ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

You are here: Home / Blog / Admin / Technical Difficulties

Technical Difficulties

Admin, Blog POST A COMMENT by

We are experiencing technical difficulties – the email notifications from the site are not sending, which is making it hard to moderate. So today will be a testing day. The website may look strange as we disable and reenable things.

Please feel free to leave fun comments on this post. It will help us determine when the emails start working again.

Update: Two hours later we have a work around. Fingers crossed it holds.

NEVER MISS A BOOK RELEASE

Join 30,000 Subscribers

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO
PUBLISHING NEWS

New book releases, give-aways, and appearances.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO
BLOG UPDATES

Free fiction, snippets, and funny stories.

Read our Privacy Policy.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Hope you get the gremlins out. I was going to put my message time in, but obviously the messages have a time tag.

    You are the best!
    Not sure you deserve the demands of the BDH, but you deserve our love, admiration, and respect.

  6. Loving the Roman serial but was intrigued by the Innkeeper snippet that was shared some weeks ago. I am one of the group that states – ” I like this but what about more Innkeeper stories” LOL. I like everything you share and am looking forward to when your writer in training daughter feels her work is polished enough to let it out into the big wide world. Have a wonderful day

  7. I like my jewelry today. That’s fun for me. It also means I got up early enough and on the right side of the bed to care to put any of my jewelry on. Go me!
    Traffic was minimal today for my commute and I’m halfway through a relisten if Safire Flames. Also fun.
    If weather holds I plan on going for a walk after work. 🙂

    • Emily, Glad your day is going well and really glad I am not the only one who “re-listens” to favorite books. I decided I liked audiobooks only after discovering the Graphic Audio Dramatized Adaptions. Now my afternoon break includes tea, cookies, a few hours crocheting all while listening to the Kate Daniel Series — Bliss.

      Moderator R – Good luck with the troubleshooting — Computer gremlins are the worst.

  8. well so far your open prompt is going better than Elmo asking how everyone is doing, so good for the Horde!

    happy Monday, y’all. Ilona, I hope the words are unsticking.

  11. It’s Monday. Not only a Monday, but a day where some people are off and others are working (like me). Maybe the computers decided to take the day off.

    Now if it was Tuesday, I would have to say “Tuesdays are like Mondays only weirder.” 😀

    Hopefully the weirdness dissipates, and everything gets back on track. 🙂

    Mod R, love the new avatar! When I saw it, I thought, “I hope Roman sees it”.

    • 😀 Thank you!

      Actually, the technical difficulties started on Friday, so the computer gremlins have had a long weekend already!

      • Maybe they’re following the US public school system schedule, or at least the one of the school district I went to…. they would have the Friday before Presidents’ Day as a teacher work day, so we would get a 4-day weekend 😀

        • When I was a wee one back in the 1970’s, we had two long weekends in February – Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday. Then someone decided to make it a four day weekend followed eventually by a three day weekend for President’s day 😥. Aahhh, childhood memories 🙃

  15. To make this fun any suggestions for increasing one’s fiber consumption naturally and I don’t mean yarn?

    • Try Bush’s Large Best butter beans. Dextrin powder is a gluten free powder that I stir into my coffee. It sells as a generic or as Benifiber. Oatmeal with a tablespoon of oat bran added. Remember to start slowly so your system can get used to the change in your diet. Do NOT try all the suggestions at once.

      • I use the dextrin powder in drinks (even water) as it does not change the flavor or the texture of the drinkables.

        • +1. I’ve been taking two spoonfuls in the morning (tea or juice) for years.

          Also, baked oatmeal. Not hard to make (put it together the night before, then bake in the morning), and nom nom nom.

    • do you know chufa or tigernut flakes ?
      they contain a lot of fibre, are glutenfree, taste nutty and you could use them for almost everything.

    • Chia seeds in the morning and prunes at night. My mixed IBS has gone from frequent episodes to maybe one a year. My last colonoscopy the doctor commented the tissue was dark, but very healthy.

