The New…

Well, now that I’ve worked out the kinks on this new site theme it’s finally time for an update.

First, let’s talk about the new snazzy site layout. I used the ‘Seashell’ theme by Meks and made significant alterations of my own. The appearance is the most notable change, but there are some important differences that are just a little less obvious. Rather than writing a  wordy blog extolling the virtues of these changes I’ll just list the new features and keep it short.

  • ‘Tags’ are now ‘themes’
  • ‘Categories’ are now ‘Categories’ (Yes, they’re different, trust me on this).
  • All Taxonomies can now be filtered on the main page as well as on Archive pages.
    • Available Taxonomies include: Books, Categories, Genres, Story Lengths, Series, Theme, Universe
  • New “Random Fact” and “Arbitrary Quote” widgets located at the bottom of the page.
  • Subscribe and Follow widgets are now located in drop down menus within the navigation bar.
  • Subscribe and Follow widgets also available in the site’s “Contact” page to ensure functionality for users with older browsers. (Seriously though, keep your browser up to date. It’s important to keep your information safe and secure.)
  • Date, author, comment, and taxonomy meta now located within Meta Boxes on the right of every post.
  • More colorful follow widget including a rainbow effect on the tgstorytime button. (Trust me I had the darnedest time making that work which is why it’s been mentioned).
  • Customizable colors on meta box (see poll at bottom of the blog)
  • Recent comments widget now located at the bottom of the page.
  • New subheader box which includes unique background images on all the main pages. With the exception of the archive, individual posts and home page which all share the same header.
  • I’ve transitioned the site to the new Gutenberg Editor which will become the defacto editor in the next major WordPress update. This won’t effect the user experience over all, and the difference will be negligible when actually viewing the site. It is, however, a big change under the hood and vastly changes how I compose my posts.

The Upcoming…

I’d like to thank everybody for participating in the previous site poll. It really helped me get a better idea of what stories people are most interested. The absolutely most popular choice was the Twisted Story, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me given the popularity of Morpheus and his story universes. That being said, it’s between that story and the next runner up my Morgana le Fey centered Ragnarok Rising prequel. I haven’t made my final decision, yet, but I am leaning toward the Twisted story. I’ve worked out what the plot will be and the physical description of the protagonist and created cover images for both.

In addition, since I’ll be coming out with a revised version of Virtually Twisted I decided to update the cover image. Unfortunately, The images I used in the original were rather small so in order to preserve the overall look of the original cover and make a larger vision I had to make a few sacrifices. Overall I think it turned out rather good so I’m willing to live with the shortcomings of the new version.

 

A quick note on the cover for “Morgana”. It is not strictly speaking an original work, it’s based off a very old cover for “Norse Stories” by Hamilton Wright Mabie. It’s fallen into public domain, so there are no legal worries over using the image. As some of you recall I took a similar route with the Ragnarok Rising cover images creating images. You may view all three cover images below. 

See all three covers below:

With the exception of Virtually Twisted, the titles of the stories are not, strictly speaking, set in stone. They could change at some point down the line, but I’m relatively happy with them so it probably won’t happen. The title for A Rock and A Hard Place isn’t particularly original, I admit, but it does have a double meaning. The meaning of the original idiom is very applicable as is the Rock Music motif that you’ve probably picked up on. 

As far as actually story progress, my considerable backlog of story parts for Psyren’s Redemption, isn’t so considerable anymore. Unfortunately, my vacation, real life issues and the site redesign occupied a fair bit of my time. Have no fear, I plan to continue weekly postings. You should not notice any difference on that front.

What you should know, is that I may not be able to serialize the revised Virtually Twisted and whatever story I do finally settle on at the same time. It was never set in stone to begin with, but I feel I should give some form of notice. _If_ it does happen, I do believe that the serialization of A Rock and a Hard Place will begin some time after I’ve begun to post Virtually Twisted.

Sorry, it couldn’t be better news, but those that have been following me since my early days on tgstorytime, bigcloset topshelf and fictionmania probably aren’t very surprised by this new development.

 

The Poll…

One of the coolest things about the theme I’m using is the ability to customize the color of the meta boxes on each post, and, in truth, this particular feature is the main thing that initially attracted me to the theme in the first place. That being said, the more time goes on the less I’m certain that I want the site to be so colorful. I’m considering just using the default color and keeping the meta boxes all the same.

To show you what I mean and for those that desire a visual aid, please refer to the images below (they’re from my test site):

So taking the images above into account, what do you think?

[democracy id=”5″]

Thank you for reading and participating, and don’t forget to have a delightfully demented day,

Daniel A. Wolfe.

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