I (Christopher) have been giving the http://www.triscellepublishing.com website a bit of a content upgrade, in addition adding buttons for certain links, instead of text-based hyperlinks. I will go into more depth as to what website changes I have been making, I will show you where you can find out where we will be for our next book signings, and I will remind everyone of the free giveaway of our book of your choice through Goodreads. Click below for more:

Website Content Improvements

For the last two years or so, I have been producing print books, eBooks, and various marketing materials via Adobe inDesign CS5.5 through a subscription program. Recently, however, Adobe launched their Creative Cloud service, which allows me to install any and all Adobe products I want (be it inDesign, FireWorks, Dreamweaver, PhotoShop, Acrobat, Flash, Illustrator… the entire CS6 line, all for one monthly subscription fee. Anyway, in an attempt to make this seem less like an advertisement, I soon found myself with more tools than I knew what to do with.

Our website had not been updated in some time… partly because I couldn’t decide what all of the changes were that needed to be made. Khanada Taylor, Heather’s and my close friend as well as cover artist, interior artist, and web designer created a beautiful site for us, complete with a consistent theme that represented the Roman / Celtic duality reflected in the Morrigan’s Brood Series, as well as a solid structure. Unfortunately, time, work, busyness, laziness (on my part), and a lack of proper tools (also on my part) happened, and so the website went without update for a few years. Well, since I got my new tools, I have been revving for a chance to use them, and so I began to update the site a little over a week ago.

Site Structure and Content Improvements

The original site structure included:

• The Books (synopses with links to a few websites that contained supplemental information)
• Characters (character bios)
• Blood-Drinker Lines
• About (about the authors)
• Galleries (fan art)
• Links (affiliate sites and bibliographic information)
• Reviews (our four original book reviews)
• Order & Contact (how to order book 1 and how to email us)

I have recently changed the titles of the sites after condensing some of the content where it seemed appropriate, thus enabling me to re-purpose some of the site pages.  I also modified the header file and the Roman key pattern file in the footer to reflect this new structure.  Here are the new sections, complete with links and a summary of contents / changes:

• Main site [not a tab, but it is the first page most visit] – Updated the content and moved the poem to the left in order to make greater use of space.
• The Books – Added all of our books, included book review links and buy pages, and employed temporary buttons (more on that later).
• Characters – Copied the Character Guide and Pronunciation Guide from Morrigan’s Brood: Morrigan’s Brood Book I.  In order to reduce the chance of spoilers, for now I will only include the Character Guide content from book 1, as that content is different in each book to reflect changes in the character since the last book of the series.
• Mythology – I combined the Gods and Goddesses of the Series content with the Lines of Blood-Drinkers content… both of which I copied from book 1.
• About – I included separate profile pictures for Heather and I, button links to our email and our profiles on some social media sites, updated bios, and links to interviews we have participated in.  This is also structured so we could add other authors if the need arises.
• Galleries – I kept the fan art, which Khanada Taylor contributed, and I welcome others to do so as well.  However, I decided to add the cover art for books 1, 2, and 3, the maps from books 1 & 2, Madness & Reckoning, and book 3, and the map guides from those books as well.  I may also add photos from events we have attended, but that content might be better situated elsewhere…
• Links – I have made no changes here as of yet, though I might pretty it up a bit with buttons at a later date.
• Reviews – For now, I have kept this page intact, but since these reviews can already be found on Amazon, Goodreads, and other places, I am strongly thinking of re-purposing this page, though for what purpose I know not.  This could be where I include pictures from events we have attended, if I don’t stick them in the Galleries page.  However, that is but one idea…
• Events – I was surprised that we had not thought of adding events to the original site design.  Once I had eliminated the out-dated buy link from this page, I struggled for a new purpose.  Then I recalled that the only forum I have been using for posting events was this blog.  Now, site visitors can look at where we are going to be and where we have been.  I still need to add where we have been, but I do have all of the 2012 events listed prominently.

Buttons

I think my greatest contribution to this site will be the use of buttons in replace of many of the hyperlinks within tables that used to dominate these pages. I felt buttons would be a way to highlight more of Khanada’s artwork and increase the color range of the site’s pages. The buttons you see now on the site’s pages are temporary; I threw these together in Microsoft PowerPoint and saved them as .png graphics files. I am creating the new buttons in Adobe FireWorks CS6, one of the new toys I mentioned. I know what I want the buttons to look like, but I need to find some way to pass the button text from the website’s code to the button’s code, so I don’t have to have a separate graphics file for each neutral and hovered state. The graphics at the top are examples of the new buttons featuring Khanada Taylor’s art. I think you will like the new buttons much better than the temporary ones out there now.

So, that is it for the website updates, thus far. One of these days, I hope to be able to tell you that I have completed my updates, but I have other work to do as well. There is never any rest for the wicked or the weary, and I am both.

Goodreads Free Book Giveaway

Once again, I love Goodreads; I think it is my favorite site for readers. I wrote it before and I shall write it again: “I only wish I could spend more time interacting with readers on it”. Please click on the appropriate links to enter to win a copy of our first novel. If you win the free giveaway and you already have one or more of our books, we will send you one you do not have; if the one you don’t have just happens to be book IV, we will send you one of the first copies of book IV when it has been released. Look below for more information:

Up and Coming Events

Now I can direct people to our Events page on our website. Oh, but we will be rescheduling the book-signing at the Magick Cauldron, though we haven’t yet determined a new date.

Thanks to our family, friends, and fans for your support!