  16. I like your butterfly picture. Happy President’s Day! Looking forward to anything you post! I started a pink salt colored lap robe to get rid of my big skein of pound of love acrylic yarn. I’m hoping I don’t run out before it’s done. If I do, then I will use white to finish it. I have gotten used to crocheting with softer more expensive yarn. I will persevere and donate it to Goodwill or somewhere when it is done.

  20. If you’re in trouble, please say “I believe Louisiana is the Pelican state.” Upon receipt of that specific code phrase, I will spring into action.

  21. I was looking up what was the beef stroganoff on the internet, because it was on the menu at my work this week. The preview of Wikipedia said something along ‘traditional Russian recipe (supposedly) invented by the French chef André Dupont’
    I was like ‘??? Isn’t it contradictory ?’
    But then, if you continue to read, you learn that he worked in Russia😄

    • I have such a strong aversion to beef stroganoff… I just don’t know you plate it and have it look appetizing. Childhood memories I guess!! 😂

  22. Are we sure Fulton is not coming to haunt us? Just saying he is not kind… this would make him happy.
    Hoping your tech finds the root cause. Hugs.

  24. Hi Mod R,
    Sorry to bother you but I just went to earliest blog posts to try and find the How to write a book post, in which Ilona does a very good job a telling, in the most funny way possible how writing typically goes. I want to send it to a porfesor of mine as we are discussing something similar in class today, but I wasn´t able to find it. I was wondering if you could help me?
    Thank you so much!!!!
    C

  31. So are you testing when the site notifies you of a post? (I learn so much behind the scenes items here.) Just an FYI, I didn’t receive my Friday post email until Saturday. That means I didn’t get my Roman fix until Saturday. 😞 I had checked the blog earlier in the day on Friday, but it hadn’t been posted yet and then life got busy…

    • The newsletter goes out to over 40 000 people, so unfortunately it gets staggered and can take up to 24 hours to get all the server permissions. It’s not ideal, but it’s normal 🙂

      Today’s technical difficulties were about Ilona and I getting emails every time someone makes a comment, so we can moderate and answer questions. They suddenly stopped on Friday, mid-Sanctuary comment section! Checking periodically works, but nowhere near as prompt.

      • Speaking of notifications, I saw on Facebook someone said Gordon let slip who Arabella ends up with. Will you bring the rest of us up to speed???

        • No need for the 3 question marks hehe, it was not a “confirmation”, because nothing is set in stone until a book is written. During the Ruby Fever spoiler Q&A, which can be found here https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/ruby-fever-spoilerific-qa/ , Gordon said that his vote (so, not a decision) would be for Arabella to travel to Russia and be with Mihail.
          “Because she would love it. When we talked about this, she wants to travel, she wants to be a princess. She wants to be adored. And she had that line where she’s convinced she can charm old people- she’ll just go and charm everybody at that Court, all of the aunts and uncles and grandparents and they’ll all love her.”

          • It would be interesting to see how they both grow up, because right now I think they are too much alike to be a good couple. I’ve always thought that the best couples balance or complement each other, not amplify the same strengths and weaknesses.

            But they have time to become something entirely different than who they are now.

    • I always get the email for the Friday post on Saturday … but generally check the website and see the post on Friday …. which just means I get to read it twice …. once on Friday on the webpage and again on Saturday when I get the email.

  32. I love your books! You guys are great writers! I READ everything you put out! BIG FAN!
    Denee Heeter

  33. I use blogtrottr.com as a backup for when y’all update the site after the daily newsletter triggers. I use the free version, so there is an hour delay, but still helpful as a backup to let me know Roman has posted. 😀

  34. I hope this means more test posts on the blog! I need more things to occupy my time as I sit around trying to potty train my son 🥲

      • 😂 I love it!
        we just outright bribed ours with stickers for every successful try. Turns out the kid is completely externally motivated 🙈

      • We used beads and or M&M’s. 1 for trying. 1 for #1, 1 for #2. He also decided to get it one weekend. The first day at daycare, sans diaper, I got a call because he wouldn’t go and was very upset that the teachers were making him try. (He didn’t have to go.) Turns out the teachers had small bladders and couldn’t believe the 2.5 yo could go that long without peeing when he was drinking water all morning. I explained that we drove 3.5 hours that weekend without needing to stop and got an “OH” with big eyes.

