Sillybean

About

Hi.

Welcome to my world. I’m a web designer during the day and a writer in the evenings (and sometimes at lunch). I’m married (to this guy, who never updates his site), and in our copious spare time we’re remodeling parts of the house. These are the continuing adventures of… oh, you get the idea.

Writing

My very short story, “The Dead Man,” can be found in the Spring 2003 issue of Black Gate magazine (as S.C. Smith). The rest of my work is either unpublished or unfinished (more likely the latter).

The only other public snippets of mine are the Very Secret Diaries of the Clueless Newbies, a parody of the trolls in Critters (with apologies to Cassandra Claire) that originally appeared in Beth Bernobich’s newsgroup. The ones that can be laid at my door are #17, #51, and #271828. (But be sure to read the rest; they’re great.)

I attended Viable Paradise in 2001. Ask me about it; I love talking VP stuff.

I’ve participated in Novel in 90 a couple of times. I highly recommend it for anyone who has trouble finishing things, like I did. (Past tense! It works, I promise!)

Web Design

I’m the webmaster for the Texas A&M University Writing Center by day. Before I moved over here, I did the website for the System Offices, and before that I worked at the Health Science Center.

I’m pretty active in the web design community, mostly in CSS, standards, accessibility, and higher ed. I’m on the programming committee for the HighEdWeb conference. I’m also a presenter:

• Making Do When the Web ‘Team’ Is You — Winner, Best Showcase 2005
• Getting Started with WordPress Blogs — 2006 (and I’m really glad this one was well-received but didn’t win; I did it without a microphone, and at HighEdWebDev the best-ofs are repeated twice on the last day!)
• Getting Started with WordPress Blogs, 2007 edition
• Getting Started with WordPress, 2008 edition — not just for blogs anymore
• WordPress U — half-day workshop on WordPress as a CMS, 2009

Following the 2005 conference, Karine Joly interviewed me for collegewebeditor.com. Check that out if you want to see me blather on about work. I don’t often mention it on the blog. I also recorded my 2007 WordPress presentation for Karine’s other site, higheredexperts.org.

I have revived an abandoned open source content management system, Whisper. I’ve released one update and am working on the next version.

Writing AND Web Design

Since author, publisher, and other book-related websites are the intersections of my two vocations, I find I have a lot to say about them — enough to go into business. Paged Media is a web design company for authors.

My Stuff

• My books at LibraryThing
• Books I’m getting rid of at BookMooch
• My music, both keepers and things I’m getting rid of, at LaLa
• My bookmarks at ma.gnolia
• Mac apps I use
• Color swatches (probably not of interest unless you’re a design geek)