By some miracle all of Dogster's stories from the Asia Forum have found a home. Many of them have pictures, for the first time. Many are dramatically different from the versions in Fodor's. Already quite a few of you have stumbled in, I'm happy to say.

http://thedogster.wordpress.com/

Everything from India in final draft, plus a few oddities from S.E. Asia have settled comfortably but they need your feedback. As the readers are exclusively from Fodor's Asia Board, this seems to be the place to get it. The site doesn't have that capability, really. It's growing every day so let me know what you want and I'll accommodate, if I can.

Yes, this is a thinly veiled attempt to attract attention to our site. As so many of you have encouraged, begged, pleaded and demanded, as so many of you have added wisdom and advice, positive enthusiasm and energy - I think it's as much <i>your</i> site as mine. <i>None</i> of these stories would have been written without you. That's the fact of it. It's all your fault.

So forgive the promotion. Or you can delete it.

Dog, i have read many of your Dogologues, wonderful.
I wonder, would you be able to order them by say, Country??

I had thought of eventually breaking them up into locations - is that what you mean? That would lead me into the groupings I've mentioned in the intro. i.e. Kolkata, Mumbai etc...

Ideally it'd be like sub-topics - but I'm not sure yet how to make the list do that. Maybe Thursday can give me a clue.

That's excatly what i meant.
I have a feeling your website is going to be a BIG hit.....I dip in and out when i need a quick literary fix..

I've spent a bit of time over there, reading a few familiar tales and really enjoying how the photos enhance the stories.

lol, well <i>everything</i> will be familiar to you, Kathie. heh. You are the Fodor's Kumari. All my prose must be passed before the Kumari's eyes before being exposed to the greater public. The photos are very time consuming, as you doubtless know - not because the process is overly complex, but because it means I have to dive into the millions of pics and then make a decision.

That platform doesn't really support Photo-essays. I tried but it's way too time-consuming and kinda clumky.

"Ideally it'd be like sub-topics - but I'm not sure yet how to make the list do that. Maybe Thursday can give me a clue."

Don't know about that - I'm using Wordpress as a blog rather than a collection of essays. You already have multiple "pages" - I don't know that you can subdivide within a page other than by treating it as a blog (i.e. dated entries - which will be newest first - my main complaint about blogs). You could try out some other formats (Dashboard - Appearance - Themes) but I don't think they will change the underlying structure.

But I'm an ex-techie - you could try asking "Support" (under the Account tab) - or get a Twitter account and ask there.

yup, that's what I thought. I'm not using the format the way its intended - but it actually serves my purpoises this way, as long as I don't try and get too creative.

Smeagol can click to Introduction for her listings. There are whole chunks you can read in sequence, actually. Part of me kinda likes the pot-luck of the aphabetic list...

Dogster, I haven't had time yet to delve in the way I want to, but just wanted to weigh in and say that I will, and BRAVO!!!! You have given us all a wonderful gift. Thank you for spending so much time and effort putting the site together. I really like the pot-luck list format -- it is a bit like India itself -- and, I do love the photos -- I appreciate how much work they are, but they really do add something special. Big kisses and hugs to you my friend!

I went over there briefly and was impressed Dog. Looks like a LOT of work. Looking forward to catching up to some things I haven't read, but I need to finish the Ganges story first. I got sidetracked trying to figure out the AskOksana/sena/suna backstory.
Now you can send a link to this collection to all the hot literary agents. Really, you should.

Well, the writing was a lot of work, obviously - but the site was easy as pie. Thursday told me about it.

The stories were already written. I've been beavering away on those behind the scenes for ages so it was just a question of dropping them in to the template. But if it looks good, I'm happy to take all the credit.

It's just a cyber-book. I'd imagine those hot literary agents wouldn't give a toss. lol.

going right now

I've been there, and no doubt will go there again, and again, and again! Your stories are very special. Good for you, dogster. I wish you well!
Carol

Hmmm, your use of pages has got me thinking... I could move all my website stuff over to my blog, and drop the website (especially now my theme will let people sign up for email notification of blog updates). That would save some money. But I don't need another time sink right now!

Au contraire, mon chien. Those agents are looking for good writing. Not that much of it around. You are a craftsman. Maybe even an artist. Most people confuse writing with typing.

Phew, you mean someone notices when I do 30 drafts before I post? I'm reminded of our great mentor in the sky: Hunter S Thompson who, I'm relieved to say, did the same. Amazing how difficult it is to write effortlessly. lol lol lol.

You betcha I noticed. You know what that late American sportswriter said: "Writing is easy. I just wait for the beads of blood to form on my forehead."
I'm not sure that's entirely true about Hunter S., though. His editors had to beat it out of him and he was usually too hopped up to carefully craft things. I'm getting this from Rolling Stone pals, tho, and they were pretty hopped up themselves, so who knows.

Actually, I think it's "drops of blood."

Hi Dogster, I love that you're bringing your stories to the masses. And to think, we knew you when...

Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into you travel reports for us here at Fodors. You'll always be our favorite puppy!

Safe Travels.

lol Thanks Jaya. It's amazing how many there are, eh? I'd imagine there'll be more - rest assured, Fodor's gets them first. I'm wondering Where to go next. Business calls me to London mid-June - and there's a lot of the world bwtween here, there and back again.