#next up is probably Serif (my beloved)

[raindropsonwhiskers]

Tzimisce time

[finalfrontierpublishing]

Atlas by @distractedkat

So I've used the warp design before for my design for @pleasantboatpress's copy of For Gladness of You, and I wanted to see if i could replicate it again. I do think if I ever re-attempt this design i'd like to use a little purple in there.

Design inspired by queercore's lovely modified long-stitch bindings, which i've bastardized into purely decorative spine designs (i am the jackass of decorative faux long stitch and i'm not even sorry). Blue endbands are also inspired by nim from morningstarbindery on instagram's beautiful copy of Away Childish Things. It's ridiculously gorgeous and i'm always pushed to do better and more beautiful things by my friends in Renegade.

Some stats for you - as per usual:

135,529 words || 426 pages

Cover Titling font: Mandalore Gradient

Body Text: Liberation Serif, 10.5 point

Accents: Alien League II

Can you tell how much I freaking love this fic? I actually received a RIDICULOUSLY STUNNING and beautiful copy of this fic from queercore from the exchange but I had already started typesetting and prepping this amazing story and MORE PHYSICAL COPIES OF THIS FIC SHOULD BE IN EXISTENCE.

This is probably the first long star trek fic I ever read. It is that old, so it holds a lot of special memories in my heart. I used colibri graphite for bookcloth (colibri my beloved, of which i tragically scuffed the back cover, hence no photos). Endpapers are renato crepaldi (can you tell i have some loves), and the spine design is done with lightly waxed linen thread in 4 different shades of blue. I once again forgot to factor in the bulk of the thread at the spine, could possibly have added 0.1cm to the length of the cover boards but what's done is done. had a near catastrophic fuck up with endpapers on casing in because of the bulk of the thread, but luckily remedied fast enough before the PVA dried. the squares are not perfect, particularly on the back cover, but i can live with it.

I couldn't really decide what to do with the cover so as I always I kept it simple with some silver and subtle holographic HTV.

I have also discovered my binds bookshelf is absolutely fucking full and i have a problem. The solution is evidently to buy another bookcase.

next on my list are the author copies for FFWAD - they've been started and i hope to finish two of them in the next 2-3 weeks.

As always, @distractedkat, if you'd like an author copy please don't hesitate to let me know, I love making author copies :)

[thvnderdraws]

i'm here with some silly little fall scenarios !! <3

let's just say that Karma doesn't care too much about fall. he'll only agree to activities if Serif asks him, everyone else is an automatic no (except on the rare occasion that he says yes to Cross, and that's a HUGE maybe)

Karma will usually just go out for walks; either with Serif or by himself. he doesn't trust the gang enough to be alone with any of them

now, just because he says he doesn't care does not mean that he doesn't love apple pie. he'd probably throw hands with Horror just to get the last slice. which he has done. on more than one occasion.

and now we come to Serif. poor skellie didn't even know what to do when the leaves started falling off the trees. she thought they were dying and tried to tape each leaf back onto them one at a time

the gang definitely has this recorded, but blackmail won't do them any good because she doesn't ever get embarrassed, or at least not easily

this girl loves her pumpkins. she'll take the mini ones and put them everywhere--in the kitchen, Nightmares office, and she tries to get them into Error's void (but much to her dismay, those very pumpkins that she gave to him end up on her desk)

Serif had no idea what pumpkin carving was. and of course Killer was the one to show her and explained it to her like he was dismembering a body

Karma did not approve

but Serif ended up remembering Killer's long, in depth explanation and recited it to Dust so he could carve a pumpkin too

on cold nights Serif will sneak into Karma's bed and snuggle with him. she doesn't like being cold. she'll usually end up snuggling with whoever's closest to her

Nightmare won't let her snuggle, he'll lend a tendril for her to latch onto. it may not be the warmest thing ever, but whatever allows him to still be mobile

Horror will let her curl up in his lap like a little kitten, then they'll both end up falling asleep

Dust will let her snuggle, but not for long. usually ten to fifteen minutes is more than enough time for him, but if he's feeling generous (which isn't often) he'll let her stay for thirty minutes, maybe an hour, but by then he's asleep

i'm sure we all know Error would never let anyone touch him, so Serif won't bother him unless she wants a hammock to chill next to him

Cross would never admit it, but it's nice getting some hugs and cuddles in every once and a while. if Epic stays the night she'll sprawl out on both of them under a blanket

now, if you happen to be Killer then it's an immediate no. the first time she tried snuggling with him, he thought it would be a good idea to pour his energy drink right into the crack in her skull. Serif did not like that, and Karma was very upset

that's all i have for today, but i'll have some spooky things planned for my skellies!

