Fantasy Smackdown - CONGRATS JamesDSwinney

@TheOrangutan - No problem, hun. I figured. ^_^ Just tagged you because you were on the thread before. I know you've got your hands full with the sci fi smackdown and everything else you do.

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@dreamingthought - thanks boss. I'd love to join in really, but I'm trying desperately to get my stuff ready to publish and it's taking a while...

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@TheOrangutan wow, publish, which piece/pieces are you publishing? Are you talking e-book, or actually physical print? Exciting!

I keep saying i'm going to put together an e-book, but the thought of revising enough of my work to do that always puts me off, and I find other ways to distract myself. :)

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@dreamingthought - I've had a couple of short pieces accepted by two different publishers, both are going in compilations available on Amazon. I'm also trying to get my own compilation together so I can throw it on Kindle at the same time. And do a website... chaos...

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@TheOrangutan haha, gotcha. That's awesome. I'll have to pick your brain sometime about how you got your short pieces accepted... considering that seems to be all I manage to finish. A website, eh? Got a good designer helping you with that? Or are you going with some thing pre-fab. There's lots of great content management options out there these days that really do help with that.

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@dreamingthought - I just submitted them to various sites and hoped really. =] I subscribed to Duotrope recently and they send out a weekly list of site who're accepting submissions. Handy.

I'm doing the website myself but have managed to lose my program disks. Frustrating as hell. Might yet have to go pre-fab if you know of any decent sites that could help...

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@TheOrangutan Depends on your hosting service and what you have in mind for your site, but I did do website design for a while, so i'd be happy to make suggestions/help.

I tend to recommend WordPress for content management. There are lots of premade templates to choose from This is a site I helped my husband set up using it: http://protectthedreamband.com/

I'd made soem others, but can't think of any worth showing you at the moment.

Weebly is really simple for the less than web literate http://www.weebly.com/ It's all drag and drop.

I'll think on it some more and see if I can't come up with some others.

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@dreamingthought - thanks boss, I'll have a look at them. I've actually done some web design before but have just misplaced the program i normally use. All help gratefully received. Cheers, Gav

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@TheOrangutan No problem. Raw HTML and content management downloaded for free is the way to go. Saves you the problem of dealing with cumbersome programs.

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@TheOrangutan @dreamingthought Random addition to this, I love me my dreamweaver if you have acess to it but it does take more HTML knowledge to use. I remember when I would hand code and hated wysiwyg editors. Back then code wasn't as complicated haha but dreamweaver... Oh how I love it so!

I miss doing websites but i do agree starting with a template is easier when crunched for time. My friend swears by wordpress! Its what she uses to advertise her own books & what not and she has very little HTML knowledge.

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@Prisim The only tough part with wordpress is teh set up. And there are SO many plug ins. It's great once you get the right template, modify it and load it up with plugins.

I'm still hard core hand coding. i dont' like the programs.

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@dreamingthought - I used to run an office mag which was internal web based. That was all hand coded. It was a challenge but I kinda enjoyed it. Trouble is I haven't done that sorta thing for about 5 yrs and I'm a little rusty.

@Prisim - thanks for the input =]

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@TheOrangutan There's a really good free program I use called HTML kit, it's free and it helps with hand coding for HTML. Highlights stuff and auto proofs things for you. http://www.htmlkit.com/download/

I tend to use it since i'm so typo prone. XD

But I know what you mean. I'm quite rusty as well, which is why I stick to content management like WordPress.

http://wordpress.org/

Since you're pretty web literate, it should be easy enough to download, install (i think you need an apache server) and then load some templates to modify.

It's great because you update it much like a blog, yet you can get all these great plug ins to create galleries, calendars and such. I really think it is the way to go these days.

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@dreamingthought - I can see my lunchtime today will be busy... thanks for the help boss, it's much appreciated. Cheers, Gav

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@TheOrangutan lol, whatever works for you. I just know what I like to use... Wish i was more in the know to be able to give you better advice. And what's with the boss business? That's what I call my son when he's being bossy. Are you implying I'm bossy? .... now I know where he gets it from...

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@dreamingthought - I'm just hopeless with names, so I call everyone 'mate' or 'boss' or some similar epithet. Women are always the boss though aren't they? =]

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@TheOrangutan And you have just given me another reason to adore you. Why yes, yes we are. And so are opinionated four year olds... in their own little heads at least.

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@dreamingthought - and 4yr olds also know everything, whereas men are under no illusions that we only know everything when we've had a beer or two (and there are no women around to correct us) =]

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oops

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