Website

I've been working on a website and hope to have it live soon. I spent the past week learning more about HTML coding than I ever thought I'd need, but it's sort of fun. My links page (oy! do I ever know a lot of writers!) and reviews page are complete as of tonight. The first thing I tackled was a short story, so you'll get to read some of my other writing. This website was a long process. I must thank the fabulous, wonderful, patient, talented... the list goes on... Helen Madden for all the work she put into it. Not only is Helen a great writer (her novel Demon By Day is in the editing process right now and will be released soon) and a terrific friend, but she's also an incredible artist. When we first started talking about this site, I'm lucky she didn't strangle me, because I had no idea what I wanted. Not even the layout. She'd done this wonderful piece with a youth on a horse with a background that looked like clock gears (I'm not doing it justice here) that I still love, but it wasn't right for my site. I gave her vague ideas of what I liked. Gears, Victorian age machinery, steam punk... but again, it wasn't a good fit. So then I mentioned Frank Lloyd Wright's designs and art deco. We both segued into Japanese art, origami papers, and traditional kimono prints on our own, and laughed when we started swapping links. I mentioned a color palate that appealed to me. Somehow, she managed to put all that chaotic mess into a wonderful idea. She found a French artist who was a contemporary of FLW who worked in the art deco style, and my color palate, and came up with a design that blew me away. Every time I see the faun she created from that influence, I'm enchanted. Did I mention that she did all this while working on her own novel? With a broken foot? And two small kids at home? While forming the Virgina chapter of EPIC and promoting e-books at cons? I can't begin to thank her enough for the effort and artistry she put into it. I can't wait until we're ready to reveal it. It's something she should be proud of.