AAAAAAH THIS IS ADORABLEEEE

karma and serif my beloveds !!!!!!

[muggle-writes]

10 Questions Tag Game

tagged by @julesruleswrites 

before I answer your questions, may I just comment that “hissed” is totally valid for describing phrases without enough sibilants. It’s the cross between wanting to yell and trying to whisper where it comes out all breathy and forced. Absolutely a worthwhile descriptor, even for regular sentences, imo.

1. Who would you dedicate your wip to, if you ever wrote a book dedication for it? (Or if you’ve published, who have you dedicated things to before?)

Ooh. I’ve published fic, which doesn’t really get a dedication section, but I’d probably dedicate my book to whichever friends/partners/metamours were most helpful in the editing process, and the ones who let me inevitably ramble at them nonstop about the book while it was in progress.

2. What car does/would your OC drive? Can be as specific or vague as you want; I know Finley drives an old Civic, but who knows what the heck Logan drives.

boring answer, but Mason is 12 and shouldn’t be driving. In an emergency he might attempt to drive the vehicle of whichever adult he is spending time with, which at the moment would be an aging pickup truck. Better hope it’s automatic because he’s not going to figure out how to drive a manual transmission car without guidance, and especially not while panicking.

Erin is a Hogwarts student and also doesn’t exactly have access to cars. She’s happy to fly the school Cleansweep broom, but she isn’t all that enthusiastic about Quidditch or racing brooms, so she’ll take what’s available for transportation.

3. Do you prefer to do your writing in the morning, afternoon, evening, etc?

I do my best work between approximately 10:30 am and 3pm, but unfortunately I’m usually at work during that time, so evenings are a tolerable substitute. If I succeed at getting up on weekends and I’m not drowning in other commitments I’ll take that midday block for writing and that generally feels rewarding.

4. If your wip got a movie, what would that be like? Animated? Or nah?

animation is very underrated, and I wouldn’t mind an animation of anything I made, but given most of my actual WIPs are fanfiction, a true movie of them would likely match the original canon adaptation where relevant. Some animated, some live action.

5. What’s the most recent change you’ve made in your writing process/style?

Idk if this counts, but my resolution this year is to not let previous failures prevent me from following up on things I want to do. I haven’t actually pulled out Duolingo or my other language learning apps that I previously lost motivation for when I broke a streak, but this applies to my writing too. for example there’s a #jewishjanuary event that has daily prompts, and I’ve been letting myself write for whichever ones inspire me without getting stuck on “oh but I haven’t written for _____ yet.” In theory, hopefully, this will encourage me to write more consistently, at least this month, and if I’m really good about it, that habit will stick when I go back to my “usual” WIPs in the absence of daily prompts.

6. Please tell me about your most beloved side/minor character, even if they don’t have a name or have had a different name every time they appear.

Again, writing mainly fic complicates my answer to this question, but looking at what I’ve created recently, I really like my OC Erin Fawley (from my #jewishjanuary prompt fills, since in many of them, I’m depicting Hermione being unapologetically Jewish at Hogwarts and in the magical world in general) Erin is a Gryffindor prefect, in the same year as Percy Weasley. She’s also a half-blood, which she will claim proudly. Erin most often shows up early in the golden trio’s first year, before Hermione is friends with Harry and Ron, and not only checks on Hermione for being the outcast of her social group (there’s always one, usually for no good reason), but when she realizes they’re both Jewish, she helps Hermione feel a little more welcome by not having to fumble through rituals alone at boarding school. Erin is a good balance to Percy, because she has the mentors’ instinct of who needs her help, and in fact she occasionally lets her homework slide in order to help younger years with theirs or with other settling-in needs. Most teachers are understanding, and when she turns in her work on time, it averages EE grades. When she turns it in late, it could otherwise earn an A-EE but, depending on the teacher, gets marked down for lateness. Anyway, all of Gryffindor house besides Harry’s yearmates and the Weasleys and the Quidditch team are a blank slate and I enjoy slowly filling that in.

7. What scene are you most excited about writing right now?

When I get all the in-between written, I’m looking forward to, in my fic Eavesdropping, writing Kaito and Akako interacting, with him putting aside his mistrust in magic to ask for advice, and her being slightly less cryptic than usual, in sympathy.

