Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts

Monday, October 24, 2022

Something to Dig My Nerdy Teeth Into...
Or Drive Me to Tears of Frustration

Image courtesy iStock Photos.

Sooo...my writers group recently disaffiliated from its parent organization. As a result, we've had to change our name. And that meant a new domain name. Which lead to the decision to also revamp the website.

Now I've loved messing around with website for years, decades maybe.

It all started with a fan site for the TV show The Guardian. I didn't create the site, but I took it over from the person who did and I fell in love with the coding. I learned HTML and CSS in order to manage the elements.

Then I became a fan of the TV show JAG and joined the fansite band wagon yet again, going from creating the original incarnation of my site called JAGNikJen's JAG Archive to The JAG Archive's final design as I honed my skills. There was a version in between, but I can't seem to find it in the Wayback Machine.

Fast forward twenty years and I still dabble. Mostly as the website director for the above mentioned writers group for years because I'm one of the few people who seems to understand how websites work on the back end or is brave enough to learn it/dumb enough to take it on.

But let me tell you--I hate WordPress with a passion. I was hoping to walk away from it, but DH convinced me it was easier than I found it (which I disagree with) and now I'm frustrated to the point of tears again.

Unfortunately, the platform I'd prefer to use isn't as inexpensive--we've got trim our budget as well--so I've been researching other alternatives, but mostly to no avail.

In the meantime, I'll keep fiddling with it to see if I can't make nice with the world's largest website builder...keep trying to make sense of it, but it's not as intuitive to me as maybe it should be.

On the other hand, the theme we've decided on--diversity, basically--is fun. Which isn't a theme really, but a mindset. The term "theme" come more from the whole series of vector images I found to use on the site. A series that includes people all shapes/sizes/colors/ages, and all created by the same artist so they "match." As soon as I saw them, I got soo excited and knew that theme and those images were the way to go.

The fact that there are so many images is a double edged sword. While we have a lot to choose from. it's going to be hard to narrow down our choices to just a few. And by a few I mean at least ten, max twenty-four. When you have approximately 600+ images to choose from, 10 to 24 is definitely going to be a challenge.

Image courtesy iStock Photos.

There are so many people--diverse groups of people: young, older; thin & curvy & in between, varieties of skin tones and ethnicity. Just the type of writers group we want, so we need to show those interested that we welcome all kinds of folks, and this image set will show that but also give off a fun welcoming vibe.

Have a great week and wish me luck with WordPress...

Friday, March 10, 2017

Adventures in Publishing...


I've been working on my publishing website! Originally, I was going to design and create it myself, but there were some features I wanted/needed for searching and organizing purposes that pushed me toward a WordPress-based website. I'm not complaining, because adding WordPress competence to my resume is a good thing if I want to pick up website updating jobs, so yeah.

There was/is still a learning curve, but I'm oh-so-slowly figuring how to make the site do the things I want it to do and show the things I want it to show.

Before I do a big reveal, I'm waiting for two things. One--the second logo I commissioned. Which, really, I'm just waiting for a minor tweak. I like this one much, much better. Two--book four's cover. Not sure how long for that though--by the end of the month, for sure, but I sent along the book-related questions and when the cover artist replied, it sounded like maybe she was going to work on it sooner rather than later. So--fingers crossed.

The most important task on my plate right now, though--completing revisions on book five. I've got to get myself psyched up to delve deep. I pulled a major plot thread, so I'm deleting a good chunk of words and re-weaving the remaining plot around the change. Yeah, buddy--I can do this.

That's my big plan for the weekend--revise, revise, revise. But it's going to be fun, because, it's a challenge and I have a deadline. :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, September 16, 2016

To Website or Not to Website


I mean, I have this blog. I can add pages to it to list books and share excerpts. I have nine years of blog posting history and that's nothing to sneeze at.

I have a website for the book series, but should I, as a (soon to be) published author, have an actual website?

As a reader, I don't go to other author's websites. I don't check out author's Facebook pages either. I don't follow authors on Twitter. I don't sign up for their newsletters.

