new readers get up to speed with the story, I’ve added a link in the sidebar that takes you directly to the first chapter. Also, links will appear at the bottom of each chapter that lead to the previous, first, and next chapter in the blook. This way, a new reader will never have to muddle through the archives. Clever, no?

I just learned about the Lulu Blooker Prize. A Literary award specifically for blooks (the Prize defines a blook as a printed and bound book derived from Web content, especially a blog). Once The Underland is finished, I will most likely publish it in printed form at Lulu (maybe some of you will even want to buy it!) and then submit it to the Blooker. The final printed version will be different from the on-line version (although I might make the original on-line version available in printed form if there is a high enough demand from you readers). The final printed version will be revised and edited and any continuity hiccups will be corrected.

Ooh, here’s a neat idea: I could collect the news posts and selected reader comments as appendices.

Hi folks, it’s great to see so much feedback! I’m thrilled that you’re all enjoying the story so far. Another chapter is due out today, so keep an eye out.

Also, just to let you know, I’ve added a subscription service. Just peek over at the left menu, under pages, and you’ll see one that says “Subscribe”. Click there, and follow the simple instructions to receive e-mail notification of when a new chapter or post comes along.

Cheers!

Welcome to The Underland, a fantasy blook that will take you on a journey to a world where magic is real and adventures are commonplace. I, the author, hope you enjoy this novel and that you will tell your friends and neighbours about it. Happy reading!