Well, the day has finally come.

As of next month it will be two years since I started blogging on Disdainful-Soul.net. It’s an odd sensation to be sitting here now and writing this post. But I’ve finally stopped putting it off and putting fingers to keys.

Some of you may have already noticed this, but I have started to use my full name on most things, and now it has reached the logical conclusion: Catherine-Haines.com. It will be a combination of D-S.net and Working Title, and hopefully when I find me an agent who gets me a publishing deal, I can have a nice author website all set up (with a nice pre-built fanbase to go with it :P). I’ll be renewing the domain names for both when the time comes, so I have a whole year to work out what to do with them while the content stays up. It’ll also mean that all the stuff on the subdomains will be fine too. My bank balance… not so much. Oh well.

So please, come and check out Catherine-Haines.com, with its shiny new layout I am very proud of. I’d be tickled pink if you stopped by.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

As if maintaining both Disdainful-Soul.net and Working Title wasn’t enough, I have gone and started a third blog. Having noticed that several of my recent blogs on D-S.net were about books, and there were several on Working Title as well I decided to join the leagues of book bloggers and start my own.

So from now on all my book reviews (and book-related posts) can be found at On The Nightstand. My three latest reviews are for The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman), Uglies (Scott Westerfeld) and The Tricksters (Margaret Mahy).

If you like books and are looking for reviews and suggestion please stop by at On The Nightstand.

</shameless promotion>

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

I am working on a new layout for Working Title as I have recently become more and more unhappy with it. Having submitted both sites to Rev.iew.me I have received plenty of feedback on how to improve them, and my designing skills.

As you may have noticed, Disdainful-Soul.net has already had a complete redesign, thankfully removing the colourscheme I have been stuck on for at least three versions now.

When it comes to Working Title, some elements will be the same but with slight changes, and other things will be the same. Overall, the idea keeps with the post it notes and colours and the spiral notebook of the old theme and simply builds upon and enhances that idea. Now it will definitely be a notebook sitting on a desk, with random sheets of paper sticking out and sitting all over the wooden desk.

I’m enjoying the challenge at making something look a little 3D (which is new for me, heh) and so far I think it is working.

EDIT: Or you could just check out the new layout for yourself.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

As you can probably see, I have changed the layout of Disdainful-Soul.net and yes, it is in response to some of the lovely suggestions made by the people of rev.iew.me. Since I have now got myself out of that slate blue rut I have been in for a while it’s now time to work on the content of the site.

I have added part two to the Handy Tools For Making A Website series, and there will be more to come. But right now I want to work on the downloads section. I have one SMF pretty much ready to go for download - I just want to make a few minor tweaks before release (and I’ll be editing the current one available too). I also want to add some more web templates.

All I need now is some inspiration. Anyone care to suggest some colourlovers palettes? Some stock images? Some brushes? Give me a push and I’ll roll down the hill.

And since Aisling did me a wonderful favour by making Working Title her link of the week, I am going to share the link love and link to Celestial Kisses, to help them on their way since they have just opened (and also, it’s a requirement to go into the draw to win a prize. Stuff looks great though).

Celestial Kisses bath and beauty products are handmade in small batches to ensure the highest quality. We use only the finest ingredients and our natural products contain no artificial preservatives, no rendered animal fat, no petroleum products, and no cheap hydrogenated oils.

We choose to make products that we wouldn’t hesitate to use ourselves, which means we prefer to use natural botanicals and pure essential oils to ensure a spa quality product you will love to use over and over.

Since I am a fan of Lush and other sites, this is my kind of thing. And to everyone else, spread the link love. Find a link, link it… and tada!

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

To celebrate reaching 40 000 words on my novel, Working Title has a new layout!

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

As some of you may have seen, some of my pages are no longer as visible. That’s because I am in the process of cleaning up Disdainful-Soul.net.

I’m planning on a number of things, and a quick list is as follows:

• Separate page currently known as “visitor” into “writing” and “downloads”
• Finish off a few templates I have started and convert to Wordpress (and then submit to Rawrr)
• Update links page. Off the top of my head I know I have to add at least Tracy as well as a few others I have in my RSS feed.
• Update the “about me” section.
• Update the “domain” section.

That’s what I can think of so far. Does anyone have any suggestions or requests? I’m pretty open.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Forget what I said earlier about not being a web designer. I did not lie, but apparently I underestimated my abilities.

Ta da! A layout made by me! With a little inspiration from Lene and some colour help from the ColourLovers palette non-symphony.

There are probably some kinks here and there that I need to work on, but overall it works. It’s not entirely what I had in mind, but I like it. While I was in maintance mode I also upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Cleaned up the visitor page and added an RP dictionary

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.