websites « Patti O'Shea's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘websites’

Random

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

I couldn’t come up with a topic to blog about and so I thought, hey, I’ll do a random website generator and blog about whatever turns up. The first site I ended up on sold sex toys. I decided to try again. The second attempt was a bit more conducive to blogging.

Site two was Dubtown Urban Exploring. The site is in German, and while I did take that language in high school and college, I’ve lost a lot of my skills, so I had to rely on Google translator. Not the most accurate thing ever, but enough so that I could understand what I was looking at. This site has some hugely interesting photos of abandoned buildings. One of them is a sanatorium that was built in 1899 and its in great disrepair. It’s also hugely fascinating to me.

A lot of my stories take place in derelict buildings and warehouses. The images are wonderful for getting the imagination firing. I’ve also spent the past couple of days thinking about a story that I’d planned to work on months ago, but got sidetracked by other things. This site will definitely be perfect for inspiration on that front, too.

The other thing that struck me is that it would be pretty cool to take a camera and go out exploring like this person did. It just shows that anything can be art. I’ve bookmarked the site to return to in the future.

Tags: photography, websites
Posted in Misc | 2 Comments »

Why You Won’t See “What I’m Working On”

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Tuesday on Twitter, people retweeted a link to what authors must have on their websites. The items I remember off the top of my head are: A printable book list. I have this. A list of all books. I have this. A coming next page and a works in progress page. I have the coming next page, but don’t have the work in progress page and I’m not sure it’s something I want to do.

For one thing, not every proposal for a book sells. If I talk about an idea and never write more than three chapters of it, will readers be disappointed? After all, if I talked about it, people should expect me to write it. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll be onto the next project.

The second thing is that I don’t necessarily sell my projects in the order I work on them. In 2004, I wrote the proposal for In the Midnight Hour and In Twilight’s Shadow. Then I wrote the proposal for Eternal Nights and finally the proposal for Through a Crimson Veil. I sold them in the reverse order. In fact, it took 18 months to sell Midnight Hour and by then I’d finished my Crimson story and was working on EN. It was another six months after that before I actually wrote Midnight.

In this set of circumstances, I can’t see where it’s beneficial to officially talk about my stories in progress. The coming next page, though, is a different case. Anything I post there is contracted work and will be released.

It was nice to know that I’m doing stuff mostly right. I do have all my books listed on one page, but with links that breaks them into either subgenre (in case someone wants paranormal romance, but not science fiction romance or vice versa) and also into series (so if you read one Light Warriors book and want more, they’re all available). I also saw in the comments that publication dates with the books is a good thing. I’ve done that as well, at least the year, if not the month and year.

Reading the comments to the blog post highlighted something interesting to me–there are still authors without websites or authors who don’t bother to update their websites for years. I knew a bunch of older authors didn’t have sites because I’ve tried to find them after I talked about their books, but I didn’t think authors publishing now didn’t have sites. Wow.

Tags: websites
Posted in Books, Writing | 2 Comments »

Adjustments

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about searching for royalty-free photos online and what an ordeal it was. I had a few people ask me why I was taking the time to look. Now that things are in place, I can answer this question. If you’ve visited my website previously, you would have noted that the anchor image was the running couple from my Crimson Veil book. They’ve been replaced.

Check out my website’s home page to see the new couple!

The new picture fits in so seamlessly, it looks as if was always there, doesn’t it?

Even though it took forever to do the image search and even though I didn’t find another running couple (who weren’t smiling), I think the new image works really well. I like that they’re holding hands and that the woman is in front. To me, it looks like they’re partners and I usually write heroes and heroines who work together as a team. They’re even wearing dark clothes.

In other news, I’m working on edits for Shadow’s Caress, my Feb 2011 release from Nocturne Bites. It looks as if the title is set now and I’m relieved that I don’t have to brainstorm more ideas. Titles are really hard for me, and for some bizarre reason, I’ve been able to keep about half of the ones I’ve come up with. Go figure.

Tags: pictures, websites
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Website Is Back

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

It took 2 days, but my website is back online! If you go visit www.pattioshea.com, let me know if anything looks wrong or broken. Thanks!

Tags: websites
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

I’ve Redecorated!

