diff --git a/calibre-plugin/plugin-defaults.ini b/calibre-plugin/plugin-defaults.ini
index c865382..46e66f1 100644
--- a/calibre-plugin/plugin-defaults.ini
+++ b/calibre-plugin/plugin-defaults.ini
@@ -869,6 +869,12 @@ extracategories:The Sentinel
 ## it has +90% confidence.  'auto' is not reliable.
 website_encodings:Windows-1252,ISO-8859-1,auto
 
+## dateUpdate doesn't usually have time, but it does on
+## bloodshedverse.com.  See
+## http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior
+## Note that ini format requires % to be escaped as %%.
+dateUpdated_format:%%Y-%%m-%%d %%H:%%M
+
 ## Extra metadata that this adapter knows about.  See [dramione.org]
 ## for examples of how to use them.
 extra_valid_entries:warnings,reviews
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_bloodshedversecom.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_bloodshedversecom.py
index 00320b3..d728ba3 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_bloodshedversecom.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_bloodshedversecom.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class BloodshedverseComAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
     READ_URL_TEMPLATE = BASE_URL + 'stories.php?go=read&no=%s'
 
     STARTED_DATETIME_FORMAT = '%m/%d/%Y'
-    UPDATED_DATETIME_FORMAT = '%m/%d/%Y %I:%M'
+    UPDATED_DATETIME_FORMAT = '%m/%d/%Y %I:%M %p'
 
     def __init__(self, config, url):
         BaseSiteAdapter.__init__(self, config, url)
@@ -168,14 +168,8 @@ class BloodshedverseComAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
                     self.story.setMetadata('datePublished', makeDate(value, self.STARTED_DATETIME_FORMAT))
 
                 elif key == 'Updated':
-                    date_string, period = value.rsplit(' ', 1)
-                    date = makeDate(date_string, self.UPDATED_DATETIME_FORMAT)
-
-                    # Rather ugly hack to work around Calibre's changing of
-                    # Python's locale setting, causing am/pm to not be properly
-                    # parsed by strptime() when using a non-english locale
-                    if period == 'pm':
-                        date += timedelta(hours=12)
+                    date = makeDate(value, self.UPDATED_DATETIME_FORMAT)
+                    # ugly %p(am/pm) hack moved into makeDate so other sites can use it.
                     self.story.setMetadata('dateUpdated', date)
 
         if self.story.getMetadata('rating') == 'NC-17' and not (self.is_adult or self.getConfig('is_adult')):
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/base_adapter.py b/fanficfare/adapters/base_adapter.py
index ca015f5..42838e3 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/base_adapter.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/base_adapter.py
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@
 #
 
 import re
-import datetime
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+
 import time
 import logging
 import urllib
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ class BaseSiteAdapter(Configurable):
         self.metadataDone = False
         self.story = Story(configuration)
         self.story.setMetadata('site',self.getConfigSection())
-        self.story.setMetadata('dateCreated',datetime.datetime.now())
+        self.story.setMetadata('dateCreated',datetime.now())
         self.chapterUrls = [] # tuples of (chapter title,chapter url)
         self.chapterFirst = None
         self.chapterLast = None
@@ -688,8 +689,23 @@ def makeDate(string,dateform):
             if name in string:
                 string = string.replace(name,num)
                 break
+
+    # Many locales don't define %p for AM/PM.  So if %p, remove from
+    # dateform, look for 'pm' in string, remove am/pm from string and
+    # add 12 hours if pm found.
+    add_hours = False
+    if u"%p" in dateform:
+        dateform = dateform.replace(u"%p",u"")
+        if 'pm' in string or 'PM' in string:
+            add_hours = True
+        string = string.replace(u"AM",u"").replace(u"PM",u"").replace(u"am",u"").replace(u"pm",u"")
+
+    date = datetime.strptime(string.encode('utf-8'),dateform.encode('utf-8'))
+    
+    if add_hours:
+        date += timedelta(hours=12)
             
-    return datetime.datetime.strptime(string.encode('utf-8'),dateform.encode('utf-8'))
+    return date
 
 # .? for AO3's ']' in param names.
 safe_url_re = re.compile(r'(?P<attr>(password|name|login).?=)[^&]*(?P<amp>&|$)',flags=re.MULTILINE)
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/base_xenforoforum_adapter.py b/fanficfare/adapters/base_xenforoforum_adapter.py
index fe38a80..995e36e 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/base_xenforoforum_adapter.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/base_xenforoforum_adapter.py
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ class BaseXenForoForumAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
             datestr = re.sub(r' (\d[^\d])',r' 0\1',datestr) # add leading 0 for single digit day & hours.
             return makeDate(datestr, self.dateformat)
         except:
-            logger.debug('No date found in %s'%parenttag)
+            logger.debug('No date found in %s'%parenttag,exc_info=True)
             return None
 
     # grab the text for an individual chapter.
diff --git a/fanficfare/defaults.ini b/fanficfare/defaults.ini
index 962f178..337b471 100644
--- a/fanficfare/defaults.ini
+++ b/fanficfare/defaults.ini
@@ -875,6 +875,12 @@ extracategories:The Sentinel
 ## it has +90% confidence.  'auto' is not reliable.
 website_encodings:Windows-1252,ISO-8859-1,auto
 
+## dateUpdate doesn't usually have time, but it does on
+## bloodshedverse.com.  See
+## http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior
+## Note that ini format requires % to be escaped as %%.
+dateUpdated_format:%%Y-%%m-%%d %%H:%%M
+
 ## Extra metadata that this adapter knows about.  See [dramione.org]
 ## for examples of how to use them.
 extra_valid_entries:warnings,reviews