Website Sneak Peek - The Compendium

First off, I usually post on Monday's, so I'm sorry this is a day late. I went camping this last weekend and I usually use Saturday's to sketch out my posts for the week.

So, I've been working on the website the last couple weeks, redesigning some elements, omitting others. The main thing I've been working on though is what I'm calling The Compendium (formally named the Database). This will be a comprehensive guide to many of the characters, environments, technology and creatures found in both my Black Earth and Expired Reality series. Broken into categories, The Compendium will have profiles filled with information on some of your favorite 'things' from my stories. The whole point of building it into the website is A.) give you a reason to go to my website - The Compendium will be updated with new items every week or two, B.) explore my book series deeper, C.) give fans of my series what they want.

Building The Compendium isn't a small task though. After creating the categories, I have to sit down and write out the history, applications, stats, and other various realms of information for each of these items. And the information given will vary depending on what is being showcased. For example, if I am talking about a character, then I will go into their history, their interests, and any relationships (family or romantic) that they might have. For technology and science, I will go into the origins of the particular item and then list some of its current and/or future applications in the world.

Right now I am planning on starting out with a handful of items when the new website goes live (which will be in the next month or so), and then I'll add new items every week or two, slowly building The Compendium into a handy reference guide to those who want to dig deeper into my universe. Eventually, as I said before in a previous blog post, I have plans to turn The Compendium into a self-published book, but that will be later down the road when I have added enough material to warrant such a project.

Okay, so without further rambling, here's some screenshot sneak peeks I figured I'd share with you all. These screenshots are taken from the program I use to create my website - WebEasy Professional 9. I know the images look a bit small in the post, but if you click on them, you'll get to see the full size, which is significantly larger. These changes are still  a work in progress, so if certain things don't look lined up or something seems a bit off, it will more than likely be addressed before the site goes live. I just wanted to give you all a glimpse of what I've been up to lately.

This shot is of the new home screen design. As you can see, Carrie Green from my Expired Reality series is there to greet visitors to my website. I have columns set up to showcase featured books, relay important news like book release dates and updates to the website, and showcase Compendium additions.







This shot is of The Compendium main page. As you can see, right now I have seven categories: People (Characters), Worlds, Science/Technology, Artifacts, Businesses, Otherworldly Beings, and Locales.










This is a shot of The Compendium's People category main page. This page is the hub for all of the profiles I will have created for the site. They will be listed in alphabetical order by first name, because some characters don't have proper last names. All of the category main pages will be done similar to this format.








And this shot is of one of the character pages, specifically for Nathan Pierce from the Black Earth series. Each of these pages will look different depending on what category the page falls in. Since this one falls into the People category, there will be various facts on the person of interest in the left side of the page, and the main information (character history) will be in the center. I have a handy link underneath The Compendium logo that will take you back to the category main page that you came from, so you don't have to link back to The Compendium main page and go through that again.

That's what I've been up to lately. I have some of the profiles already sketched out: Calamiro (Worlds), The Vine Magnate (Otherworldly Beings), Rhodenine (Science/Technology), and Nathan Pierce (People). I'll have more than these when the new website overhaul actually debuts in the next month or so. If there's anything in particular from either of my series (Black Earth or Expired Reality) that you would like to know more about, drop me a line or comment and let me know and I'll see if it can be added to The Compendium.