Infrequently Asked Questions
Are there spoilers?
Spoiler details for all stories are given on the Fiction page. The matter of spoilers in The Gate is tricky. There are none for my own stories. As regards the show there are, unavoidably, numerous small details, but I have tried to keep off anything that will give away specific plot lines, except perforce in the History of the Aurelian Vampires and essays about specific episodes, which you read at your own risk.
What about content warnings?
Content details for all stories are given on the Fiction page. If you have particular things you wish to avoid, please read these carefully. Some of my stories contain explicit violence, sexual situations or other adult matter and may not be suitable for children. To additionally help protect minors and those of a sensitive nature, all the pages on this site are labelled with ICRA. If you wish to avoid being spoilt by the content warnings then all the stories are also listed on the home page without any details or warnings.
I want to give you feedback – may I?
Please don’t. No, really, please don’t. It’s not that I can’t appreciate the sentiment, but unfortunately both good and bad feedback interferes with my ability to write so it is neither requested nor welcomed. The one exception is highly detailed concrit that might enable me to improve my writing.
Can I recommend or discuss one of your stories or essays in a public forum or my blog?
Yes, of course. My stories are as much available to be discussed, condemned or considered as anyone else’s. It is only feedback sent to me personally that I have a problem with.
Can I archive or link to one of your stories or essays?
Linking is always acceptable and there is no need to ask. If you wish to archive a copy of a story please send your request to the archivist, who has agreed to act as my agent in this. Please follow any specific requests from her as if they came from me. Anyone who steals anything will have something very unpleasant done to them. It may involve a parsnip.
Can I nominate one of your stories for an award?
Only if you don’t tell me about it. Awards are in the same category as feedback as far as I’m concerned. If you really can’t stop yourself as regards an award, please send your request to the archivist.
I have discovered a technical problem with the Plot, who do I report it to?
Problems and technical questions can be sent to the webmaster. Please do not use this link for feedback.
This place is far too elaborate – do you really think your writing is God’s gift?
Nope. The Plot is this fancy because I’m a geek who enjoys coding, not because I think the content actually merits it.
The Usual Suspects
A brief note to thank those who over the years have been part of the beta-reading and encouragement team: Avidrosette, Chase, Coquette, Dark Apple, Hannalee, Herself, Indri, Kali Ma, Kate, Malkingrey, Noone, Shapinglight, and last – but under no circumstances whatsoever least – Zafra.
The ornamental ‘P’ on the home page is taken from the back of a Victorian carte-de-visite and was very kindly prepared for the web for me by Nepenthene
Peasant’s Plot
For those who care about such things, the Plot 1.0 ‘Peasant’s First Steps in HTML’ was written by hand in Word or WordPad (whichever I felt like using on the day), with the graphics (loud snorts of laughter) done by mucking around with Paint Shop Pro 3.11. A book called Teach Yourself HTML by Mac Bride and a large glass of gin and tonic were also involved.
The Plot 2.5 ‘Peasant Learns How to do CSS and Frames’ was written by hand but on TextPad with HTML: The Complete Reference by Thomas A. Powell on one side of the desk and an even larger glass of gin and tonic on the other. The gin was Bombay Sapphire this time.
The Plot is currently on about version 16.3 (and rising). It now makes use of PHP, MySQL, .htaccess, XML, RSS, XSLT, XPath and LOG. And you need to be stone cold sober to manage that lot.
Validity
All pages on this site should be valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS 2.1 and comply with The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1. Please contact the webmaster if you find any pages that fail validation or cause you or others any accessibility problems.
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