Way back in February of last year, I told you to go out and buy a new fantasy novel called Rowan of the Wood. Over a year and a half later, Rowan is an award-winning story being sold at book stores all over the country! Its authors, Christine & Ethan Rose, are following up with a tour of Celtic faires and book store signings to promote this up-and-coming literary phenomenon. Maybe you’ve seen them on a road near you in the Geekalicious Gypsy Caravan?

Check out the websites I designed for the Rowan Empire!
http://www.rowanofthewood.com
http://www.witchonthewater.com
http://www.christineandethanrose.com

October, 2008, saw the official release of Rowan of the Wood. This October, Rowan celebrates his first birthday with the long awaited sequel being released!  Book #2 in the series is called Witch on the Water, and you can buy it on October 15th from Amazon.com.  Don’t forget!  Help send Witch to the Top!

…And catch up with the series by reading Rowan of the Wood! Available here

Recently I re-designed a logo for a landscape architect company based in Tacoma, Washington – Nature by Design.  It was a great project to work on because the client and I had the same vision in mind, and of course I love to work on anything organic & earthy-styled!

Soon I’ll unveil a new personal project I’m starting with two other artists, with the introduction of a logo I created for it.  Watch this space or subscribe to my RSS Feed!

This week I’ve had the honor of working on christineandethanrose.com. What a blast! This is a website I truly enjoy visiting, so it was a lot of fun to work on. I created a new banner for the top of the page, helped and suggested moving some elements around, dove into the CSS and HTML to alter the text, links, layout and color, and brainstormed for many hours with Christine on how to make her website/blog a machine for successfully promoting their exciting debut novel, Rowan of the Wood.

Web makeovers are something I’ve always wanted to do, but have not had the opportunity to try until now. Thanks Christine and Ethan for giving me the opportunity! I added this service to my portfolio and thanks to Google cache, you can see a “before” and “after” here: www.catherinesomerlotdesign.com

Yesterday I posted on Twitter about the Internet trouble I was having…we’ve had some problems off and on since signing up for Comcast cable in July. A few minutes later I get a message from @ComcastBill, asking if he could help. I checked into it…it really was Comcast! So they looked up my signal and said it was low and that a tech needed to come take a look. So today a tech came and fixed the problem!

How fun is that??

I was a little wary at first, but after some research I learned it was legit. They probably use a tool like Tweetscan to find people that mention their company name…most likely rants about slow Internet And it helped to have a tech come! I can tell that I’m working on a faster connection now.

This is an excellent example of the power of social media tools like Twitter. How many millions of people like me out there don’t feel like calling their Internet service provider every time their signal is low….probably tons! This communications technology is huge for businesses that make good use of it.

Now if only I could get an answer to my “I need a job!” posts…

Welcome to the official blog of about my Web & Graphic Design projects. I provide sleek and modern Web/Graphic design services for small businesses and individuals who don’t want to spend thousands on creating a professional Web presence. I specialize in informative, “brochure” websites and email newsletters.

This year I began my self-education in the wonders of Web 2.0 technology…so my goal is to make the normally static, informative site into a more dynamic, user-centered experience. This will mostly be done with blogging technology, widgets, social bookmarking and connections with all the major social networks. The end result will hopefully be that my current and future clients will receive more exposure on the Web…leading to more business.

My freelance design business homepage, catherinesomerlotdesign.com, has had a major design overhaul! Keeping up with Web 2.0 trends, I’ve created a clean and more modern look. This will give future clients a better idea of what I’m really capable of. The site may keep evolving as I grow as a designer, so watch this space!

This blog will be used for updates on my projects, providing tips and advice on how to have a better online experience, and other art & design related things going on in my life. You can bookmark and subscribe to this blog (see the right column), and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, welcome to the club! I was clueless myself a few months ago. So I’ll definitely share what tiny bits of knowledge I have about this new Internet technology in future posts.