The changes to jmdesantis.com are complete! Almost. The intention was to include a blog on the front-page (something I’ve wanted since I launched this site seven years ago), however, despite the increasing ease of creating blogs, I’m still having trouble programming it myself or finding someone who can (I’m not versed in PHP, nor do I wish to use a ready-made template or a separate blog provider). The blog’s inclusion would have needlessly delayed the launch of this new design, so I will leave it at this: the blog will be added, but it’s going to take some more time.

As for the present changes, the biggest is the new top menu. I toyed with this idea for years but was always hesitant to try it. Now that I have, I couldn’t be happier. The new menu will allow me to add more content to the site, without the menu’s size growing to absurd proportions. What’s more, I think its new location makes it more practical.

I added two new pages: Events & Shows and Web-Comics (under the Miscellanea heading). I haven’t created many web-comics, but I thought it a good idea to make free content like this more accessible. As for the Events & Shows page, I had kept a list of my upcoming convention appearances and other like-events on the front-page and was concerned it was being buried, unseen, beneath other content. Giving this its own page seemed long overdue.

Also new is the Associates heading in the menu. This is for any other sites which I own, co-own, am affiliated with or wish to promote. As for the present listed sites, yes, Game-Flush.com is closed (though the site, for now, still exists) and, no, I haven’t gotten back to my Figmunds as soon as I had hoped. Still, as I have every intention of returning to the Figmunds and since I worked so hard on Game-Flush for two years, I felt it worth including them.

I also decided to split the writing section into separate pages for each sub-category. I felt this would better display the different types of writing I do and help it “compete,” so to speak, with the Illustration section. It can be both a gift and a curse being a writer and illustrator (since it’s easier to look at art than to sit and read something), so I always do what I can to call more attention to my writing (which I consider first).

Last, I widened the right side bar in order to create more room for various promotions and content I don’t want anyone to miss, no matter what page they’re visiting (such as Chadhiyana, the comic which introduces the title character–my new fantasy heroine).

I plan to make more regular updates to this site in the future, and the blog will go a long way in achieving that once it’s up and running. I’ll keep a log of the posts I make going forward (something I wish I had kept all these years) this way I can back-post everything once the blog is ready. In the meanwhile, I hope you like the changes I’ve made. Expect more to come. I have a lot planned for 2013.