website

Good Friday, weblings! Did this week seem long or what?

The website is hustling and flowing. The domain name transfer went relatively smoothly. Microsoft transferred it out of their system to an Australian company who charges $37.50 per year! yikes! I paid $8 to transfer it to godaddy because they charge slightly less.

Hosting is through Google sites. Their interface is a tad awkward but I'm getting the hang of it. The hosting is free and I can do pretty much anything I want as far as media capability.

So, after a whole bunch of work and research and experimentation, the website drama is settled. Here is the link in case you want to check out the new digs.

http://www.LeaRyan.com

book working and a black keys video

Last week's sickness really slowed me down last week. However, I am feeling much better. Woo healthy!

I did an evaluation of where I stood on Sunday and was like whoa. I have some serious stuff to finish before the book is released. I do have to do one more read-thru because I made a mistake. I thought I could do a hands-off edit with a printed manuscript. That did not work. If there's writing on paper in front of me, there is a 90% chance I will scribble something on it.

So there will be one more, very quick read-thru that will take me down to the wire on the editing deadline. That's ok because I have enough time, she says hopefully. I will use the kindle this next round.

I have moved most of the website to a new home. The domain hasn't been transferred yet, however, and the wyrm page is still at the old site. I should get all that business resolved by the end of next week if all goes as planned. I wasn't able to get everything on Blogger as I had hoped. When you create pages aside from the primary blog page, they don't have the same functionality as the blog home page.

I decided to use Google sites for home base. The interface is awkward, but I can work with it. It's free too, which is always good. I'll do a post on that when everything is settled.

Have I mentioned my love of The Black Keys? Their music is just this gritty, beat-heavy rock and roll, genius, really. They put out a new video for Gold on the Ceiling, which is one of my favorite songs on the new album. I embedded it below for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

tossing the website into the juggling act

I am so displeased with Microsoft at the moment. For the last couple of years, I've used their website hosting service. The price was great. I never had an issue. I get an email yesterday that they’re discontinuing the service I use, turning it into some kind of Office related mess and jacking up the price by about 600%.

They can keep their overpriced mess as far as I'm concerned. I'm leaving, of course. However, this has presented a couple of problems.

Hosting is a lot more expensive now than it was when I first set up my website. Seriously, ouch. Every company I've looked at charges about $10 a month after their introductory offers expire. That's fine and dandy if you're setting up a storefront, but my website is basically a showroom for my books. I make $0 through the site directly.

I’ve found a couple of free hosting services, but I’m not loving them. I will probably continue looking around.

I have a plan for the moment. It's a pain in the ass, but I think I can make it work. I'm taking my domain name with me by transferring to godaddy. I'm going to link it to this blog and basically turn the blog into my website. That might actually work better in at least one way.

When I first set up my website, I wanted to feed the blog into one of the pages. I wasn't able to do it. If the website moves to the blog, that won't be an issue. Everything will be all close and snuggly.

There is one other problem, however. I've been setting up my blog tour stops using the email address that goes with the website. Once I move on out of Microsoft, that inbox will be no more. That means I'm going to have to notify all the people I've been talking of the new email address and hope no wires get crossed in the process.

I'm working I'm transferring everything this week, so you might see some craziness and new pages popping up in the blog in the next week or so.

a couple of things

First, the title voting results were unanimously in favor of the second title option for the wyrm book. Therefore, the title will be Lair of the White Wyrm.

Second up, I finally finished a project I've been planning for a while. The Fate Binds trilogy now has its very own online home. You can find pretty much everything AnnaBeth there. I've been calling it a media page. There's probably a better word for it.

I will probably do one for every book or series from here on out unless my schedule doesn't allow or a publisher picks me up and decides they want someone else to handle it.

Implementation took a lot of hours Saturday and Sunday. I got to use my new to me version of Dreamweaver, which went pretty smoothly. It works a lot like the old Dreamweaver from Macromedia I used before.

Anyway, the link is below. As always, feedback is welcome. I probably didn’t edit some of the content as well as I should have, so if you alert me to any typos, I shall bestow upon you 20 extra bonus points for awesomeness.

http://learyan.com/Documents/fatebindsHome.html

covers and additional thursday things

I have various items for this fine Thursday. First up, MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth has received its official makeover. The title is now Destined for Darkness. The trilogy is called Fate Binds, which is pretty appropriate for the story. Here is the new cover.



This has all been changed on amazon and smashwords. changes to other outlets are pending. they'll probably take a few weeks to update. Please note that Destined for Darkness is exactly the same book as MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth with minor changes to formatting.

Here is the cover for book 2, Devil in the Branch.



That should be out maybe next summer-ish, possibly spring but probably not.

Ok, next up is website talk. I'm working on a web page for the Fate Binds Trilogy. It will contain the series trailer, info about the books, buy links and bonus materials like author commentary pieces I've written and maybe the illustrations I did for MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth hardcover edition, which is no longer available.

I plan to launch that page when I have some more links to the book, or at least the one for Barnes and Noble. I'll announce it here when everything is up and running.

Thats it for now. I'm going to go attempt to finish the book series trailer.

Drag (not Queen) Racing

The rain actually let up this weekend so we went to the NHRA drag race at Lucas Oil Raceway.

I haven’t been to a drag race in forever, and it was a lot of fun. The cars were extremely loud. The raceway wasn’t crowded at all, which was nice. The spectators were well-behaved, as were my children. The girl kept talking about wanting to drag race.

Here are pictures of rocket cars.

This is the part of the track at which the races start. The two cars in the picture are getting ready to race. That red thing that says Mac Tools is actually a walkway over the track. Functional but a little scary!

Below - packing up the car and the parachute thingy that helps stop the car at the end of the race.



Say, is that a rocket engine on your hood or are you just happy to see me?

I gave the website a bit of a makeover. You might want to check it out if you haven’t been on there in a while. It has a brand spanking new banner and some Facebook ‘like’ buttons on the books (please feel free to like them even if you haven’t read them yet. I won’t tell!). I gave the fiction freebies their own page and embedded the one and only book trailer I’ve made so far. Oh, wait, am I ruining the fun of exploration?

Here is a link.

http://www.LeaRyan.com

Part One is up and running!

The free html e-book of Part One of my debut novel is officially ON THE WEBSITE! I apologize to anyone who visited my website within the last two days and noticed that my event dates were so very incorrect. I think they are now correct. Anywayz, read it, love it, order a full copy on or after May 28th.

www.LeaRyan.com