Nathan Barham's Blog

For many people (especially people who are white, like me, male, like me), it has taken too long to say, vocally, clearly, that the brutality of police in this country towards black people is unacceptable.

It is not a coincidental collection of mistakes, it is the result of a system that knowingly encourages actions that result in the deaths of black men and black women.

It is not ���a few bad apples��� but rather the oft forgotten spoiling of the whole barrel portion of that saying.

Yes, it is the officer who kneels on a black man���s neck.

Yes, it is the officers who watch as that man begs to be allowed to breathe, officers who do nothing to stop a murder happening before their very eyes.

Yes, it is the police departments who do not immediately charge the killer and the observers.

Yes, it is the highest-ranking authorities who do not punish the departments for allowing murderers to walk free with guns in their hands, ready to perpetuate the cycle of violence again.

And yes, it is the wasted time and energy of the (overwhelmingy white) people who will defend any of the above.

I am no authority in this, but I do have a platform from which to speak, a group of people who can come here and see one more person saying this cannot be allowed to continue. Because���

Black. Lives. Matter.

And our system of policing, of governing, of existing as a society, does not treat black people as if that statement were true.

I am taking steps in my own life to help make sure this changes. In addition, below I���ve provided links to some accounts that represent the kind of videos and essays that helped to grow my (still growing, still mistake-making) understanding of this issue.

Emmanuel Acho - Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

MKBHD - Reflecting on the Color of My Skin

Henny tha Bizness - Being a Black Man in America

Lavar Burton - This is My Story

#BlackLivesMatter

TLDR: Barham Ink has a YouTube Channel! Read on for more���

One important lesson I learned while writing the first drafts in the Alora���s Tear series is that���at least for me���one creative project isn���t enough. There needs to be more than one outlet where a writer can direct their creative energies. By having more than one option for creative purpose, so the thinking goes, I���m able to allow my brain to process problems or difficulties with the novel in the background while I do something else that supports my self-image as an author and creator. As a result, I came up with the mantra ���There is no such thing as writer���s block; you just need to write something else.���

And I truly believe this. Your mileage my vary, of course, but I needed (and still need) to believe that I couldn���t be stopped. At first, the ���something else��� was limited to other writing projects. It began with tech and gaming blog posts that comprised all of the articles on the predecessor to this site, Think Critical. Over time, the secondary writing outlet changed. For a while I wrote and photographed reviews for Tools and Toys or wrote freelance tech articles for a handful of other publications. I started a podcast with my good friend Scott Boren, writing and recording once a week for over a year. There was even a brief adventure working on narrative and dialogue elements for an iOS game that unfortunately never made its way to the App Store.

Then, by natural progression rather than any kind of epiphany, I began using other forms of expression to continue creating when the main project was giving me trouble, moving slowly, or feeling more like work than joy. I performed in musicals and dance. I took on the Drama class assignment at my teaching job. I wrote songs and played music. Last year, in the midst of publishing Circlets and Seekers, I scrapped my old website, switched providers, and wrote the HTML and CSS for the new BarhamInk.com by hand. The point? Creative expression comes in many forms, and it is my firm belief that the alternative avenues to explore that creativity are essential to maintaining the level of world building, character depth, and storytelling of the main project: Alora���s Tear.

All of that to say, over the summer I���ve been experimenting again. This time with video. I present information to an audience on a daily basis as an English teacher (and Speech, and Drama, and all the rest) not to mention that as the years go by, video projects have become more frequent for my students. I wanted to know more, to do more. My conclusion was to try my hand at a YouTube channel for Barham Ink. And that is what I did.

I considered what might be the best way to practice the skills I���d by asking my students to exercise in class and the kind of content I���d both like to make and that I���d personally be interested in watching both for practical purposes and just for fun. I came up with three categories: mini-lessons, advice, and technology. Within these groupings, I intend to keep the lessons very short, the advice short, and to dive deeper on the technology side.

So that���s it. Barham Ink now has a YouTube channel. The first few videos are about the area of tech with which I���m currently most interested���the iPad Pro and its universe of accessories���while the draft queue contains several ideas for writing mechanics mini-lessons that will benefit my students as well as general viewers and some advice ideas for people looking to pursue writing their first novel or publishing it themselves. Of course there will be new iPhones soon and likely plenty of other great topics that I haven���t thought of yet. The categories could expand. The format could change. I���m not interested in limiting what this particular creative experiment can be.

Worry not, however, Volume V (I know the title, but you don���t���yet) is in great shape thus far. In fact, the characters have already taken me to places and put themselves through trials I did not foresee in the outline. And with a new way to exercise my creative muscle, when I���m not working on the book, I expect they���ll be off finding even more ways to get into trouble and to surprise us all.

Check out the Barham Ink Channel on YouTube. Also, like and subscribe while you���re there, because apparently that���s pretty important.