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

My newly redesigned website is live! I think it turned out great, so please come over and take a look around. www.pattioshea.com

Confession time–it’s been really tough for me to give up control of my site. I didn’t think I’d have a problem, or at least not too much of one, but I am. Maybe because it’s been 7 years of being completely my baby. As soon as I sold my first book, I signed up for HTML classes, learned CSS (another web program), and worked to pick up other skills as I went along. But I knew it was time to stand back. I’d exhausted my meager skills as a web person and I needed someone who was beyond what I was capable of creating. Time is also a factor–I just don’t have enough of it any more to keep up with the site. This is where the real letting go is going to be tough–not doing my own updates any longer. Ouch! I’m sure once I get over the emotional issues of letting go, I’ll be fine and the site is beautiful!

It’s not completely done yet. I’m going to add an actual blog there. I’m still going to keep my Blogger and MySpace pages, too, but I’ll be mirroring the posts rather than posting live. I’m excited about this because it was something I wanted to do from the start, but 4 years ago when I started blogging, I didn’t know how to put it on my site and so I just went over to Blogspot because it was easier. I added MySpace when I joined, but having the blog on my site will give visitors one-stop shopping.

The other news is that my Blogger page will be getting redone to match my cool new website! Yea! It’s time for a new look there, too. No changes on MySpace, but I already have a cool look there.

So come on over to my newly redecorated home, take a look around, have a cocktail. We’ll consider this a cyberspace open house.

Tags: websites
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Christmas Websites

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Since it’s the weekend before Christmas, I thought I’d go in search of some cool sites for the holiday. I found a few.

North Pole.com is broken into three sections: Kids, Parents, and Teachers. There’s a list of free things to do here, including sending a letter to Santa, a visit to Elf Pal Academy, puzzles and activities, and stories to read and color. There’s also a section for Christmas recipes and you do not want to miss the disco-dancing Santa Claus.

Next up is The Official Website of Santa Claus. Here you can send a letter to Santa, find out about traditions around the world, and read about the physics of Santa.

Santa’s Net also has a section of world traditions, song lyrics for some holiday favorites, and a naughty or nice list checker. Where do you fall? Also another opportunity to email Santa.

Find more recipes at Christmas-Cookies.com. The count is 540+ recipes and people can leave comments. Also has low carb cookies, country of origin listings, and baking tips. For those of us who um, nearly set fire to microwave popcorn, ahem, this last part might come in handy.

Merry-Christmas.com has games like elf tic-tac-toe, boxing with Santa, and a few trivia games. See how much you know about It’s a Wonderful Life. There’s also a section for kids where they can email Santa, find coloring pages–both for online and off, and download free MP3 music. This site also has a section on traditions and another for recipes. And if you’re looking for gift tags, you can print some out here for free.

I’ve only browsed through these sites briefly, so as always, use caution on the net, but they looked okay in the time I spent there. Enjoy!

Tags: christmas, holidays, websites
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Random, Totally Random

Friday, December 5th, 2008

I needed a blog topic for tonight and was getting desperate. I searched news headlines for articles I could maybe talk about about, but nothing grabbed me. Then I thought, well, maybe I’ll head over to Google and search for someone who has suggestions about interesting blog topics. That was no help. My next idea was to use the “I feel Lucky” button on Google. For some reason, I thought it would take me to a random website, but unfortunately that isn’t what it does. It takes you to the first website listed in your search results. Pfft. That wasn’t what I was looking for.

Then I googled “random website” and lo and behold, there are sites out there that do just that–take one to a random website. The first one I found is called Random Website Dot Com and the other was Memory Cloud/Random Website Generator.

In my exploration for a topic, I was taken to a website with wallpapers–some cool ones, an animal rights group website, zombie nation, and project censored, the news that didn’t make the news. Some of these were meh, and others were interesting and I’ve bookmarked them to explore later. But while I did find some cool stuff, I still had no blog topic.

Then I was taken to the Inspirational Quotes website. Now this is something I can go with. I love inspirational quotes. So my quote of the day is:

If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.

~Henry David Thoreau

Is that cool or what? To me, what he’s saying is that the dreamer should do more than merely dream. He’s saying that the dreamer should do the work necessary to make his/her dreams come true. I totally believe that. I can’t imagine looking back and having regrets.

