Web site frustrations

I give up chasing the elusive guestbook. I really wanted to have one; I really don't want to wreck my health and alienate everyone I care about, while locked into an obessive love/hate relationship with my computer for day after 18-20 hour day. I have tried every possible means of building one in Expression Web, including copying code line by line from the official Microsoft tutorials for things like building forms in the software. And guess what? The tutorial directions were just as full of coding errors as my freelancing drag and drop.Some day, some brave techie will push beyond that horizon and publish the results online. When s/he does, I'll copy them. Until then, I'm damned if I'll pay Mr. Bill Gates a single penny for an email tech support session. I mean, let's face it: A) His techies already told me how to do it wrong in the tutorials and B) Mr. Gates already got enough of my money for the stupid software. So I've taken down the broken guestbook, and eliminated the links from the website. But I'm still a writer, still a wordsmith, still a storyteller. Without some sort of audience to my work, I'm just the crazy chick mumbling to herself in the corner. So please, if you were here, if you liked the look of the site or a book--or if you hated either one, or anything in between--please take the time to drop me an email comment. I really do enjoy feedback, whether or not I always agree with it. Until next time. I'm off to breath some fresh air for a while, after which I might get some sleep, for the first time in a week.

A web site is born!

Well, I finally finished the web site. Sort of. It's definitely been a wild ride so far. I could have gone with one of the free hosting sites that has lots of templates to work with, and didn't for several reasons. If you're really interested in knowing the reasons, email me, and I'll delve into that later, here. DON'T try leaving comments in the guest book yet. It isn't functional, and I'll fix it as soon as possible. But so far as building the site goes, there is nothing so humbling as learning something new. It's great for letting you know how much you don't know. And just as an FYI, don't let anybody tell you that Microsoft Expression Web 2 is a "pick it up and use it" program. Might be for some folks. Wasn't for me. Another part of the experience was digging around online after I'd mostly built the site and finding lots of objections to some facets I incorporated in it. (No, I never read the directions first. Who does?) At the risk of offending someone, somewhere, I have to say that the site remains as designed unless I find some compelling reason to change it. The objections were mainly to things like cluttered pages and bold colors, bright contrast, etc. Again, there are several issues here, and if you really want them, let me know, but regarding color and contrast, one big factor is I don't see so good. The bold colors and vivid contrasts are necessary for me to get the work done on the page. So I apologize if they give you a headache, but otherwise they weren't going to get done at all. This particular page might or might not turn out to be some sort of blog. It will probably evolve as we go along. If and/or when I find a better format, I'll use it, and I'll try to stick something in here about once a month or so. If there's some particular subject you'd like me to address, again, email me. So anyway, voila! Here's the site, in the early stages of evolution. The books are beginning to appear on it, and those pages seem to work fine. There will be more books in the future, if I can persuade some publisher(s) to it. Hope you enjoy the site; hope you read and enjoy the books. Have a wonderful day.