Monday, March 28, 2011

My New Website Is Live! by Jess Lourey

My last Inkspot post discussed my travails in creating a website and asked YOU for your input on a new one. Most of you agreed: author websites should be clean, uncluttered, without flashing and blinking, and easy to navigate. I took your input to heart, I hope. You can see my new site here.image

Beth Tindall of Cincinnati Media did a brilliant job of making the site navigable and clean. Steve Tuytschaevers of PlanetMaker Design worked with her to craft the seasonal trees (Murder-by-MONTH mysteries, get it?) in the banner and the thriving secret garden walls of the side columns. Thank you both. I’m super happy with how it turned out!

Whee!

In honor of my new website, I’m listing some of my favorite online time-suckers below.

  • Hyperbole and a Half. Sometimes crude, always funny mixture of adolescent artwork and simple stories. If you can get through her writing about moving cross country with her dogs, or her parents and tipsy aunts humoring her Christmas play without laughing tears, you’re made of concrete.
  • Jezebel. A beautiful mix of politics, feminism, pop culture, imageand humor.
  • Awkward Family Photos. Because we’ve all been there. Like literally. I think that might be me and my sister in that photo.
  • The Nation. This is one of the few places I can still regularly find investigative journalism.
  • The Onion. Because sometimes I need a break from investigative journalism.
  • Awful Plastic Surgery. Because it’s rude to stare in person.
  • Groupon. Are you kidding me? I’m stuck on this site and I haven’t even bought anything from it yet. The old grandma in me loves to vicariously save money. And shake her fist at kids.
  • Preditors and Editors. Thanks to Barbara Moore, I don't need to visit this site very often anymore, but it's an excellent resource for writers searching for an agent/publisher, despite the cacophonous colors and formatting.

Where’s your favorite place to waste time online?

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