Tag Archives: web design

Misfit Monday: Home on the Web

by Jennette,

We’ve all heard about how mechanics take care of their own cars. As in, often, they don’t. They tell everyone else to get the regular, scheduled maintenance as listed in the Owner’s Manual, but for their own cars… well, these usually get put off. And put off. An oil change might get done weeks or months after it’s should have been, or it might not. Until something goes wrong.

Such is the life of a web designer. When I first set up this site, I didn’t have any books published. I didn’t blog. I just set the site up because we’re all told we’re supposed to, in case an agent or editor we’ve sent a submission in to decides to look us up. My site had a basic page about my books, a bio, and a contact page, but that’s it. Mainly, I wanted to keep my domain name, because I secured it way back in 2000, and it’s a nice, short, easy to spell one that would get snapped up in microseconds if I let it expire.

Then I read Kristen Lamb‘s We Are Not Alone, in which she convinced me of the benefits of blogging. (Like being able to talk about my dogs and post cute puppy videos. :D) So I dutifully put up a blog, and made my recent posts my home page. I published two books. It was all good.

But something wasn’t right. I had a blog, with the appropriate pages for an author website, but no real home page. That’s been over a year now.

I got new author photos, shot by the wonderfully-talented Pat Strang of 513Photography. It was time I stopped being a web designer who took care of her own website like a busy mechanic takes care of her own car. So please, take a look at my new home page, and let me know what you think!

I still have work to do. I want to add an archive list to my blog pages, now that I have enough material to make it worthwhile. I probably should add a Search function. I’m going to streamline the sidebar with my book info that shows up on every page besides home. But this is a good start.

I’d love to hear from you! Does my home page include the information you’d want, as a reader who wants to know about an author? If you were to stumble across it via links, does it tell you what I, and my writing, is all about? Is there anything you’d suggest I’d add to my home page?

ROW80: Sometimes, there really isn’t enough time

by Jennette,

I kept my load light again this week, knowing it would be a busy one with two web design project to do outside of my day job. But Wednesday, I still wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I re-evaluated how I was spending my time. Surely there was something in there, somewhere I was spending too much time taking “breaks” to play Solitaire, etc.

But there wasn’t. That night I accounted for every 15 minutes, and only one 15-minute segment was spent on a game break. Otherwise, every bit of it was spent plotting my next book, exercising, reading/answering email/blogs/social media, or working on web design (two hours there).

Sometimes there really isn’t any extra time, and we have to admit that we can’t do it all without sacrificing sleep (not a good idea, health-wise or productivity/quality-wise, for me). Here’s how the week went:

  • Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways – almost! But not quite.
  • Initial design for the builder’s website – started, but not enough to show him. Hopefully tonight!
  • Publish and host the massage therapists’ website – Done! And she loves it!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week – uh… no. Maybe next ROW80.

Here are the overall goals:

  • Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
  • Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
  • How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
  • Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – not going to happen, but since I’m delaying the release, that’s OK.

Next check-in will be my last for this ROW, as I don’t do Wednesday check-ins. So here’s this week’s plan:

  • Finish Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
  • Initial design for the builder’s website
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – are you on track for your overall goals?

ROW80: Cheating… sort of

by Jennette,

I knew I’d need to go easy on the goals this week. I did manage to meet all of my pared-down goals, so it all worked out. It wasn’t easy – I had a push on one yesterday, and it was hard to motivate myself to do my workout, but I did it!

  • Complete Lesson 6b of How to Think Sideways – Done, although I sort of cheated on a couple parts. One involved reviewing my WIP to the point I’ve done it, and I haven’t really started it yet, so that one was a gimme.
  • Cover design for Times Two – Done!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts. Done!

Times Two Box Set, coming this summer

Hangar 18 is not going to be ready for release this ROW, as it’s still with beta readers. I’d planned to release either it or Times Two, but decided to participate in a promotional opportunity in mid-June that doesn’t make a release feasible. So I’m changing my goal to get it formatted and ready for release, but won’t hit Publish probably until mid-July. So here are the overall goals:

  • Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
  • Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
  • How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
  • Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – on track!

This week’s going to be another tricky one, as I have taken on a couple of side web design jobs. One is for my massage therapist, whose site I designed several months ago, but who didn’t provide me any content until yesterday. The other is a new site for a builder who did a second-story addition for us about 10 years ago. So with working those in, here are the plans:

  • Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
  • Initial design for the builder’s website
  • Publish and host the massage therapists’ website if she gets the rest of the content to me
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring?