"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/

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.

See What Rebekah Made For Me in 2020 (and how that might help you)

Today is my family's Christmas celebration. And today is Rebekah's twenty-seventh birthday, too.

So since we're celebrating the spirit of giving and two gifts from God (His Son and my daughter), I'd like to share what Rebekah did for me - and what she can do for you, too.

Since I spent most of my time at home in 2020, I decided not to waste my time. Because once I can be out and about again, out and about is where I'll want to be. So I used my time at home productively.

Among my various projects, I decided to accept some additional editing projects from other writers, not too many, just six. Plus I completed two projects I began from the previous year.

Some writers also reached out asking for help with book formatting (print and eBook), the self-publishing process, and website design, which are more of Rebekah's skills.

So Rebekah made this website for me/us: dmbaranunland.com.

Browse through its pages and reach out if we can be of any help to you, too.

On a completely separate note, the BryonySeries Holiday Book Sale (with free coupons to The Book Market in Crest Hill as a "thank you" for your purchase) ends today - but I'll actually honor orders through Jan. 8 since I'll not be checking email too much today.

For details, visit bryonyseries.com/promotions.

One side note about ordering: Timothy is building an actual BryonySeries store behind the scenes, and some of it is publishing but not actually live.

So when you go to the BryonySeries store to order, use that for viewing product descriptions only and then send me an email at bryonyseries @gmail.com with the order.

Otherwise some of the books will click through to Amazon. But some of the books don't go to Amazon anymore. They go to the "ghost store."

And of course, if you have any questions, just email me. Most of this confusion will go away when the entire store is live.

Rebekah (right) and I are pictured at the White Oak Library Author Fair in 2018 - you know, back when we could do stuff out in the world. Still, whether we are at home or not at home, I think we make a good team.

I have ideas. She helps make them reality.

The Calendar is Now Up...

...and Timothy's vision for it was beyond anything I could have imagined.

Short website recap: More than ten years ago when I was writing my first book and reading how writers needed websites, I wanted something more than just five pages of basic information where readers visited once and never returned.

I wanted a site readers could use that mirrored the series. I had no idea what that would like it or how to make one.

Enter my oldest son Christopher who tried to teach himself web hosting. But a slew of health problems took that time and energy away from him so the website baton was passed down to Sarah.

Sarah had never created a website either, so she researched options and settled upon a service who shall not be named. She honed her ability to learn quickly with her creativity and created a site, using the service's templates, that had pages reflecting the first book, Bryony.

Fast forward more than half a dozen years later, and mobile views were more popular than desktop ones, and this particular service couldn't keep up. Moreover, it was clunky to use.

This resulted in the website sitting dormant for almost two years. I stopped referring people to it because it was nearly useless, and the experience was poor.

With Sarah being extremely busy at work, the website baton passed to Rebekah, who researched other services and rebuilt the site. She based a lot of it on Sarah's original work and used new templates to replicate the look and feel of the original, while adding new pages to incorporate new books, which now included Visage and Staked! to the "drop of blood" trilogy and a chapter book series and a series for children.

Finally, Timothy, who had just finished a marketing class, stepped in. At first he simply wanted to adjust a few colors. But eventually he decided the entire site needed an overhaul because the original inspiration was inadequate to truly represent the series.

He, too, took inspiration from the original vision and from Sarah and Rebekah's hard work.

Timothy has been working on this site for almost two years (I think), spending a lot of nights, weekends, and down time in airports while traveling to bring it to the point it is today (and it's still in not quite there).

It's led to the design of a new business card, original artwork for the landing page, and a calendar of events so cool, I can't believe this young man, with zero knowledge of coding, created it.

What Timothy did (and you need to log onto this calendar from the desktop to get the full experience), was to create a set of cards for each day of the month - kind of like a dance card or an invitation to something fun.

For the desktop view, (it doesn't work on the mobile view), he based his design off the old advent calendars he enjoyed as a child: You lift up a flap each day to see the picture beneath it.

At first I objected to a full calendar of dates. As an indie novelist with a tiny following and a full-time job, I could not fill a each day with an event. Furthermore, no one (not even my family) would come out to a BryonySeries event every day of the month - or even once a month.

Timothy pushed back and said the "events" did not have to be actual physical events, like book signings. They could be other things.

And he was right.

When creating the events, I tried to keep in terms of family friendly and all age. All of the events, even those based on the adult books, will have a timeless appeal, and parents and grandparents and parent figures can feel comfortable enjoying them with their children.

If you don't have children in your life, even the childish events can be a source of quick amusement.

For people who enjoy more complication in their pastimes, any of these events can be a springboard for more exploration or creativity.

Because of the three dimensional nature of the BryonySeries, I kept all five senses in mind when posting the first month's worth of events.

I also kept the range of books in mind when creating events based on them - and provided links to the books that inspired the events.

To keep events interactive for readers who like interaction, I encouraged people to email photos that I can share on the blog.

For now, all the events are virtual and all will be up for the month. That means you can check out one  a day or skim the month and do ten and sign out until next month.

Rebekah and I are already eyeballing April 19. Anyone care to virtually join us?

https://www.bryonyseries.com/fetes-and-feasts

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony."

One Page Nearly Done

No, not another book (although I have four in various stages of loose production).

This past weekend, Timothy finished the basic setup of the BryonySeries store.

This means he completed a design he liked, added all titles, and then linked them to Amazon.

The overall goal is to link the store to my PayPal account and run special prices, but we're having a few issues with that.

If you're curious, here is the direct link: https://www.bryonyseries.com/copy-of-general-store.

He is still tweaking other pages, merging some, and creating subpages for a cleaner, more streamlined experience.

Sue's Diner and Fetes and Feasts (events calendar) are nearly done, too, so feel free to browse.

Have a great Tuesday, readers, writers, and BryonySeries fans! :)

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."

A Real Weekend

For the first time in a long, long, long time, I finished work late Friday afternoon.

And then I had a choice.

I could start catching up on some other work, or I could stop.

At that point, Timothy asked if I wanted to accompany him on an errand and get some coffee.

And so, I chose "stop."

Furthermore, I didn't pick work back up until Sunday afternoon.

These next thoughts are a little all over the place, but I'm going somewhere with it.

I spent the evening with my Gloria Jean coffee and finished reading (and marking errors) in the fourth installment of Before the Blood and uploading the manuscript for KDP approval.

The next morning, I met with Colleen Robbins, my editor for the fifth installment of Before the Blood. This went faster than I anticipated, for this last book was cleaner than I thought.

I then went home and spent twelve straight hours correcting typos, rewriting less than a handful of changes, and doing the basic formatting.

On Sunday, I worked on Phyllis' memoir for a couple hours before switching to work.

Later in the evening, I sat with Timothy while he fiddled with the basic setup of Dalton's Dry Good (the store page, which he's completely redesigning, along with the rest of the BryonySeries website).

I also watched the first episode of the web series Doom Patrol, which Daniel recommended because he said, "the writing is good." A couple trite and predictable moments, but overall promising. I'm looking forward to the second episode.

I feel rejuvenated and only slightly behind this morning, not a bad way to start a work week.

Next weekend's plans for the long weekend are just as slim: finish the memoir, read through the fifth installment of BTB (and hopefully upload it to KDP and send for a proof), and watch a movie: What We Do in the Shadows, which was recommended to me.

A couple noteworthy points:

I posted this article on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2YI7SsT. Although it's about reading, this particular passage also sums up why I enjoy writing fiction so much - and why not spending some time doing so makes me tense.

Reading has been shown to put our brains into a pleasurable trance-like state, similar to meditation, and it brings the same health benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm. Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers.