Also, I’ve half-finished yesterday’s prompt fill for Sukkot (for #jewishjanuary) and I’m looking forward to finishing that, and showing the origin of Erin and Hermione’s friendship, and also depicting the struggle of making do when the people running your school have never heard of your traditions, let alone know what to provide. (etrog? You think they have an etrog in scotland? they probably substitute a lemon unless Erin got one in August and had a family member put a stasis spell on it and brought it with her. Willow branches are definitely from the whomping willow - Erin asked McGonagall, who asked Hagrid, who collected them)

8. What font do you like to write your wip in?

I don’t go out of my way to set a font, so I’ll tend to use whatever’s the default in whichever program I’m using at the time, but I have something of a preference for serif fonts. 

9. What and when is your next self-imposed deadline? Ex: mine is to finish this draft by May. How’s progress on that?

I would like to finish my Sukkot prompt fill before the other High Holy Days prompts roll around in the #jewishjanuary list, since I didn’t succeed in writing it day-of. (I’ve been aiming for finishing each prompt day-of, but again, this year I’m not letting lack of progress towards daily goals prevent me from continuing. That’s my goal) I uh... didn’t make any progress on it today and I haven’t checked the prompt list to remember how long I have until I miss this deadline...

10. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Hot chocolate! Sometimes tea if I’m in the right mood (or if it’s a good spiced chai from the Indian restaurant across the road from my office. I will never turn that chai down). But in general, I haven’t acquired a taste for coffee or alcohol or black tea (without enough milk and sugar) or anything else in the category of “vaguely bitter adult drinks”

My Questions and tags under the cut (also, feel free to answer and tag me back even if I didn’t tag you)

In your WIP, how many other people face equivalent struggles to the protagonist? How many others are on equivalent journeys that the audience may or may not hear about?

What is a worldbuilding detail you are proud of but that you haven’t been able to include in your WIP?

What is your method for coming up with names for OCs? How often do your characters’ names reflect the journey they will take?

Music, white noise, or silence while writing?

What’s your routine for writing (if you have one)? Which part of it is the hardest to stick to?

What is your OC’s biggest weakness? Do they realize it?

Do you hoard notebooks? When you write in them, do you prefer pen or pencil? (classic vs mechanical pencil? ball point vs fountain vs gel pen?) Or is everything just digital for you?

Tell me something good about an OC you dislike (or about an antagonist, if you love them all)

Which sense (touch, taste, smell, balance, ...) do you most like writing descriptions for? Are there any you leave out, intentionally or not? (I’ve sent out this question for STS before but it’s one of my favorites to ask)

What accomplishment are you proud of right now?

And my very short tag list (lmk if you’d like to be added to or removed from my general tag games list, or for any particular WIP or fandom) @writebusofdoom​ @bexminx​ participate if you’d like, and you have the time and energy to.

[posmatraclegenda]

Наслов: Independent Publisher 2 Is Here, Линк: http://ift.tt/2q2w3o4 , Садржај:

The popular Independent Publisher design is a WordPress theme that has long been beloved for its simplicity and legibility. So we are happy to announce that it has been improved, ever so slightly, with the design talents of Caroline Moore and Kjell Reigstad.

Introducing Independent Publisher 2:

Independent Publisher was first designed, developed, and released four years ago by Raam Dev in his introductory post to the Independent Publisher Project:

“I’ve been using WordPress for the past 8 years and in that time my site has always had a modified version of someone else’s theme. I always found it easier to start with a theme created by someone else and simply modifying it until I had it the way I wanted.” —Raam Dev, 2013

I recently caught up with Raam to learn about the origins of Independent Publisher.

JM: How did Independent Publisher come to be?

RD: I had that design swimming around in my head for years—it’s the culmination 7 years of hacking away at a constantly-evolving WordPress theme for my personal site, tweaking and updating it every few months to apply my latest understanding of what ‘good design’ meant. Over the years I had gotten so many requests from people who wanted to use the theme that I was using, but the current theme was always so hacked-together that I wasn’t able to easily share it. Finally in 2013 I decided to put everything that I’d learned into building a theme that could be shared and that’s where the Independent Publisher theme was born. I’ve been amazed by how many people use it—it’s such a weird feeling to visit the site of a stranger on the Internet only to discover they’re using the theme that I helped build!