  35. I’m in Arizona watching baseball in the sun-63’! At home it’s 41’,gray & rainy. I’ve even done some reading in the sun. 😊🌞📚

  36. Fun fact comment for testing: I’m making a cozy videogame about being a gardener for a sorceress.

    Good luck on getting the technical kinks sorted out.

    • That sounds like so much fun! Hope you will make it possible to grow lettuce 😀 (that’s a Rapunzel reference, which is the first thing I thought of when I read “sorceress garden”)

  38. Hey! Unrelated note, apologies for the randomness! Was rereading Ruby Fever, and couldn’t find the Baylor family compound map in the blog posts, Can we please have the shortcut or how to find it again? Am a visual map person and would love to reference!

  40. Printing – Pencil
    Cursive – Pencil, then Pen
    1956 Smith Corona portable Typewriter
    Electric Typewriter
    AES Word Processor
    DOS – 286, 386, 486
    Windows and E’mail
    Apple and Texting

    Each next one was supposed to make communication easier.

    Yeah, sure.

    Good Luck

    • The Smith-Corona manual typewriter didn’t make communication easier at all. It also wasn’t easy to move around whether you had the case or not. That sucker was heavy!

      • Yup. But it survived even unto today. And on the way, it spewed out many, many projects and theses and other stuff for three university students. So I still give it a little Pat and say thank you.

        • Wow that yours survived to the present time. My mom got rid of hers as fast as she could after using it for her bachelor’s degree.

  41. Okay, here’s an off-the-wall comment for you. Hope all the tech glitches resolve soon.

    To: House Andrews
    Subject: Unlicensed Use of Mustela Furo

    Dear Sir & Madam,
    It has come to our attention that House Andrews is employing unlicensed ferrets who engage in criminal activities. According to Section 10:8.5 of the Criminal Associates doctrine, “all four-footed mammals used in the commission of a felonious act must be licensed and pay an annual fee prior to such usage. Failure to do so will result in significant fines and penalties.”

    Please note that the crime(s) per se are not an issue. Thievery is an art, especially if sanctioned by the government. We just want to collect the fees because our Coffee Fund is running low.

    Sincerely,
    Artemis Hollingale
    Master Licenser

    • I’ve been swimming through the technical issues all morning. I saw this and my first thought was, “What fresh hell is this? Is this about AI imaging again?”

      • Oh no, sorry! No Fresh Hell intended.

        I really, really hate tech issues because, well, yeah. We’re typesetting books and what we see on one ebook site is not what we get on another. There is not enough whisky to handle this nonsense.

  42. I just re-read Magic Claims and I am SO CURIOUS what became of Ruth Chatfield. My maiden name is Chatfield and this is the only time I’ve ever seen it featured in a book. Gotta check up on my kinsman! She was a little skeptical of the claiming, but I hope she kept an open mind in the end.

  45. testing, testing

    I sent an email to Mod R regarding the true story of Idaho Fish and Game parachuting beavers into new territory. Who said government employees were unimaginative?

  46. Don’t know if today is going to be a fun riot or a disaster.

    Took 4 yo to daycare and they were closed. I’d forgotten that it’s Presidents Day so I get to keep the little boy at home.

    Right now he’s practicing poses he saw on a body building program but I expect a demand for ice cream at any moment. Or hot dogs.

    • Both of those sound really good. I’m going to go practice body building poses in front of my husband and see if the ice cream thing works on him. Thanks for the tip!

  47. No one:
    Me: I need more capes in my life! (frantically looking at nyfw photos for ideas and plotting on my vision board, sartorial madness enthuses)

  50. The kittens are napping. I am sipping a rich broth. Mom is enjoying her hot chocolate. All that is missing is Mod R and her plotting.