Features writing, and working on Phyllis' memoir, does something similar, but since most of that writing is on deadline, the "trance-like state" is a little less since I'm watching the clock, and I'm relying less on my imagination and more on the facts. 

The other point concerns Timothy and the website. I watched him for about an hour as he worked his way through his own creative process, which included a lot of ideas, starting in a certain direction, working his way through a series of steps, and then modifying or scrapping altogether.

As I watched him, I realized every technique he was trying was made with skills he's learned on his own ever since he "adopted" the BryonySeries website as his project.

He's gone from wanting to "clean up the site" a bit to overhauling it and hand-building many of its aspects to make each page engaging (my goal from the start) and less templated.

He's looked at many sites (and pulled up examples) of major companies, authors, and publishing houses, showed me how the pages were built, and then explained the components that make mine different, both on desktop and mobile.

"Where did you learn how to do all this?"

"I read," he said.

I'm amazed at the techniques he's learned by asking questions I didn't know how to ask. He explained edges, shadows, shapes, animation, codes for color creation, etc.

Timothy has taken the lifelong, independent learner goal I had for homeschooling, caught the fire I have for this BryonySeries project, and made it his own own innovative passion. 

It was amazing to observe, sort of like watching a sunrise.

For instance, this page, the calendar of events,  is gorgeous on a desktop. https://www.bryonyseries.com/fetes-and-feasts. It's not done yet, and mobile views have to be adjusted.

But Timothy also showed me the mobile view by scrolling through it very fast and watching how each card moves like a pack of cards through the scroll.

Each component of each piece (even though each piece looks like one piece) is hand-built by Timothy from other tiny components.

What an amazing weekend from start to finish.

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

When Three People See The Same Thing

Over the last few months, Timothy has been redesigning the BryonySeries website to encompass the feel of all the books.

We do "converse" (bicker) back and forth sometimes regarding concepts.

One of those conversations revolved around an illustration he placed on landing page. He wanted a page before the home page, and I had no problem with it.

But this illustration from Bryony by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt didn't work as an all-encompassing piece of art for the landing page.

So we talked concepts until we agreed.

Then he asked his girlfriend's sister, whom I only know right now as "Jenny" to create it.

Jasmine (Timothy's girlfriend) has read Bryony and Visage. The scene Jenny was to draw is featured early in Bryony.

From time to time, Jenny sent a draft or texted a question. But mostly she turned to Jasmine for guidance, as apparently Jasmine had some definite ideas, too.

It took Jenny a few months. But the final piece came home shortly after midnight. Timothy placed it to the website this morning and then showed it to me.

Jasmine was pretty excited for me to see it. Jenny's piece, to her, looked pretty close to the way Jasmine envisioned it.

I was astonished. Because Jenny had captured, pretty much, the way I see it, too.

It's an amazing thing to take a story out of one's head and fabricate it into a story.

It's quite another to have someone else do the same with pen and ink.

Wanna check it out: Visit www.bryonyseries.com.

But please look the page from your desktop. The mobile view is not yet tweaked, and you won't be able to scroll up and down to see the complete image.

Throwback Thursday Canceled in Favor of Website Whining

So we returned to bleak and veered to hopeful, all in two hours.

Apparently GoDaddy's mobile view is extremely limited in what one can hyperlink and where. Rebekah discovered it while working on the site. So she called GoDaddy, and tech support confirmed it.

Last night, she began experimenting with other sites. With seven books published and more to come, and with two BryonySeries-related products available, a CD of original piano music and soy candles in five scents (and hopefully more product to come), we cannot afford NOT to hyperlink.

This is the upgrade???

Soon after Rebekah hung up, we received one of those "tell us how we did, we'd love your feedback" survey." I passed.

OK, whining done.

We've got our attention on this website issue and won't let it go until resolved.

Updates to follow.

In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the existing website (on a desktop), now's the time because it's going away: www.bryonyseries.com.