JM: Are you a designer or a developer? I mean, your last name is … “Dev.”

RD: I’m definitely a bit of both. I love building things but I also love thinking about the ultimate purpose of what gets built, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’.

About my last name, it hadn’t even occurred to me how appropriate my last name was for the type of work that I do until my developer friends started asking if it was really my last name.

JM: What advice do you give for budding designer/devs like yourself when starting off in creating a theme?

RD: Start with the end in mind. When I built the Independent Publisher theme, I kept revisiting the same set of questions at every step along the way: What’s the ultimate purpose of this theme? What is it trying to do? What is its ultimate objective?

JM: How have mobile devices changed how we consume content these days?

RD: If there was ever a good example of the importance of considering the design impact of what we build, mobile would be it. With mobile devices, users don’t get to choose the size of their web browser. They have little choice about the constraints imposed on them by the devices in their hands. That means it’s up to us developers and designers to ensure that content can be consumed as easily as possible on mobile.

In case you are wondering, “What is a theme?” I can tell you that according to Automattic founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg, “themes” began from WordPress version 1.5 way back in 2005. A theme is an encapsulation of code and design knowledge — it lets you customize the look and feel of a WordPress site to be exactly the way that you want. If you are a designer that is new to themes, I suggest that you read this short essay by Mel Choyce on “3 Reasons Why Every Designer Should Create A WordPress Theme.”

Because Independent Publisher came out in 2013, it deserved a tiny set of enhancements. We thought the best two people to lead the design challenge needed to be our theming veteran Caroline Moore and our typography expert Kjell Reigstad.

JM: What makes a good theme?

CM: A rock-solid code foundation like Components and a design that feels like home. My favorites are bold, colorful themes with lots of personality; Scratchpad by my colleague Laurel Fulford comes to mind.

JM: What makes for good typography?

KR: Good typography doesn’t get in the way. It’s balanced, legible, and subtle.

JM: Are there any aspects of Independent Publisher that caught your attention when it was first released on WP.com?

CM: Using a Gravatar as a site logo wasn’t common around the time Independent Publisher was released, so that stood out to me as a neat way to make the theme more personalized right out of the box.

JM: What makes one paragraph more legible than the other?

KR: There are a number of variables that affect the readability of paragraphs. Aside from the more obvious ones like typeface and font size, I find leading and column width to be the most important.

Leading (also known as “line-spacing”) is the space between lines of text. If the space is too wide, your eyes have to work hard to jump from one line of text to the next. If it’s too narrow, your eyes have to work hard at differentiating each line as you’re reading. Leading adjustments can be very subtle, but the right balance makes a big impact.

Column width is a little more self-explanatory. If a paragraph of text is too wide, your eyes will have to take a large horizontal jump each time you progress onto a new line. If the paragraph is too narrow, your eyes will have to make the jump more often. Both of these cases can cause eye fatigue. An ideal column width is somewhere in the middle.

JM: What about this Independent Publisher refresh benefits the reader?

KR: In my opinion, the best update is the switch to using system fonts by default. More often than not nowadays, websites load in custom font files to display all their text. This is great visually, but it does lead to slightly longer page load times.

System fonts are are included with your device by default. These are pretty standard fonts, and tend to be very widely available. You’ve probably heard of many of them: Helvetica, Times, and Georgia for instance. Switching to use these fonts means we don’t have to load in additional font files every time your site loads. This saves time, and is especially handy when visitors are on a slow or unstable mobile connection.

Best of all, the system fonts we used are beautiful! Headlines are set in your computer’s default sans serif font Apple’s San Francisco font, and Android’s Roboto for example, and body text is set in Georgia by the beloved Matthew Carter.

JM: Where do you see the world of themes heading, Caroline?

CM: I want to see themes condensed into a single CSS file, applied over different components that you can mix and match to build any kind of site you can imagine.

JM: If I’m a beginner to design and want to learn more about typography, how do I start, Kjell?

KR: This is a quick, 6-minute video that I made last year to share the joy of typography:

JM: Thank you Raam, Caroline, and Kjell!

So there you have it — enjoy the new power of Independent Publisher 2, and set yourself free to write with enhanced legibility, special tweaks for mobile, and an overall faster experience for your readers.

Read more about Raam Dev, Caroline Moore, and Kjell Reigstad on their respective websites:

Raam Dev Caroline Moore Kjell Reigstad

Filed under: Better Blogging, Design, Themes