I’m turning it into a specialty site. I’m adding a Writer’s Section, taking out the old progress reports—revising things that have changed. I may add sections as I think of them. But it’s where I can park tolerably static info that people want to consult. And I have fixed the counter: I at least remember fairly well where we were when the thing broke this time. It’s broken about 3 times prior. The old savvy is coming back—I had something that persistently wouldn’t display, and went under to the html and found a non-symmetrical p lacking a closing /p. HTML hates statements that don’t finish. Fixed it. Bingo! It displays. I started out with a marvelous little book called HTML for Dummies, and this dummy has not forgotten everything.
So those of you who navigate through the website to get here, things are now improved.
Here’s a free HTML editor that some friend of mine like.
http://www.coffeecup.com/
Thanks!
It’s great to have the counter again – I enjoy seeing it!
Off topic…With reference to Seeking North, here’s something to put in your “For future consideration” file:
The Free SF/F/H Fiction section at SF Signal has this note…
“New Experiment Time: I’d like to expand the reach of this listing. If you have a short story you’ve just published on your website or upcoming Kindle or other ebook promotions, please let me know (for ebook promos, please let me know the date range). I can’t guarantee that I’ll get everything up, but it can’t hurt for you to hassle me via e-mail.”
I use CoffeeCup’s HTML Editor too. It does nearly everything I need and is updated frequently. They have a good user forum. The editor is low-cost but very capable, and once you’ve registered, future updates are free. They make several other good products and are branching out into the Mac market now too.
Best wishes in updating and redoing the site!
I recommend Elizabeth “Liz” Castro’s books on HTML, CSS, and Ebooks. She’s been a tech writer for years now and writes clearly. She speaks (and may be) Catalunyan / Catalán. She answers her email personally, though it may take a bit, as with any writer. She has a blog.
For CSS I’d also recommend books by Ian Hicks or Eric Meyer. I’ve been reading up on HTML5 and CSS3 and trying them out. Good, good stuff. — I now need to *reread* the book on EPUB I’d bought (by Liz Castro).
There’s a book coming out, one of the O’Reilly Press “animal guide covers” on EPUB 3, due out in about November that I’ve pre-ordered, including a section on “accessibility.” Looks like a winner.
The site might be a good place for static reference material on Foreigner and other Cherryh-verse things, or an alternate method, maybe with a link to the blog here for questions.
I’ll be checking out the site.
Suggestions are welcome. Some want me to gussy up the site to look ‘modern.’ I dunno. I live in a house built in 1954. The site has looked the same since the day it went up, and is organized kind of like an sf convention. That was back, oh, in the early 90’s. It serves. I tried putting on frames. The Europeans couldn’t see it. I tried animations, flashy things, flyovers, and sounds. They were generally hated. I get the feeling that some want me to put up graffiti motifs and play rock music.
I have learned one piece of wisdom on the web: if you do nothing, people will say you’re behind the times and need updating. If you do anything, people will say a) their browser won’t view it or b) it annoys them or c) they liked the old one better.
So I will ASK for opinions. But pardon me if, with two decades of trying to add whizzbang to this site and having everybody hate the changes I spent weeks of leisure time doing, I am a little loath to spend great effort on changing the look.
The logic of page 1 is—yep, you’ve made contact with the right universe. Are you on the right planet?
The logic of page 2 is—ok, you’re in, these are the topics.
Beyond that, you’re on your own.
But I am cutting down on the clutter.
Whatever; it still looks comfortably familiar. It’s yours, we like the way you present things in the books, I dare say whatever it pleased you to do, say, turn it into rooms in an atevi hunting lodge, would meet with approval here. 😉
Coincidentally, I ran into a rhody-holic friend shopping at a local second-hand book store. I commended “The Paladin” to her, which she seemed willing to try–she was unfamiliar with your work. Perhaps she’ll try more. Wisely she likes to read series in order, but unfortunately the store didn’t have first novels of the mri/hani/atevi arcs.
Do what you feel comfortable with. When the complainers win their own Hugo or other award then they can make their own website. The words you write are far more important than a glitzy presentation.
