The Jmdesantis.com Blog

As promised, so I have delivered. Getting this ready took more time than expected (on account of having to learn how to build this blog from scratch, as I could not find anyone willing to do the work). But now the front page blog I’ve mentioned as part of my 2013 plans is finally here.

Ever since I launched jmdesantis.com in 2005, the concept of having a news feed with information about updates to the site, recent publications and events has been on my mind. However, I’ve always been indecisive on the matter. Especially in the beginning, there were too many lulls between publications, and no real events to speak of (though there were many site updates and redesigns). Then for the two years I worked on Game-Flush, there were nearly no updates at all (I was so swamped with work over there). Thus, I was afraid to commit to something I couldn’t keep up with.

What’s more, when the site first launched, blogs were not as prevalent as they are today, and even when they were, I was never convinced of their usefulness. True, there was the appeal of having a constant stream of new content, yet a large part of me felt that writers and artists who blogged would do better to use those ill-spent hours actually creating something. But then something changed.

I began meeting fans at conventions. I created Chadhiyana. Game-Flush closed (and the experience of working on Game-Flush was not without its influences). And, after New York Comic Con 2012, I committed to myself to post more often on my social media sites in a concentrated effort to better market myself and my work. But mostly it was the fans I met.

You see, I wondered how these fans knew of my work and if they were familiar with all of it or just some of it. I also wondered why I had never known about them before. And, most importantly, I considered what they thought when I seemingly disappeared during my time with Game-Flush. And so it led me to question.

Even if I were going to work on another website or large project, shouldn’t I continue to connect with my fans here in some way? And if I were going to spend more time posting on Facebook and Twitter, why would I not do the same on my website? And, most important of all, though Twitter and Facebook (and the like) are wonderful tools, shouldn’t my website be the center of all my activity on the internet? Shouldn’t it be the place to which I drive all traffic? And what better way to help achieve this than to have unique content here and make this the source for all my other connected sites? It was partly for that reason that I created the jmdesantis.com “Store,” and it was that which settled my indecision on having a blog and putting it on my website, rather than using a separate blog service.

The state of the site is not perfect yet. Individual pages are running off the old version of the site, and thus there may be a few inconsistencies between the front page and the other pages. I will, in time, move all the site’s content to this version, but for now it will have to remain as is. Also, if you are familiar with my work on Game-Flush, you will notice I am using my “Corporate Ninja” avatar. It’s merely a stand-in for the now. I expect at some point to create a new avatar. But since I promised this blog around these Holidays past (saying then I was unable to have it ready) I felt it necessary to get it up and running as soon as possible and so also have one more item off my plate.

Finally, I will say this: though the idea is to keep you updated and informed as often as I can, I cannot promise I will blog all the time. For the last month and more I have posted weekly blog entries mainly because there’s been so much happening worth writing about, and I did not want to leave you with small updates on a make-shift blog/newsfeed. However, I have to be perfectly honest with you as well as myself: I will not always have time to blog or have subject matter to blog about. Sometimes (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post) an update might be as simple as: “X Convention accepted my application” or “There’s a new story excerpt/new artwork in the such-and-such section.”

It is my HOPE to post something new every week, though it’s not a hard and fast rule. My primary intention with this new addition is to keep you all informed, at times entertained and to better connect with the people who make what I do possible: my fans. If I miss a week or two or there’s a long stream of publication and convention updates for months on end, please do not be disappointed. I will do the best I can with this. It may work out splendidly or it may be an abysmal failure. Whatever the case, I felt it worth trying out finally, and I hope you can appreciate my efforts.

That said, and not to shoot myself in the foot too soon, the next few weeks will likely consist of small updates. As it is, I’m far behind where I want to be with the new Chadhiyana project (which I still promise to reveal more about in April), on account of getting this blog ready, a few other projects that have some tighter deadlines than my self-imposed one and life (which happens). I’d like to try and catch up a bit. I imagine that project is infinitely more interesting to you than whatever else I might write about here. Then again, maybe not. Either way, I look forward to bringing you more this year and to hearing more from you. Let’s hope that works out for both of us.

Until next time…

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