Hello, friends! It’s been a…long while. About a year ago I announced I would be switching over from a Wordpress-hosted site to a brand new self-hosted site, which would allow me to use plugins, more templates and themes, and just overall more control over the site. Web design and the messy backend of website management is a huge learning curve, despite a great class in grad school, so it’s been a long time coming as I’ve tried to work it in between a busy work schedule.
Excuse The Mess; I’m Moving!
Over the next few weeks you may notice an uptick in backposting and eventually some out of place web ads you didn’t notice before. That’s because I’m working on updating my portfolio and transitioning away from WordPress’s hosting plan. Once my site finds a new hosting service, I’ll be able to finally install plug-ins and additional features my personal WordPress plan didn’t provide—and I’ll eventually get my own domain name! Switching hosting shouldn’t affect you all, and if you continue to follow my site, you’ll stay with me through the transition. You may just notice me backdating some projects over the next few days as I catch you up on projects I’ve finished this year. I started this site in college to keep track of school and freelance projects, but it’s time for a facelift that accommodates my cover design work and writing endeavors more clearly for potential clients and publishers. If you’ve been here for awhile, stick around! If you’re new, stay tuned!
Life Update: Post Graduation
The last year and a half has been a constant churning of life’s ocean waves when set on a giant spin cycle. Between COVID and finishing up my master’s degree, I barely have an internal clock or a solid sense of time (as if I had one in the first place). But now things are finally getting back to normal (well, as normal as post-graduation adult life can get), and therefore it’s probably worth giving a life update.
Lincoln Log Full Campaign
I took a web design class for grad school, and we had to create an entire website, logo, web banner ads, landing page, social media, blog, and full campaign for a fictional company of our choice. Below is my entire campaign and write ups on my design decisions (as well as some Easter eggs I slipped into the project). I ended this class with an A.
The Mandala Blog: Assateague Island
Assateague Island, a 48,000 acre vacation oasis, is shared between Virginia and Maryland, and is relatively untouched by human civilization.
The Editing Process for PCC’s Fountains Publication
Every year, the Copy Editing II class works hard to produce PCC’s annual literary publication, Fountains. This year, I had the fantastic opportunity to be one of two Senior Editors, and it wasn’t until this year did I realize the awesome process of creating such an incredible product.
Published in East Region Emerging Writers
I had the privilege to publish two more stories in the America’s Emerging Writers series this year, a new publisher now nominating its best stories for Pushcart nominations. I’ve never written a horror/campfire story until the first semester of my freshman year, but staying several nights in a large Portofino resort on the end of a Pensacola island got my creative juices flowing. Four years later, the story is finally available for others to read in the East Region’s horror anthology, and anyone familiar with the island resort will notice the story’s resort bearing remarkable resemblance. The other story, published in the East Region’s literary publication, is a story I wrote as a college sophomore, and a version of it can be read here. Since penning it, the manuscript has evolved and developed, so be sure to check out the updated version in the paperback edition.
Book and Design for “Timelines”
As a professional writing major at my college, seniors have to compile their best work from over the last four years into a bound, designed book. It’s been a project I’ve been waiting for with bated breath ever since I learned about it. Older students told me as a sophomore to save every paper I ever wrote, keep teachers’ notes, and to be thinking about a theme that can tie everything together. Back then, I couldn’t imagine picking out a theme that could encompass all my writing: after all, I liked to write about different things, and some of my stories were vastly different from others. But as my senior year came upon me, I found the perfect theme. My stories revolve around either hope or memory. Many of them look to the future with either a warning to society about our faults, or an expected adventure just out of reach. And when not writing a social commentary on America’s morals, I’m pulling nostalgia from the cracks of my mind. I thought “memory” and “hope” were much too generic for my theme, but finally it hit me: I also write about time. Time looking forward to the future or back … Read More