"Pardon Our Dust" Sign - Gone!

It's been three and a half years since Timothy decided to overhaul the BryonySeries website to reflect the tone of all the books in the series - and subsequently posted a "pardon our dust" sign on the landing page.

That sign is now officially down.

For the most part, the website is complete, functional, and in line with the design Timothy intended to communicate, which complemented my original vision: that the website be fun to navigate and reflect the BryonySeries world.

What's really amazing is that Timothy does not understand code and has never studied code or taken a coding class. He studied Wix, took one marketing class, read some of the BryonySeries books, and has spent time on thousands of websites.

I'm sure he'll forever be tweaking it.

Now we are still in the process of building the store for eBooks and audio books, a process that may take a while.

And we are still the process of building the newsletter.

But neither of those projects take away from the reality that the website is finished with almost all elements in place, fully useable and fuctional, and, most of all, built for your enjoyment.

What will you find there?

An overview of our books.

Food!

Our very own store of print titles

A calendar of daily fun activities that tie into one or more books

Links to social media accounts (all accounts feature different information)

A marvelous abundance of original art created by local artists

An introduction to our creative team

A homage to the original site in a special pictorial "tour."

A few Easter eggs

A traveling rooster

So do explore! 

And don't forget to register for Calkins Day 2022 (click on BryonySeries site assistance and information at the bottom of each page to find the registration page).

Welcome to Munsonville! :)

https://www.bryonyseries.com/

Free Shipping Continues For Now

So now is a good time to check out our BryonySeries store and buy any combination and any amount of print books. All shipping charges are still waived, for now.

We are only offering it on print because that is the only part of the store that is currently in place. For eBooks, you still have to order from Amazon.

And if you haven't checked out our "recipe of the week" on the Sue's Diner page yet, check it out here.

Also, you might want to check out our BryonySeries calendar, which has been up and running for close to a year.

This has gone through many revisions by Timothy, so that the the visitor (YOU) could have a great experience and so that the creator (ME) could stop screwing it up behind the scenes.

But what you'll find there (again, ALL Timothy's idea) are events (when we have them again) and great activity suggestions based on the various books in the series. 

Timothy set the calendar up like a vintage Advent calendar, with all the fun of, "What's behind door number..."

Some activities are aimed at youg kids, some at adults, but MOST are aimed at any age, so old and young can enjoy together.

But behind every date lies an event. And all the events on the current calendar will change next month.

For instance, check out today's event. 

And have a great Thursday.

Just Released: "The Phoenix"

The first book in the new BryonySeries "Limbo" trilogy was just released a couple of days ago.

The book is called The Phoenix, and you can buy it through the brand new, fully functioning, BryonySeries store.

Shipping is free on all BryonySeries products until at least June 15.

Here is the summary of The Phoenix:

"Late 1895 in Munsonville, Michigan is all about survival and rebuilding: for the fishing village still reeling from deadly tragedies, for twelve-year-old Marie Clare who is grounded at Munsonville Inn with her dying father, and for two newly turned vampires foraging their meals from a dwindling supply of villagers.

"But to rise strong and unscathed, some will be sacrificed along the way. Who gets to live and thrive? And who decides?"

Enjoy!

The Mystery of the Disappearing Calendar: Solved!

What's the old saying? You learn something new everyday?

Well, we learned something new on Saturday about how the back door of our BryonySeries site works.

Like many authors, we use a website builder to create the website, because none of us are web designers with coding skills.

Now, except for updating the events calendar, I rarely make any changes to the site - Timothy has pretty much assumed the reigns there.

But apparently "except for updating the events calendar" is problematic if we are both in the site at the same time. 

I'll explain.

Tuesday was the last day I posted any events because I had received messages from people who clicked on the link and could not access the promised content. On this particular day, the content was coloring pages of Vikings.

So I waited until Saturday night when Timothy was not working to update the calendar. I figured if I had trouble, he could troubleshoot it, since he hand-built it.

Well, I had trouble with events either not saving or not publishing. So I called Timothy - who just happened to be working on the BryonySeries store.

We had some back and forth conversation and testing of saving and publishing and...voila! Mystery of the disappearing events solved.

New protocol: I cannot go into the back door of the BryonySeries website without first checking with Timothy.

Here are the events you may have missed. You can see them here. 

January 1: Listen to the other-worldly sounds of a frozen lake in winter.

January 2: Enjoy a really nice version of Auld Lang Syne by The Irish Rovers.

January 3: Learn about a famous faith healer of the nineteenth century.

January 4: Create a fun, mouse-themed tic tac toe game for you and the child in your life to play together.

January 5: Check out a variety of free, printable coloring pages of the Vikings.

January 6: Look at the type of tree you can make from cardboard!

January 7: Do you like to write your own stories? Are you over eighteen?

​Consider joining WriteOn Joliet 

January 8: Learn a few quick facts about the poisonous plant bryony, for whom the BryonySeries is named.

January 9: For bored kids and adults: make your own leprechaun sand from two ingredients you most likely have in your cabinet.

January 10: ​Read about which five Bordeaux wines are among the most expensive in the world.

It Takes a Village...

...or maybe a "Board of Trustees."

Anyway, when Sarah first began designing the BryonySeries website, she wanted to dedicate an entire page to me (gack!).

Obviously my contribution as author was an important one, but it wasn't the only one in terms of the series' "feel."

And I also felt the other creative contributions should be recognized, too. And not in a "me" and "everybody else" way either.

Moreover, since the website concept was to mirror the series, a page that included everyone (Board of Trustees; if you've read the first book Bryony, you'll understand) was the best way to go.

The page is not nearly complete (for instance, the artist for our landing page art, the beautiful pen and ink aerial view of "Munsonville," is not yet added), but it gives you a great idea of the talent behind the concept.

Check out the team here.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

Website Experiments

Ever since Timothy Baran took a marketing class last year, he's combined his love for visual art with some of the information he's learned.

He's still playing around with the BryonySeries website and, rather spontaneously, spent quite a few hours with it over the last couple of days.

Now he hasn't published everything yet, but the work so far looks great, I think.

Of course, Jenny Rosenboom's rendition of Main Street for the landing page is absolutely brilliant in its detail and in capturing our vision, and we are extremely thankful to her for creating it.

Have a look: bryonyseries.com.

Illustration by Jennifer Rosenboom for the BryonySeries