  54. Quick Joke: How many Narcissists does it take to change a light bulb?
    Answer: None, they prefer gaslighting.
    Hope everything works out.

  55. Get Kate to take a few deep breaths. Then you should be up and running within a few minutes. Assuming the tech holds, of course.

  57. My fresh hell is: tornado.

    There is a 5% chance of a tornado just south of Sacramento California, this afternoon.

    I am beginning to despise the term “atmospheric river”.

    Yes, yes, I am a native Californian and our mantra is “well, we need the water”.

    Having experienced a hurricane, once, about 12 years ago on the east coast, I simply have no desire to experience strong winds again.

    Stay tuned. I hope your computer problems are solved.

    • Fellow Californian. Flood watch and high winds for my area. Though this atmospheric river isn’t quite as juicy as last year’s.

    • Native Californian here too. Apparently there are now *levels* assigned to atmospheric rivers. The first one was a puny Level One. We didn’t have this info so we prepped our farm (straddling a foothill of a tiny mountain range) for last year’s monsoon. On the good side, it’s holding up so far and the Forest Service hasn’t needed their Snorkel-ified Jeep to rescue any lost hikers yet

  58. fingers crossed. cross your for me that my kid let’s me sleep some…. I’ve been up since 3am with him

  59. Fuzzy Wuzzie was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzie had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzie wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

    And, who knows why I even thought of that one? 😄

    • Johanna, I say that a lot….we have two Welsh cob (large) ponies that I trace clip 3 or 4 times a winter so they don’t overheat while they are working. The contrast between the clipped & unclipped areas is soooo drastic because they are actually Chia-pets on hooves😭. They are ever so FuzzyWuzzy💕

  61. I don’t know if this counts as a fun comment, but I am absolutely loving the Roman story. I totally picture him at home, taking care of his stray bugwuggies (family word that means little monsters lol), muttering like a grumpy dad who absolutely Did Not Want a pet but completely fell in love but doesn’t want to lose his grumpy dad street cred, lol. Also, woe betide the idiot who messes with HIS babies ❤️

  63. While you are fixing e mail I am trying to update the password on one of my worksites. They make me do it every six months. So far I have tried four different sets and get locked out for another 30 minutes. They want 15-32 characters, numbers, upper and lower case and special characters. At this point I think it is them not me.

  64. Party Like a Russian by Robbie Williams has been my constant earworm for like practically 3 weeks!

    As I’m reading the Roman serial…
    (snork)

  65. Rereading Gunmetal Magic, and kept hearing Team Roman in my head, especially when he took his robe off to put on the pixelated camouflage…

  66. The blog seems okay to me, however, I’m currently on a cruise ship anchoring in Whitsunday, Australia, so don’t take my word for anything.

  67. I can’t get over this snippet I read about how cookie monster’s eye placement suggests he is a submerged ambush predator… I just thought I’d share this random test comment

  74. I heard a phrase and thought you guys needed it in your repertoire. ‘They’re headed to hell in a basket with gasoline underpants!’

    • 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      Well that’s one way to get toasted buns. 😉🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥

  77. Hello! Hope computer issues are resolving. I finished rereading the main Kate Daniels series today and am now baking bread and banana muffins because it is chilly and rainy in Southern CA. Sending a virtual banana muffin with or without chocolate chips.

  78. I am highly amused by Star Trek Lower Decks. The irreverent humour reminds me of the laughs I enjoy whilst reading any of your books.

  82. Can I have Armand’s blood mace? I want to destroy my dissertation because I’m tired of reformatting to fit electronic thesis guidelines and redoing citations because our citation management software got it wrong

    • Have you tried Microsoft Word for your citations? I had over 100 of them for my dissertation. I had to use the APA format. I put in the information, clicked ok, and there it was in the correct format.