Now granted, some dreams are impossible, but I’m not talking about things like becoming an Olympic gymnast or something that would bankrupt a Rockefeller. I’m talking about pursuing reasonably achievable dreams. Like writing. Go for it!

Tags: blogging, dreams, random, websites
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

The Blog Where Patti Rants

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

First, I updated my website today and added a new Extras page. This is a work in progress, but so far I have a glossary for the Light Warriors series, a list of the theme songs for all my books, and the videos are grouped together. I used bookmarks so it’s easy to access the information you’re interested in seeing.

Now, beware, I’m about to rant.

Today, I received an email from an author I have never heard of before in my life. I most definitely never signed up for her newsletter nor did I enter any contest she might have been running because I don’t enter contests from other authors. I figure they’d rather have a reader win than another writer and I do them the courtesy of not throwing my name in the pool. Yet for some unknown reason, this woman thought it was okay to just add me to her newsletter list. Grrr.

To say this irritated me is understating things. The only way people get on my newsletter is if they sign up for it, or they enter a contest where they are given fair warning that entering will put them on my newsletter mailings–and I haven’t even held a contest in a couple of years. You’d think the law of karma would protect me, but I guess not.

Where do some people get their idea of proper online etiquette? Just because my email address is available on various loops (and this was the email address I use for loop email) does not mean that I’m fair game. If she harvested this address from any of the writing loops I’m on, she violated list rules on top of spamming, and given the genre of her book, I have a fair idea from which loop she might have gotten my name.

This author accomplished thing–she ticked me off. Big time. Enough that I will never buy a book from her. I don’t appreciate spam whether it’s for Viagra, penis enlargement, or an author.

Now extrapolate. She harvested my email address, so odds are good she harvested others–probably a lot of others–and they were spammed, too. Probably a lot of these people are as angry as I am about it. Does she really think she did herself a big favor by sending out this email to all of us?

Don’t spam, people, it’s not nice.

Tags: annoyances, spam, websites
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Books and Links

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

I heard some people already have their books to judge for the RITA Awards. I’m not one of them, but then I always seem to get my books later than most others. It’s frustrating, though, because the more time I have to read, the easier it’ll be to get them all in before the deadline. Sometimes judges really get slammed with a huge amount of entries. IIRC, I had eight last year. That’s a lot of reading in a short time.

I was talking to a guy at work Friday about Linux and Ubuntu because I heard about this really small, light laptop that’s incredibly cheap. The EEE from ASUS (you can read more about it here if you’re interested), but it runs Linux and I’ve never used that before. So this guy at work is geekier with computers than I am and not only is he running it, he says his laptop boots up incredibly fast. Unlike with Windows where I can basically make coffee and still sit and wait. That speed makes it incredibly tempting. And this wouldn’t be a substitute for the current laptop, but a traveling version. But since I still haven’t made a decision on a new desktop computer after 2 years of consideration, I don’t guess I’ll be moving too fast on this.

Today is my local chapter meeting and I’m hoping to attend, but before I go, I found a fun web page. If you’ve owned a dog, you might find this amusing.

Tags: computer, rita, websites
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

New Website!

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

It’s official; the new website is up and functional! Yea! There’s still some work to be done. One of the pages has an awkward layout and there’s other little things that need tweaking, but the major work is done. You can take a look at pattioshea.com and let me know what you think. If it totally sucks, I can reload the old site, but I’m really hoping it’s okay and I’m totally excited to have something new.

New Year’s Day was spent at the Evil Day Job (EDJ). Sigh. I can’t believe they make us work on a holiday like this. There was one other person there yesterday since only my union lost this particular holiday–the other unions and management lost other holidays–and there are only like five of us from this union on the floor. It was nice and quiet and I was actually able to take my lunch hour without ear plugs. Too bad I wasn’t writing yet because it would have been perfect.

Today I begin the new book. I’m actually looking forward to getting started and I probably would have kicked off on Monday if I hadn’t gotten bogged down in my brilliant idea to redesign the website. No tweaking it for the rest of this week. I have to clean my house and write. The site can wait till Saturday evening or longer. Unless it sucks and I need to reload the old one, of course.

Tags: design, EDJ, websites, writing
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »