Nothing Exceeds Like Excess

Catching Up

22nd-Oct-2009 12:22 pm

Hello, my dears! I'm sorry I've been incommunicado for so long, and I'm aware I owe a great many of you emails and suchlike, but I've been busy. Really, really busy.
Doing what? you may ask.

*Taking care of Mike. He had major dentistry last week, so I've been doing my best to take care of him and monitoring his meds and such. There's been a lot of blood, which has been very triggery for me. As a result, I'm in a serious sleep deprivation fog...can't get to sleep. Can't stay asleep. Nightmares galore when I do sleep. I'm averaging about an hour and a half of good sleep each day, which isn't anywhere near enough.

*Working sporadically on Sekrit Project Number Three. Technical difficulties are making this a pain in the ass, but progress is progressing.

*Working at putting together a new volume of my poetry. Scanning in old poems. Revising them. Writing new ones. This project is going to have to wait a bit at this point...I have quite a few things going on that are time sensitive. I'm hoping to have a book available in the early spring. ::fingers crossed::

*Teaching myself HTML so I can put together a semi-professional fan site for Judy's work.

*Trying to find folks willing to donate their airline miles in the cause of promoting True Love of the finest kind. I can't say any more than that without breaking a promise of secrecy. If any of y'all are Hopeful Romantics with extra air miles, please let me know...you have my word that this is a Good and True thing and will earn you major karma.

*I'm currently taking commissions for original poetry in the style of your choice. You pick the topic, I'll write it, you donate $10 to the True Love Fund. PM me for details...

*My friend Andy is an amazing, incredibly talented artist. He is also taking commissions for the cause. His art can be found here:
http://community.livejournal.com/thanart/

*Andy has written and illustrated entire novels of fanfic, set in the Harry Potter universe, but much, much better than Rowling's. I am now involved in fandom for the first time in 40 years entirely due to his genius. Check out his work here:

daydverse

Comments

22nd-Oct-2009 06:10 pm (UTC)

interactiveleaf

As I discovered a while back, it's no longer HTML that you really need to know to put together a decent web page. You'll need to be familiar with CSS (at the very least) as well.

I'm trying my durndest to become competent in that area as well. I have some books and study time available, if you want to meet somewhere with a laptop (I'll bring one) and see if we can't design something.

23rd-Oct-2009 01:00 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

I won't have time till next week-ish, but that sounds great! I don't need to do anything fancy...Judy wants to keep it simple. I just want to use Wordpress and figure out how to do tabs...

23rd-Oct-2009 04:27 pm (UTC)

interactiveleaf

Oh, that would be awesome. I'm generally free any day except Thursday evenings, so I can meet your schedule.

If you want a blog, that's easy; tabs in HTML are tricksy but doable.

27th-Oct-2009 07:44 pm (UTC)

interactiveleaf

So, I'm looking around at stuff, and Wordpress is a blogging software, which is fine if it's a blog you want to start. If you're looking for a fan site, that may not be the best choice. Do you know if you want to put together a place for official announcements, or forums for people to talk to each other (that can be expensive; it eats up a lot of bandwidth), or a place to post book reviews/synopses and upcoming events, a place for fan art, fanfic, and fan poetry, or what?

Here's one official web site for an author. Here's another. Here's a third. In fact, here's a link to more than 600 author's sites. Some of these are fan-created and copyright free; some are official sites created and maintained by publishers; some of them will give you examples of what not to do as well as what to do.

When you have time, will you give me more specifics on what you're interested in creating? I can have a mock up ready if you'd like to see my ideas, but I haven't read any of her work so I'm not the best choice here. :)

28th-Oct-2009 12:32 am (UTC)

idiomagic

To be honest, I have no idea what I want. My goal is to increase Judy's web presence so new readers can find her.
I'm not interested in doing forums or anything really interactive...I have too many other projects and interests to be willing to put that much time into a recurring project.