  84. Just listened to the audio book of Magic Mourns. No way did I imagine Teddy Joe sounded like a mountain hillbilly. Look like a good ole boy, sure. Sound like one? Not in my head. Don’t know why.

    Now I’m going to have to find some of his other appearances and reimagine them.

  87. Oh it’s working!

    I wish my suppliers were as efficient in solving problems… back to work!
    💪

  90. Are we still testing?

    I got a second hand copy of Sub press Innkeeper today and I’m over the moon ☺️ it is so pretty!

    • The issue wasn’t related to readers getting the newsletter email 😊.
      It was about the moderator getting the comment notifications.

  94. Simple things, it is said, amuse simple minds. I have found that strange things amuse strange minds; between these two factors, I am very easily amused.
    Even while grocery shopping. Tossing a bag of parboiled rice into the cart, I found myself wondering why I could never find rice boiled to above par. Another occasion with a can of Campbell’s Condensed Salt, Manhattan Clam Chowder version, had me question the lack of a Martini Clam Chowder. One last one was at an Aldis, packing my purchases at the counter past the registers — when someone behind me questioned the price on their package of chicken. That week, boneless chicken breasts were on sale, but she had chicken tenders, and ‘tenders’ was said several times, and that day it left me breaking up in laughter. Which left six or more women looking at me, and seeming to wonder if I was going to display any further aberrant behavior. My attempts to say “Don’t mind me, I merely rewrote some lyrics and laughed at the result” didn’t stop the staring, and so I sang them.
    “Love my tenders, love them true
    Never let them go …”
    I don’t know what the result of that was, since I turned around, finished packing my groceries, and left. (And it was 15 minutes, and 10 miles down the road, when I started chuckling to myself again, because it finally occurred to me that this was only two weeks after the nearby town of Lake George, NY, had finished it’s latest Elvis Fest.)

  97. To quote Harry Vanderspeigle from Resident Alien.
    This is some bullshit.

    Hope your work around works!!!

  98. It seems, I didn’t get the first email about this test, but the one with the update.

    As for other topics. I rewatched the series 1886 over the weekend, this time the first time with my folks. Last night we watched the last two episodes. We all were crying our eyes out… I as well again, starting already during the second before last episode, even though I knew what was coming…

    • Thanks for letting us know, but the issue was comment notification emails to the moderator, not newsletter emails ☺️

      • Oh I see and yes comment didn’t say I had posted first time and you were super on top of comment this morning here😜

  101. My email came in at 4am ET 2/20/23-not sure work around but it’s not letting me post comment saying it’s duplicate and I already responded but I have not..let’s see if this works..

  103. It’s Tuesday morning on the East coast and just got the email notification. I have to go to work today after having yesterday off. Read some Tessa Dare which was fine but not excessively thrilling. Hope you fix the gremlins. Just remember no water, no eating after midnight and I think there is more, but I can no longer remember.

  104. Always fun time to test systems. My hubby “Loves” taking care of those IT issues. Hope it all works out. I will just continue to read/reread everything I can until the next snippet comes out.

  105. 4:50 am Pacific
    Checking email because I can not seem to sleep.
    was hoping for an entertaining antidote or short. Not sad news from House Andrews.

  109. Travel tip: Always print your boarding pass…my phone bricked on me while I was in the waiting area. Yes, Mom, this is why I travel with 2 phones….

  111. Please leave a pointer to Kid 2’s work. Something like: Jeaniene Frost sent us a book of this obscure author. Please have mercy with us.

  117. I love the Roman story. I am new to your blog, so I’m wondering if Sanctuary will be published as a book eventually. And I can’t wait for the next GraphicAudio production of The Innkeeper series. Those are so well done.