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The 2018 MacBook Air: long awaited, much speculated, possibly destined to underwhelm tech reviewers everywhere thanks to Apple���s principled stance on touchscreen Macs in a world of entry level ultrabook convertibles. To understand Apple���s 2018 decisions, it���s important to consider design ethos. Namely, what is a notebook computer? TLDR version: the 2018 MacBook Air.

Let���s start with the keyboard, generation three of the butterfly switch variety, which first appeared in the 12��� Retina MacBook from 2015. Many people hate this keyboard. I don���t. As an owner of that first little MacBook who used that keyboard to write the majority of my most recent novel, I���d go as far as to say I don���t just not hate it, I love it. The 2018 version is better in every way. Response and click-feel is more obvious. Key depression requires just a bit more force, enhancing the feel further. And, though the key travel is the same, presses give a definite sense of greater depth. On top of it all, this version dampens some of the hollow sound found in version 2, but more importantly uses a silicone membrane to protect the mechanism from dust and other debris. For those who aren���t enthusiasts with a preference for deep-travel mechanical keyboards (like they built���em in the ���80s), the MacBook Air���s implementation���like the company���s marketing line for the device as a whole���will probably be one of Apple���s most loved.

The TouchID button, technically still part of the keyboard, but worthy of note on its own, makes way more sense as a standalone key than having it sit flush with the Touch Bar (whatever your feelings about that feature on the MacBook Pro) where it felt flimsy and cheap. On the MacBook Air, it maintains the same key stability as the rest of the keyboard while also being allowed to be an individual unit, rather than a strangely integrated appendage. Because I use an Apple Watch, and use its authentication, I don���t encounter the need for TouchID very often. When it does appear, for purchases, installations, etc, it���s very fast and has never failed (not once!).

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There is one place the MacBook Air does fail to feel as premium as Apple���s other notebook offerings, the screen. Don���t get me wrong, this display is every bit as good as the 2015 Retina MacBook in sharpness, color, and brightness, but it doesn���t achieve the P3 color gamut that most of Apple���s screens do these days, and it can struggle a bit in bright sunlight. I also miss TrueTone. It���s pretty surprising how seamlessly that feature works on iPhones, iPads, and the MacBook Pro. I actually went into Apple���s color calibration tool and set the Air���s white point to match my iPhone in the room where I do most of my work. Others wont need to go to these lengths, but if you���re sensitive to subtle details, you���ll want to take the couple of minutes to calibrate. Aside from this admittedly small critique, it���s a lovely display, a Retina display, on a MacBook Air.

The form factor is a nice combination of the razor thin MacBook and the Klondike Bar-ish MacBook Pro. The taper matters. The Air is much more comfortable to one-hand out of a bag and feels so much better when working (on desk or lap) because the wedge flows right down into the surface. It���s smaller by volume than the old MacBook Air but not by as much as you might think, and it doesn���t go as thin. I would have preferred Apple shave a little more thickness and a little more weight. My ideal would be 2.5 instead of 2.75 pounds and just a hair thinner. That said, it���s definitely on the right side of thin and light vs the MacBook Pro.

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At the announcement I mistakenly thought the MacBook Air would be fanless like the MacBook; however, it does have a fan. The good news is that I���ve only been able to hear it once (with the initial Photos processing and Spotlight indexing process). The upper left corner became slightly warm to the touch at that point, but nothing like the egg-frying MacBook Pro temperatures. If you���re using the Air for writing, research, watching videos, or even basic photo editing, it might as well be fanless. For those working the machine a bit harder, it���s a more pleasant experience (though less performant of course) than a MacBook Pro at elevated fan speed under load.

For my needs this heat and fan noise difference is well worth the tradeoff in performance. There���s only one processor option for the MacBook Air (a 1.6ghz dual core with turbo boost up to 3.6ghz) and from what I���ve seen, I���ll only notice the difference with heavy ���walk away from it and get some coffee��� tasks that would remain in that category on any other machine anyway. The more noticeable performance gains are in Apple���s T2 ���security��� chip, in quotation marks because it doubles as the memory and disk controller, providing lightning fast SSD speed, and with it, overall system performance.

There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which do everthing USB-C can do, plus all the great Thunderbolt features like eGPUs and high bandwidth storage connections. Coming from the single-port MacBook, it really is nice. I didn���t need a second port, but I���m sure glad it���s there now, if only to ease the worry of what if?

Audio isn���t something I usually think too much about when buying a new notebook, but the strides Apple has made here are significant. The most impressive (surprisingly, as I thought it was just marketing hype) is the wider stereo sound field. Music and effects seem almost to wrap around your head. There���s still a directional sense that the sound is coming from the computer, but there���s another sense that it is continuously radiating outward from the speaker grilles and expanding into the room.