Many of the authors I know have websites, Facebook pages, a Twitter account they use, newsletters, and several other types of social media platforms. There's a lot of hype in my author circles about networking and supporting one another. And I get that. I really do. But it's so much work juggling all that, and I dunno, but isn't another good book a better selling tool than just about anything? Plus, this is a fun adventure, and anything that makes it not fun isn't happening. :)

But all those platforms are generally for reaching out to readers. I understand that writers are generally big readers, and if a writer wants to follow a favorite author then by all means he or she should. But sometimes I feel...bad, maybe? about not being part of this huge chain of authors. The reason I'm not is simple...

My writer friends are not my target audience.

Now they may enjoy the genre I write and like my books too, but they are under no obligation to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or anything.

I'm not doing a newsletter either. Too many of my author friends gripe about that chore. I blog three times a week, it'll do for getting out whatever upcoming news I might have. I'll set up a notification list, though. Submit your email address and get a quick email about the latest release when the time comes. That's it.

But back to the question of a website... I was recently turned onto AuthorPage.com which is what it sounds like--a platform for author websites, no domain names necessary. It has themes and many cool features, and I think between the blog here and that there, I'm good. Both are free, too. So bonus.

If you're a huge reader, do you actually visit author websites?


Friday, August 19, 2016

HTML what???


One of my little known hobbies is playing with websites. I like to build websites using images and code. :0) I don't do it enough to be super proficient from scratch, but I reference other other sites I've built for the basics and then I can tweak them to suit my purposes.

One of the first websites I ever built was a fan site for the TV show JAG. Here's the first version (snapshot Aug 2002 courtesy of the Wayback Machine) and here's the current version, designed probably a decade ago. Big improvement, eh?

As I mentioned last week, I've begun preparing for publishing my first book. That includes a website for the series I'm working on. It started off as one thing that I wasn't happy with and so I went searching for a design I liked and then began recreating that layout using my HTML/CSSing skills, such as they are. I'm not going to share the site now as it's a work in progress, but I promise I'll share the link when I've got all the bugs in my code ironed out.

What things do you like about websites? Things you hate?


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Snoopy Dancing

Two of my critique partners finaled in our chapter's writing contest. Now they get to take a look at their first round critiques, make any changes they deem necessary and resubmit to the final round judge--an agent or editor.

I too entered the contest, Apparently no finalling for me, but that's okay. I wanted feedback more than I wanted to final.

On another exciting note, I helped one of my other CPs get her website up and published. It's probably not available yet, but the URL is www.lavenderdaye.com. (Just a warning, she writes erotic romance. There's nothing too erotic on the site, at the moment, except maybe the picture, but even that's tasteful. Well, I like it, anyway. :)

The weather is cloudy again and therefore warmer. My CP Lavender gave me a pedometer the other day and I wore it while I walked my morning blocks--@3740 steps yesterday and @4380 today. I read somewhere that you should take 10,000 steps a day. I wore the pedometer all day yesterday but only ended up with @5700, almost 5800 steps. And that was a busier than normal day for me. I guess I need to add that fourth block soon and the aerobics.

Well, time to get busy....

Friday, January 21, 2011

Brr...It's Freakin' Cold Here

It's twenty degrees Fahrenheit as I type. The car was a bit frosty this morning but no scraping needed as I started it a good fifteen minutes before I left. Cold is not my favorite season and I'm very thankful that we only get *this* cold sporadically. My knees do not like it one bit.

It's going to be another fairly quiet weekend. Hubby will be working on a forensic case most of Saturday and helping a friend on Sunday. I have a meeting at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday in preparation for working during the Super Bowl, but other than that and laundry, the weekend is mine.

My plans--to write my requisite 2500 words, listen to a writing workshop or two and apply the lessons to a current WIP or two or three, work on my website director job description and the procedures for my writing chapter's Procedure Manual (a document I should have written two years ago when I last held the position!), and work on my "Website Primer for Dummies" tutorial.

I'm trying to provide some basic training for any chapter mates who are so inclined to learn with an eye to possibly doing my job when I can't any longer. A person can only be in any one board position for two years and on the board for four before having to step down for at least one year. Last year was my down year.

Other than that, I am in website director mode, adding a few things to our site and doing a little housekeeping.

Have a great weekend!