Somebody stole my...website??

This is one of the more absurd things that has happened to me, and barely worth mentioning except a) to explain what happened to my domain name, and b) to warn others to avoid my fate.

A few months ago I missed the renewal date on my two domain names: www.ken-foster.com and www.dogswhofoundme.com. Big deal, I thought, upon discovering my error. I'll just renew them late. But I can't, because within days of their expiring, both were purchased by two different companies. www.ken-foster.com is now owned by a German media company, and dogswhofoundme.com is with someone else. Neither are actually using them for anything--instead they are "parking" on them and waiting, it would seem, for someone to pay to get them back. All of this comes just as I have a new book coming out (in October) and was about to get to work on creating a more functional site. Now, anyone who follows an old link goes nowhere. I've contacted the new owners to inquire about reclaiming the domains, but there's been no response. So the next step is to take legal action, which should be successful, but also may take quite a while.

In the meantime, my nephew is at work creating a new site for me: www.kenfosterbooks.com.