I first created Xanthe.org in 1998. I wanted my own archive of fanfiction, and my own domain name, which I wanted to be as simple as possible for people to access. Back then, there wasn’t much of a choice of domain name extensions, but Xanthe.org was still available, so I opted for that. It turned out to be an excellent decision! I’d never designed a web page before – as it was 1998, not many people had! But I was willing to learn, and I purchased Front Page to make it easy. I used that for a number of years – it wasn’t the best programme around, but I could understand it, and it always worked for me. I’m not very ‘tecchie’ but somehow I’ve learned how to muddle through over the years. The early look was basically a white page with red and blue links, and some graphics made for me by talented people like Sean Spencer and Sergeeva:

I did a revamp some time in 2000, changing from the garish red and blue look into something a bit more cohesive. CDavis helped provide many of the graphics. Now that I had several stories to archive, I create a ‘Storyzone’ and tried to organise my stories more effectively into categories. 

In November 2002, I did a complete redesign and moved onto a cream and purple theme designed for me by Sergeeva that I kept for nearly ten years, until moving to the E-fic site in 2011.

In April 2004, I held my 500,000th hit celebration. This was a lot of fun and both myself and several friends and readers contributed stories for it. To be honest, the hit counter has been lost so many times over the past fifteen years in various snafus and revamps that I have no idea how many hits the site has had over the whole period, but it must be many millions by now.

In 2009, I became aware that my site was starting to look old-fashioned. However, I was doing so much writing that I didn’t have time to work on a revamp, and I wasn’t sure where to start. In 2011, when I was laid up with a broken ankle, I left a message asking for help on an E-fiction forum, and Jacci contacted me almost instantly. It turned out that she’d been a big fan of my stories for years, and couldn’t wait to get stuck in to redesigning Xanthe.org. I still can’t believe my luck in finding that forum at that time and that she saw my message! We became good friends as a result of working on the site together, and make a great team.

In September 2011, a rework of Xanthe.org commenced moving from html coded pages to the efiction script that would allow reviews, better navigation etc etc on the site. 

We opened Xanthe.org as an E-Fiction site in October 2011, with a lovely new look designed by Bluespirit, and some great new features including a forum where people could chat. The rotating headers showing various different slash pairings were designed by Bluespirit. The new look was launched on the 3rd October, 2011. 

 Jacci then went on to create the Xanthe Walter website for my original fiction, and as a result we both realised we wanted to move Xanthe.org from being an E-fiction site over to WordPress. This was a massive job! But Jacci did it fantastically, as always, putting in a massive amount of hard work, and now we are all set for the future. Hopefully any new changes will be cosmetic! Those of you who have visited my site for many years might enjoy a trip down memory lane to browse through some of the site’s old looks

The digital makeover you’ve been waiting for has arrived! To celebrate the exciting relaunch of my professional author career, I enlisted the magical talents of Jacci to transform xanthe.org into a stunning digital wonderland that perfectly complements my new xanthe-walter.com hub.

This wasn’t just a quick touch-up—it was an epic digital renaissance! The results? Absolutely breathtaking! Stories now practically leap off the screen, with a sleek, modern interface that makes finding your next favourite read a breeze. One of my favourite new features? Those clever progress sidebars that show exactly how far you’ve ventured into each storytelling adventure!

We bid farewell to some of the heavier graphics that were making the site crawl (goodbye, loading times!), and created a curated gallery showcasing the very best visual treats.

In the spirit of quality over quantity, I’ve refined the collection of available stories. While xanthe.org was originally meant to house every piece of fanfiction I’d ever penned, let’s be honest—some tales simply haven’t aged like fine wine. And those ultra-short “drabbles” we all experimented with back in the day? Fun at the time, but perhaps not worth preserving for the history books!

I’ve also made an exciting content addition, my Walter’s World newsletter. This newsletter is a fortnightly treasure trove of writing updates, MM Romance freebies, and author recommendations that readers have been raving about. It’s not just a newsletter; it’s your VIP pass to the best content!

The verdict? The site is now sharper, snappier, and infinitely more stylish! Come explore the refreshed xanthe.org—I’m betting you’ll fall head over heels for it just like I have!