It's a bit embarrassing... · 7:20pm May 22nd, 2021
But it turns out that all this time I was wrong about Memorial Day being May 24th. It's actually May 31st. I had it in my head for some reason that Memorial Day can't fall on the last day of May, but I was wrong. And it's a good thing I said something to my coworkers about it on Friday, or I would have stayed home on Monday without thinking and been essentially AWOL. 
Embarrassing, but there you are. 
So now, the question becomes--do I release on May 24th as promised even though that's not the actual holiday I was aiming for? Or do I delay a week to hit the real Memorial Day and hopefully have more content/get a bigger audience?
Having given it due consideration, I believe I will indeed delay. 
Work has picked up big time, as my manager—my day job is a software developer for anyone interested—is pushing us hard to get a major project done by the end of May, and as a result, it's been harder to get writing done.
Case in point, this latest chapter has been coming a lot slower than the ones before it, though I have been able to get 6000 words down on it in the space of the past week. It's still far from done, though, and I really do want to have at least one and preferably two more chapters finished before hitting the publish button, as well as be able to spend some time just cleaning up and editing the chapters by listening to them recited using the site's voice narration function.
Speaking of which, I just found out that the site's voice narration function has undergone a major upgrade sometime in the recent past. Especially on mobile devices, you can now choose the voice it recites with, as well as the speed with which it does so. Have to say, I rather enjoy hearing my Firefly chapters recited back to me in a male British voice over my iPhone when I'm jogging! Nothing like hearing the word Lieutenant pronounced "Lef-tenant", after all...
In any event, the goal of Memorial Day release remains intact, with hopefully eleven chapters loaded and ready by the time it launches--one for the main story, and ten for the side story, with five on the initial release and the rest released at the rate of one per day after. Guess we'll see if what more or less amounts to a griffon/human sex anthology interwoven with a lot of interesting character info sells on the site outside of old Gentlemanverse and Fearthered Heart fans.
But can the narrator call me a fat, useless sack of fucking Yankee-Dankee Doodle shite?
I hear you on time slipping and stretching. The whole last year and change of Covid has done a number on the passage of time for me.
5523257
I will certainly admit that the voice choices really do need a Gordon Ramsay option!
5523286
Heard that. I only started working in the office again after 15 months of working from home two weeks ago. It's rather surreal, especially when I'm close to the only person there. They say we're at 10% capacity. It's more like 2%.
5523335
So what you're saying is, nopony will question it if you take enlarged portions from the coffee machine
5523554
Oh, trust me, I abuse my coffee privileges all to hell!
And they've got a nice machine, too, that can make anything from regular coffees to espressos, French Vanilla, and various mochas/other coffeehouse brews. You can even mix and match coffee types to tweak your caffeine level.
So, I apparently have only a single voice option for the reading voice. How do I get more?
5523612
For my iPhone, at least, you hit the settings button at the far right of the bar that appears when you click Read. You'll get a settings menu with two sliders and a drop-down that contains the voice list, as shown:
lh6.googleusercontent.com/QaDzLEL-H07YqD0PSI8B67lC_iP-INojVHNe8FHHj5QAhE__VE2uutZ5-zDDmCkPiz116-jKY69CHrxw17Aq1PSHB_uDrsFKnC2sqPl0dl2uTcPLu7wQJJ9dUO9nmFg-AR5T-ns6
Strangely, you only seem to get two options when you use a desktop browser. At least, that's all I see for Firefox.
5523656
Yeah, I ended up installing another voice package on Windows, and that opened up one more voice option. Unfortunately, none of the ones available are that good.
As for my Android (I'm not shelling out an extra $300 for an iPhone), I've tried tinkering with the text-to-speech voices, and it's gotten stuck on English (United Kingdom), and it's, again, not that good.
I think I'll just settle for reading the fics again the old-fashioned way.
Awww I was looking forward to the new chapter because I have the week off and could read them.
well next week then.
5524085
Yep, sorry about that.
But it just means more time to write and put the proper level of polish on these things. By this time next week, it'll be live. One week to launch!