Site was down again from around 10:00 PM PST / 1:00 AM EST (I forgot to check it until a couple of minutes afterwards) and the outage lasted until 19 minutes past the hour. 

Thanks to Priscellie for the info about site backup.  Hopefully this can be fixed, or at least shortened, in time.  But it's obviously understandable that at least some key personnel are distracted by more important things for the immediate future.  Good luck to all who will have to deal with the hurricane. 

It appears that the site was down for a bit over 15 minutes starting from 10:00 PM PST/1:00 AM EST (it wouldn't do anything for me and there were no posts by anyone during that time).

I've got random slowdowns too.  Never too bad, but there are times when it takes a second or two to load three pages and at other times it can take a minute or more for the same task.  I always use the same computer with Safari.

Hi Bastard!  I believe that we've spoken very briefly on sffworld, where I go by AmethystOrator.  I hope that you enjoy it here.

I finally got around to reading the first 12 books (and Aftermath) in late June/early July, and while this is only my 2nd Urban Fantasy series (after Mike Carey's Felix Castor), I definitely enjoyed it as a whole. 

I had some problems with GS too, and it wound up being my least favorite of the installments so far.  For me, past the opening sequence, I thought the Big Bad and the fight against her was the most underwhelming in the series.  I did not like the way that some of Harry's associates and allies were acting in the book, which was part of the point, but knowing the why of something doesn't always equate to an increase in my visceral reaction to it.  I, personally, was also very much looking forward to seeing the WC's reaction to Harry's having killed the Red Court, and everyone's differing reactions to Harry being alive again.  Those were the big moments with which I had built up my expectations for the book.  And so, I couldn't help but feel somewhat "brought down". 

I didn't hate the book and the last of those hopes wasn't promised, just something that I had wanted to see, so I know that I can't in fairness be too aggrieved.  And I am pleased that we found out answers to a few of the questions that I was wondering about and at least checked in on a good number of people and places, but all of the factors from the previous paragraph helped to make this, for me, less than I had hoped for.  Still, I am optimistic for the future.  I feel that I will see at least some of what I am hoping for in CD, and I know that I will see more of the Fae (especially Winter), and as I am a big fan of books in which the Fae play a large part, then I feel secure that Cold Days will be more to my liking.

Ghost Story is also clearly a new stage setter, a bridge novel, to what one can consider the second act of the series. As such, it felt like the second book of a trilogy, and those always seem to be the toughest to write and are often the weakest of the books.

This is especially insightful, as, in recent interviews, Jim has actually said that Changes, Ghost Story & Cold Days are a trilogy within the series.  I don't have a link to the specific interview, but I'm sure that it's somewhere over in the WoJ (Word of Jim) section of the Board. 

Most speculation around here seems to be that some people will know (obviously DemonReach, Mab, Uriel).  Some might suspect, like Butters who he actually spoke with briefly about the possibility.  And some may well have no idea, like Murphy. 

Jim could have everyone find out between books, but there should be all sorts of very interesting reactions (like the White Council who probably have made him somewhat hero-ish for wiping out the Reds & Kincaid who probably never fails a job) and Mab probably wants to remain quiet for awhile as she and Harry recuperate from all that they've been through.

Since I joined, the "Show unread posts since last visit" feature has been working fine, and I've found it very useful.  But today when I came onto the site (for the first time in more than a day) it initially seemed to work normally and it showed 4 pages of unread topics.  But when I clicked on pages 2, 3 and 4 it refreshed the first page and eliminated all that had been there before.  Using the "Show previous page" feature I was able to return to the previous list, but at no point was I able to access pages 2-4. 

I can look up the posts from the last day or so the long way, but I did want to bring this up in case it was happening to others or became a recurring problem. 

Thanks for reading.   

I bet that if we try hard enough we can find a way to misuse them