I need to meet more people.
I was sitting at my computer, like I seem to be doing for the majority of my time these days, mindlessly searching. “Searching for what?” you might ask. Well, my answer is a pretty simple one.
“People.”
For a blogger, I think I’m both insulated and divided. I’m insulated because, well, I don’t “talk” (read: comment) to many other people, and other people don’t talk back. And I’m divided because I hang in three main groups, in three different places. I follow authors on my livejournal, book bloggers via On The Nightstand, and everyone else here at Catherine-Haines.com.
It’s an odd feeling, as sometimes I feel like I am at least two different people, if not three. And that all of them are very lonely. I/We all sit around and lurk on various places. I/We want to comment, but it’s hard to find something that I/we have something to say about.
And I know everyone hates really simple one-liners, those “love the layout!” comments that don’t match the entry. So it’s back to lurking once more.
That’s why I am writing this post. I know you have to give a little to get a little. What I want to get is communication, blogs to read and blogs to comment on, and I suppose communication is what I can offer to give back. But what I would like from you is a starting point.
Who do you follow, who do you read? Those who do know me, who do you think I should follow, that I might like?
Like many others in the blogoverse, I will be taking part in a little thing called Bloggiesta, for both On The Nightstand and Catherine-Haines.com.
What is Bloggiesta? Well, I am actually going to quote the person I found Bloggiesta by, Pam:
What is Bloggiesta? Well it is a special weekend for bloggers from any genre (ie. mommy, movie review, tech, lit, any blog on the planet), to spend some time doing maintenance on our blogs and social networking sites. The post on exactly how to join, and what exactly you need to be doing is located here at Maw Books (the event coordinator). The button you see to the top left is what brands this challenge so make sure to steal that and put it on your blog with your post detailing what it is you need to get done on your blog!
Here are some of the things that I am going to do for Bloggiesta.
For Catherine-Haines.com
Update the writing page to include information about LionheartRedesign the main navigation stripAdd and update links on navigation and on the links page
For On The Nightstand
- Write reviews for:
- Eyes Like Stars
- Prophecy of the Sisters
Fortune’s Folly (or rather, finish that review)
- Update my about and contact/review policy pages.
- Write up that post which explains my coding/styling for the way I set up my posts and reviews (since people have asked)
- Create that template form for my review format.
Edit the background image thing for the ways to subscribe right down in the corner.
General
More will probably pop into my head between now and Friday the 19th. So question is, will you be taking part in Bloggiesta?
I have invented a machine that makes you hear the title of this post in the voice of Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.
No, wait. That’s not it.
The good news is that my computer has been resurrected as a zombie. No, not as a vampire, which is a case of being both cursed with awesome and blessed with suck, a zombie. Instead of gaining immortality and superior strength and senses etc. my computer has come back only to slowly rot and fall apart. I have taken to calling my laptop Owen, partially because of the state the computer is in, and also due to the eventual replacement being called Torchwood Three.
Insert your own “turn on Torchwood” jokes here. It’s all right – it’s one of the reasons I chose the name. 
Anyway, to celebrate the return of my laptop I have been able to finish the design I started a little while ago. I hope you like it.
And now I can go back to The Superhero Diaries. 
The one thing I dislike about starting a new blog is the emptiness of it all. I’m keeping both Disdainful-Soul.net and Working Title up for various reasons, such as archival purposes and the many subdomains I have on those domains (like On The Nightstand, my book review blog).
The writing page now actually has little blurbs on each of my current projects – ranging from Blood Bound, which is currently in the final stages of editing before I start querying, to Bones and The Superhero Diaries. All the little excerpts that were on Working Title are now up there, with the addition of the Bones stuff. I’ll soon be transferring over the short fiction and putting it under some category or other, but right now it is not a priority.
Some of you may have noticed a change in the header and navigation. I like this a lot better as it streamlines the whole thing, plus it is easier to change the navigation (add/subtract/edit) than when it is just straight images. Plus it changes on hover, which is always fun.
Everything else is pretty much minor, really: I fixed a typo in the last.fm link, and made the contact page link very visible. I also finally set up the feedburner feed, so if you want to follow the blog you can add the C-H.com feed to your RSS reader.
Don’t know what RSS and RSS readers are all about? Start with the wiki entry and go from there. The reader I use is Google Reader.
I do have a “real” post planned and I will get on with writing it asap. I just wanted to update you on this first.
I think the title pretty much sums up my thoughts for the moment.
I’ve been meaning to turn Catherine-Haines.com, my name domain, into a proper little site for a while now, but I just lacked either the motivation or the inspiration or whatever to do something with it. It was, after all, quite content to just sit there and be a little portal to all my other sites.
And then, as is so often the case, I got hit with a flash of genius. Unfortunately, as is also so often, it didn’t work out quite as well as it did in my head. I may have something to do with being midnight, but other factors might be involved as well.
But a goodnight sleep later and a good proper think about things the idea developed and a design created that actually worked. That design is the one you see here, all blue and floral and with all sorts of little touches around the edges. There are probably a few little tweaks and additions that could be made, but other than that it’s pretty much all systems are go!
It’s highly unlikely that a wheel will fall of, or anything even more drastic than that.
So, let’s see what we have:
- Charts showing my progress with my other projects, Bones and The Superhero Diaries
- Links to all my social networking sites. Thanks to the lovely Mimi for the little pixels.
- A writing page with info about Blood Bound and The Superhero Diaries, complete with extracts. Bones needs to have that done and I know it – no need to remind me on that one.
- A links page that is slowly growing. There are many authors etc. to add so if you don’t see yourselves on the list just drop me a line – I didn’t intend to lose you in the transfer, I promise!
And, if all goes well, not only should this post appear on my Twitter account, but also on my MySpace.
And here we go…