I think I want a site that will have a complete bibliography, maybe with Amazon links. A brief bio. Links to Judy's LJ and twitter and her section of Bookview Cafe. A section for upcoming publications would be good, probably.

Nothing too fancy or complex, just someplace people can go to see what Judy's up to, that will direct people to Judy's other sites and to the fan community here on LJ.

I have Judy's approval to do all this...I just need to run the finished product by her before launching it.

(And you should definitely read all of Judy's work...I think you'd love it. I have stacks I can let you borrow...)

30th-Oct-2009 05:46 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

And...the week has somehow disappeared. I'm working on ten million different projects right now, and time somehow got away from me.
How 'bout early next week-ish? Sorry I'm such an idiot about time management...

30th-Oct-2009 06:06 pm (UTC)

interactiveleaf

Oh, we're actually a lot alike so when you said "next week-ish" I automatically translated that into "early in the week after next", which is what *I* would have turned out to have meant, despite good intentions.

And, hey, it worked!

My schedule is quite malleable; I just need a day's notice so that I'll know to come into town. If you like, I'll bring my massive old laptop so that we can go out for coffee if we want; anywhere with a power outlet will be good.

Do you want me to register "judithtarr.com"?

30th-Oct-2009 06:22 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

Excellent! I'm available every afternoon and evening...you could come and meet my cat, we could chat about strategies for the site, then go get coffee somewhere...

judithtarr.com would be excellent...does it cost money to register it? Neither she nor I have any spare ducats at this point, so free=awesome. If it's free, go for it, with many thanks and much love. If not, we'll figure something else out.
xoxo

30th-Oct-2009 06:27 pm (UTC)

interactiveleaf

It's not free but it's remarkably cheap, and I cleared spending some money on this project with M, so I'll do that soon. We'll experiment in the meantime with various designs.

30th-Oct-2009 06:37 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

You are so incredibly awesome! Thank you so much! I can totally get you some signed Judith Tarr books in return...I haz the hookup! ;)

Judy likes "plain-to-boring" as a style, so it can be really really basic. She has a sorta-official-author site here, but it doesn't get much traffic and she can't update or change it. It'll give you an idea of style and what we may want to include etc...:
https://www.sff.net/people/judith-tarr/

Have I mentioned lately that you are excessively awesome?
xoxo

22nd-Oct-2009 07:14 pm (UTC)

bramblekite

Poor Mike! Please tell him we are thinking of him & hoping he feels better soon. Oral surgery is a bitch.

Let us know if you need anything, OK? Company, groceries, whatever. I know you don't like the phone, but email works real well; I'm on the computer all day at work.

Good luck with all your projects. Staying busy is good!

23rd-Oct-2009 01:01 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

Thank you, love, and a big thank you from Mike! He's doing much, much better now...he might actually be able to eat something other than pudding and soup one of these days...
xoxoxo

22nd-Oct-2009 08:54 pm (UTC)

ayoub

Good to see you! :D

23rd-Oct-2009 12:24 am (UTC)

moonvoice

Sekrit Projects are win!

Sorry to hear about the sleep deprivation, I'm going through something similar right now - want sleep, can't sleep. :( It sucks.

23rd-Oct-2009 01:03 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

Thanks, love. Sleep is rough at the best of times, but the morning after Mike's surgery, I was confronted with sheets and a pillow soaked in blood. Big time triggers, for me. The lingering effects on my brain are...not pleasant. :(

24th-Oct-2009 07:18 pm (UTC)

lagolindari

Hi,
I'm sorry to bother you :). I noticed your icon in a comment of yours in Reid_love community... it's really lovely! Do you happen to know where I may see the original art?
Thank you :).
Lago

24th-Oct-2009 07:35 pm (UTC)

idiomagic

Hi there! No bother at all.
My icon is Delirium from the Sandman comics. I've had it so long, I can't remember where I grabbed it from, but that should give you a starting point.

Each issue had a different illustrator, and the art was radically different in each one. If you do an image search, you should eventually get there. ;)

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