my novels

[mckitterick]

Dear friends -

I just finished updating my novels page in preparation for next week's Nebula Awards Weekend, where I'll be doing "speed-dating" with a bunch of agents. I thought this would be a great way to hone short overviews of my novels.

So, please do me a favor: Look over that page and let me know if you would like to read those novels! Suggestions to improve the descriptions?

Also, I've done a metric tonne of updating to the CSS and design for the site (thanks for your prior feedback, folks!), so if you still see issues, please let me know and I'll fix it again. Check out the main index page to see how very much I've updated the CSS.

Best,
Chris

Comments

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Are you going to put up excerpts from the others? A couple look interesting.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yes, I plan to... so, what interests you? I want to know what works in the short overviews!

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

_Transcendence_ and _One Good War_

Right now I am proofreading the Phyllis Eisenstein chapbook for KaCSFFS Press. When that is done I'll have time to read again.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

Your link anchor text all make the text reflow when you mouse over it. Except on your novels page. Interesting.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yep, the standard anchors are pale (to go over white) with a fractional-em letter-spacing on hover; for the body text (light background), it's black except upon hover - but no additional letter-spacing.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the background shift that causes the text reflow?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

What do you mean by "reflow"? I intentionally added letter-spacing upon hover (for non-body anchors). Is that it?

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- that is what she likely means. Me, I'd turn it green rather than add spaces; or have reverse video occur. The moving letters are strange/disconcerting/annoying/bad for focus.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

The non-body anchors look intentional, but the anchors within body text are literally shifting body text when you hover. It's a slight shift, but it can make a big difference if your window size is just right and the anchor text is long enough. For example, your bio page has the word "to" shift to the next line when I hover over the link to the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I bet you need to clear your cache (the old CSS used letter-spacing on all anchors). Otherwise, I'd say it's a bug in your browser.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

My cache is fine, thank you, and Rockets and Spaceships still jumps lines.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

*g* Yeah, I can't make the main index page keep everything on one line without chopping words from a few of the items. I figured that was forgivable if the rest of the site's content didn't hop around.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

My cache is cleared. In my impromptu testing, Safari ignores your extra spacing on everything, including non-body anchors. IE 6 functions as I think you intended it. Firefox on both Mac and Windows XP causes reflow issues with the body text.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed ... you really *are* a geek!

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'm sitting in front of two computers, so it took me moments of effort. ;-)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the testing. Interesting! So Safari and Firefox both fail to adhere to long-established CSS rules? Huh. I thought IE was the baddie on that for so long. I like that IE7 plays nicer with CSS than the old versions.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

Safari doesn't surprise me, frankly. I only use it when I have to test something on Blackboard.

Doh! Found it- Firefox is complying with your CSS:

a.bodylink:hover {
font-size: 11pt;
line-height: 12pt;
font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
letter-spacing: .01em; <--------
color: white;
background-color: black;
}

[chernobylred.livejournal.com]

I think they're talking about the troubles I had earlier...you're designing your site for someone with a nice big monitor and all the latest software. If you want the text to change when you mouse-hover, I think kalimeg's suggestion of changing color is a good compromise.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I'd actually want to read The Vivisectionist - but then again, more and more these days my taste is tending toward horror and more offbeat reading. Empire Ship sounds from the description like it would be interesting, as well.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the feedback! Note that I put up the first few sections of Empire Ship for online reading, and I plan to post more from the other books soon, too.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Heh. The good news is that all of your short overviews appeal to someone.

[blzblack.livejournal.com]

I can't believe LJ erased all my hard work!!!

Titles:

Empire Ship -- Excellent
Vivisectionist -- Excellent
Transcendence -- Very Good
One Good War -- Good
Breakthrough -- Pretty Good
My Dad Was an Alien -- Fair
Time Clogged with Space -- Bad

Descriptions:

T: Best description. This woud be hard to pass up giving it a good deal of time. I think it's the specific character description.

V: I would sickly, grimly read a good bit of this to see what the author did. Good description--if sickening.

Empire Ship: Not bad. Mostly I'd give this a good bit of reading because of the title.

OGW: I wouldn't investigate this one. Feels too generic
BT: Similar problem if a little more interesting than OGW

MDWAA: I'd give this a little read--half-page. It might be fun. Can't tell.

TCWS: If I got past the title to get to the description, I'd open it up. Fairly intriguing. It sounds like it might have a literary flair. If it matches my expectation, I might buy it (although I'd feel apologetic about the title if I carried it around with me).

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all the analysis! I'll see if I can bump up the not-yet-written descriptions a bit. Tough when, um, I don't have a lot written yet *g*

Thanks!