C.J., I’m a professional Facebook (and WordPress, and web) developer. We’re talking big brand names, like Energizer and the Washington Post:
If you’d like your Facebook profile/Page fixed, the issues you described on your “I’M OUTA HERE!!!” post are all issues I can easily solve.
Free, of course, I owe you for all those books you’ve written.
People offer to do me a ‘professional’ website freebies, and as much as I’m sure it would be wonderful, I’m just like everybody else—I have my own ideas what I want, what I like, and what I’m comfortable with.
So rather than have the karma of telling someone else to totally change what he did, I’ll just say to myself that that’s why there are Fords and Chevrolets. The one great rule of teh interwebz is nobody’s ever happy with a website unless they built it, and probably not then, either.
CJ, I’m not talking about site design, I mean fixing the problems on your Farcebook profile that recent changes have broken, for example sorting out the “royal mess”. I’ve no interest in meddling with your interface design.
If “FB has forbidden me personal use of my properly spelled name” refers to the lowercase J, by the way, the solution is to add a dot, like “C.J.”…you belong to the TANSTAAFL Page I have on Facebook, where I had to add the dots between the initials to make it all caps.
Kaz, thanks. You’re very kind. I’m working through it in my own weird way—I had 2 sites on FB, one a fan site that had my name with the two dots, and my own site, that had no dots, but couldn’t be capitalized. I couldn’t in all owed karma blow the fan site off, and that meant I couldn’t use my own name, apparently…anyway, I’m just weary of FB—too much politics, too many people with issues, too many tweaks, and this timeline thing is just the last straw. But I do thank you for the offer. I just think FB and I are not having the best time at the moment. There’s good about it—I can reach a few people that hang out there exclusively. But I’m not taking on any new ‘friends…’ it’s not fair; and I’ve got so much work on my plate right now that not getting into discussions over there is probably a very good thing.
I’ve got 2-3 www folders. And a little trouble figuring which is which: it takes 3 uploads sometimes to hit the right one, and somehow images and some files aren’t displaying on the version of menu that is NOT in the ‘hot’ circle on the image. OTOH, the files that aren’t there are a key to which folder that menu file is actually using. Does it ever occur to you that working with files on the web is a lot like video games? You shoot, sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t, and you know the ball went somewhere—but where?
I’ve got all the files resident on my computer. I’m really thinking of blitzing couple of those folders in the theory if things disappear, I can put them back. But I’ll have to think on that for a while.
Oh, I hear you. I’ve done web volunteer work, so I’ve heard/seen all those same sorts of comments.
Though the idea of a head-banging, heavy rockin’ goth chick CJ does have some humor value, and I have no doubt you could rock out in great style, it would be a different CJ. I suspect her writing style might differ a tad too. 😉 (And hey, it could work for a con costume….)
Design the site how you want it. It’s your site, after all. We fans will have fun poking around, finding what’s changed and what’s new.
Thankfully, what you can do now with web pages has improved dramatically, and more people have faster web access via broadband cable or DSL. But there are still plenty out there who have iffy access, and that’s one of the real limiting factors.
But yup, the ultimate advice has to be, the site has to please you; it’s your site. Have at it! 🙂
Before I forget, a link to Liz Castro’s blog:
http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/
I think I have gotten the splash page, menu (at least the first half), writing discussion, and library all orderly. Not great, but ok. I’m streamlining, being quite ruthless with old stuff. Because the splash page now has so many click options I added a plain-English instruction to poke the planet, because getting the menu to display twice on that page has run into one of those really weird computer zanies that has to involve extra dimensions. I did kick one of the www folders out. That at least means fewer choice uploading.
I’ve got most of it updated now, at least to functionality. The last page is the hardest—the photo page. I don’t know whether to leave Ysabel’s and Efanor’s pix or to replace them. Either is hard.
I would suggest keeping them, though it would mean writing another description. They’re a cherished part of your recent past.
Might as well introduce Seishi and Eushu too,
I think I have one and only one photo of Toby, if the photo made it through the move. If and when I find it, it will be scanned and posted along with my current two, who are hard at work napping and keeping my feet warm.