Welcome back from the holiday. Discerning visitors may notice a few changes. 
Kat Hooper spent most of her Thanksgiving break working fiendishly to create a more integrated user experience between the blog and the rest of the fantasy literature website. We’re still tweaking things, but we’re very excited about the overall integration. Thanks also to reviewer Justin who provided Kat with some much appreciated technical support.
For those who have mostly frequented the blog in the past. You can see the red buttons above for the first time. These link to the database at the heart of the fantasy literature site. Clearly, the listing of fantasy authors is the centerpiece. But my personal favorite feature is the listing of New Fantasy Releases, where you can see titles and cover art for virtually every newly released or soon-to-be released fantasy title. You can even click through and purchase these novels from amazon.com - which helps support our site. You can also learn about the talented reviewers who contribute to fantasyliterature.com. Or check out the More Fan Lit Stuff section and see our staff’s favorite fantasy novels, our YA section, or the very clever random fantasy title generator, which I personally use whenever I need an idea for a random title.
Meanwhile, web-only visitors may be pleased to hear about all of the author interviews we’ve been lining up for 2010. Next up, on December 7th, we’re interviewing speculative fiction living legend, 33x Hugo Nominee Mike Resnick. I hope you’ll all spread the word about it and then stop back to hear what he has to say about trends in fantasy and Sci-Fi publishing. It’s very fascinating. Later in December, we also have the very talented novelist Nancy Holzner discussing her fantasy debut, Deadtown. Then starting in January we have Karen Chance, Caitlin Kittredge, and a host of other authors, artists (such as famous cover artist Chris McGrath), editors, and agents, picking up the pace to do 3 and 4 interviews every month. And, as always, we’ll be giving away books and having frank discussions about fantasy literature.
Today we will be giving away one of five signed copies of Karen Chance‘s Midnight’s Daughter, which is the first book in a spin-off series to her popular Cassandra Palmer adventures. Karen will be dropping by fantasy literature to chat with us on January 5th, in support of the release of its sequel: Death’s Mistress. I have read Midnight’s Daughter and am happy to say that I find the adventures of Dorrie Basarab to be even more compelling than the original, highly enjoyable series. To participate in the giveaway, please comment on this post and tell us one thing that you visited on the fantasy literature site for the first time today. Or, if you’re an old hand, then just comment on something you like about the site and hope we don’t change during this transition. The drawing will continue until Thursday and the winner will be announced in Ruth’s Thoughtful Thursday post.
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I think the site really looks wonderful. Thank you Kat for all the hard work you put into this. Also comments from readers are always welcome. Something you like? don’t like? Let us know. We’re trying to to make of all fantasyliterature more easily accessible to the site visitors, while still providing all the information you are used to getting. I’m really excited about the things coming up. So many great authors, so many great books…lots of cool stuff ahead for us.
I like the list of new comments scrolling on the side. And I do like the lighter background for the test.
Thanks for the feedback! The lighter background was Stephen’s suggestion and I think it fits in nicely. I Photoshopped that parchment image — you should have seen me trying to make sure that the deckle edge didn’t interfere with the text (in the three browsers I checked…
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I can’t get the avatars to show up with the scrolling comments, and there are plenty of other changes to make. Let me know if you find any glitches.
I like the red drop down buttons – they’re easy to read and it has a clean look on the site.
I love LOVE the new release section. Been following you for a while so the changes are apparent to me and I dig it
Awesome work Kat!
Hi Stephen
I love the new look.
It looks very professional and easy to navigate.
All the best,
Rob
I love the new look! The drop down that allows me to look up a particular author fast and easy is the greatest. I am also pleased with the up coming info, this will help me not to miss out on good stuff in the future! Thank you for this great site!
Very nice. I hate having to hunt for the content I want on different websites. This apprears to be much more user friendly. Did you fix it so that followers through Google Friend Connent will get all the posts? I realized I was missing some posts on my Dashboard and have since subscribe by email to catch those.
I love the new look. Much cleaner than the old site. Much easier to see and read. Looks great!!!
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Abigail, I didn’t realize that can be done through GFC and I haven’t figured out how to get WordPress and GFC to work seamlessly together. Let me know if you know how. We do have an RSS feed.
I love the new look of the site, like everyone else who has commented it is very clean looking and much more user friendly because can read everything on it easily. Please do not change anything to darker backgrounds as that is harder to decipher. I absolutely am thrilled with the fact you people have this site, I looked and bounced around and you are promoting some of my all time favorite authors old and new to me…..
Jackie B Central Texas
I love the changes! I’ve always been a fan of dark text on light backgrounds, so this is great. It’s also great that the two main areas of the site are now more integrated. Great work!
I love the ease of the new layout! Gone are the days where I would have to link myself to the blog page and clutter my screen with pop-up windows (despite the fact that I would continue to do it day after day) but honestly, a pat on the back to Kat and Justin!
I like the new layout and the blue background. the scrolling comments to the right is a nice addition.
elaing8(at)netscape(dot)net
Navigation is a lot cleaner – good job! I don’t feel so overwhelmed and overstimulated
this…is…AWESOME!!! lol SPARTA!!!
Hi! This is my first time to your site! I like it! I especially like the new release section and how you have the comments scrolling on the side.
Believe it or not…I am actually SB frank’s “teenage pubecent son.”
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Pikachu is CUTE
Hi! This is my first time visiting your page, I’m a new member. Your site is really amazing and I have seen a lot because I just love to read books. Anyways, your site has to be the best soooo far that I will visit practically every week. What I like about it is that You have links to other authors and the new releases. That has to be the coolest thing on a profile I have seen, no lie. And the background, the whole medieval dragon theme is cool. Plus your headline, “Life’s too short to read bad books” that’s right. Well, I’m still looking around the site but what I have seen, I have to five it 5 starts.
This contest is closed. Please ignore the temporary link. It will be fixed tomorrow.
Love the look, job well done!
Today is my first time visiting this site. I really like how I can mouse over the book picture and it gives me the option to buy with amazon. That is really neat.
Thanks again for the comments!! Ingrid, glad you found us! The art was created for us by Janny Wurts — she’s a favorite around here.