  120. For whatever it’s worth… I didn’t get the email notification for this post until 1:01am on 2/20 😢. The title even said “posts from IA on 2024-02-20”, even though y’all posted on the 19th. If they send out the email batches alphabetically then it makes sense as my email starts with a W… maybe? Regardless, I’ll read everything you write! 😍

  123. In our family we call this the FM of the internet, use your imagination to imagine what FM stands for!

  128. Aren’t computers fun. I wouldn’t write a sentence without one but some days I want to throw mine at the wall.

  133. I am not sure what the technical difficulties are but this post arrived on 2/20 if that helps. In my experience, this is how it has always been. I receive any email posts the next day, sometimes 2 days later or not all, but usually 1 day later. On Fridays I have to go to the website if I would like to read the post. This held true all through Sweep of the Heart as well. Hope it all gets fixed. 🙂

    • Hey KJ,

      The newsletter emails were not the ones creating the difficulties this time 🙂.
      Addressing what you shared: the newsletter goes out to over 40 thousand people, so it is normal (although I understand not ideal) for it to have up to 24 hour delay.

  136. I’m glad everything seems to be working now, but I feel your pain!! For future reference, when I am having technical issues and all else fails, I either:

    1) Pick up the wire leading from the computer to the electrical socket and waggle my eyebrows at the computer as if I am going to unplug it permanently

    or

    2)Sigh loudly and sadly say “Oh well, guess it’s time for a new [computer/router/internet provider/etc…fill in the blank.]

    Neither of these work every time, but you never know! 😁

  138. Hi all. Sorry about all the tech issues. I know how frustrating things like that can be.

    So, I just got through the Graphic Audio for ‘Sweep of the Heart’ and it was awesome. There was only one part the I was disappointed with, it was the part towards the end where Dina is talking to the assembly and sort tells them off, that is one of my favorite scenes. Dina is afraid of the assembly through out the series and then after she does a spectacular job hosing the intergalactic spouse-search on live broadcasting, she realizes that she can put the innkeepers assembly in their place an tell them to back off. It is awesome, and I wished they would have kept it in the graphic audio part. Other then that, it was still great!

    A fun fact for you guys. I am also listening to the Kate Daniel graphic audios, and in Magic Strikes, there is a scene where Raphael is telling Kate and Andrea about the Midnight Games, and he starts the story saying “In 2024…” I thought that was fun. This is the year Curran become the Beast Lord. 😉

  142. I love the new Roman serial gives me something to look forward to each week. Only problem I’m really into the story and it just stops…. I’m very impatient I want more.

  144. Sorry you’re having a bad tech day….
    May the humor lighten it up!

    Q: What did the ocean say to the beach?
    A: Nothing. It just waved…

    • The technical difficulties were not related at all to the newsletter emails 🙂 , but it’s good to hear you are getting them!

  147. I just want to say Thank You to HA & the BDH (and Mod R, of course!) for the wonderful book recommendations. Especially for Murderbot & Scholomance. They are both so wonderful, and give me joy. This site (and HA books) have brightened my life.

  148. The email seems to have arrived without issue and though it’s after your mention of a fix, I’m leaving a comment. I’m now waiting for the next installment in your Roman serial.

  152. I have always imagined Bug from HL as a friend of mine despite the fact that said friend looks almost nothing like the descriptions of Bug.

  153. I got a newsletter from Paula Munier today advocating shinrin-yoku or forest bathing (taking a walk in the forest or a park) as an antidote to modern life stress. Today’s giggle: She was hiking uphill in Northern California when she ran into a group of nudist hikers wearing sunblock and boots. “A very unsettling viewpoint” according to her.

  157. its Feb 21

    I just received this. its probably fixed i hope.

    For everybody working on the problem good luck and Thank you

    plate of chocolate and white chip cookies

  159. Well, so far, so good. Having way too much fun to knock anyone else’s efforts today. Keep up the good work, everyone!

  161. I have no problems getting your email updates.
    Suggest you stop fooling with the Dark Side to fix your Internet problems.
    Kidding, of course.

    D

  162. hmmm, there were major sunspots this week … interesting to think about. Meanwhile, it is Saturday at 5 pm here on the Pacific Coast, and,

    me: weeping into tea

    No Roman episode email has arrived this week!

    Fingers crossed for an email system healing!

Skip to content