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Also, if you haven���t used one of Apple���s Force-Touch Trackpads yet, all I can say is you���re in for a treat. There are few innovations from Apple in the last for years (especially in the Mac line) that are as impressive as the trackpad that feels like it���s clicking even though it���s entirely stationary. The MacBook Air version behaves much more like its smaller MacBook sibling, steering clear of the hollow, drum-like sound and feel of the Pro models. This is a good thing. The clicking effect is more pronounced and convincing, and the deep press (which brings up word definitions in MacOS) feels sturdier.

Lastly, and in some ways most importantly, there���s Apple���s effort to make greener technology products. As a consumer and fan of their work, I���d be remiss if I didn���t mention that this new MacBook Air is made of 100% recycled aluminum. By feel, there���s no way to tell. The new alloy that Apple���s engineers have developed has the same texture and apparent rigidity as any MacBook (or Powerbook before it). All with half the carbon footprint of its predecessor.

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I���d argue that the last time Apple released a genuinely exciting notebook was the introduction of the 12��� Retina MacBook in 2015. Since then, the MacBook Pro line has seemingly gone from stumble to stumble, finally righting itself with the Summer 2018 updates. But, it is the MacBook Air, the computer for everybody, that brings a little bit of that excitement again. It carries a price premium (as basically all Apple products do) but the experience of using a Mac, and a lightweight, solid, long-lasting one at that, will be worth it to anyone who has the curiosity and the cash. This is an excellent successor to the previous Air and just a great computer in general. If you love MacOS or want to switch to it, the MacBook Air is the go-to machine again. No question about it.

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I���m proud to announce that today, Alora���s Tear, Volume IV: Circlets and Seekers is now available in paperback. They���re gorgeous, thanks to the work of cover artist Isis Sousa and are made with quality, professional grade materials. The goal is always to make my books look and feel every bit as polished as a product from a large publishing corporation. Circlets and Seekers is no exception.

The best way to get a copy is to attend one of the events where I���ll be selling the books in person. There, the prices are the lowest ($10 for Volume IV, and no shipping!) and I can sign it right there, with your name and custom inscription. Better yet, I get to thank you face-to-face for supporting my writing.

If you won���t be in the area, or just can���t wait, visit the Barham Ink Etsy Shop. Here, you can still get a custom, signed copy, for $11.99 plus shipping and it will arrive at your door.

Lastly, the series is also available on Amazon and other major online book retailers.

However you get your copy, thanks so much. I hope you enjoy the first stage of Askon���s new journey, the new characters he meets, and their stories. I���ve said it before, but I���m so excited for all of you to experience it.

It���s finally here. Circlets and Seekers is available now on all the popular digital platforms!

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You���ve followed Askon and his friends through the battle of their time, through Iramov and his dark army, through betrayal and surprise, through doubt and despair, and magic, because of course there is magic in Vladvir.

Now the old friends return, but it is the new characters I���m most excited for you to meet. I hope you love them (and love to hate them). Their stories are just beginning. The girl from the vision awaits. They all await.

The quickest way to get a copy is the digital version for $4.99. As with Trilogy One, I tried to keep it in the ���coffee and a pastry��� price range (though these days, it���s more like ���a nice coffee if you���re lucky��� range). I guarantee it lasts longer than the coffee does, even if you���re a really fast reader.

Here are all the ways you can get a copy online:

Apple Books
Kindle
Kobo
Nook

PS: Fear not, paperback fans, Volume IV will have a paperback edition to match the first Alora���s Tear trilogy. Unfortunately, there was an error during the proofing process which has caused a slight delay. For that reason, I���ll be holding off on the newsletter until the paperback is available. If you���re on the list, you���ll get a note when they are ready to ship. If you���re not on the list (or can���t remember if you signed up) here���s the link.

On Tuesday, August 14th the second Alora���s Tear trilogy begins. Today, enjoy the magnificent work of Isis Sousa and the back cover text for Volume IV, Circlets and Seekers. I���m excited to share the book with all of you, next week.

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Circlets and Seekers

In artificial night she waits, alone, fears mounting as the brittle sounds of vermin scratch and scrabble through the walls. He���ll return soon, but he will bring no light. And hope? It���s been days since there was any of that. They want to know what she knows, about the Tear, about the fragments, about her father. They���ll shout, they���ll threaten, deprive her of food and sleep, but they���d surely never use the twisted tools glimpsed in passing candle flame. Not here.

In the Tolarenz town hall, Askon thinks of nothing but the woman in the vision. His city is not itself. He is not himself. After seeing her, after using the fragments of Alora���s Tear to peer into the frozen caldera where his people entered the world, Askon knows he must go. He must brave the bitter cold and trackless snow in search of Dalkaldur.

L��ana and Edward, Thomas and Elise, John of Dalstone, all will be tested. Follow or stay? And if they follow, to what end? Death in icy desolation is as likely as success. And if they succeed���if they find Dalkaldur and the woman whose circlet reads ���Alora������they must then answer the most unsettling question: how did she come to possess the fragments? With Askon in the lead, and a new threat appearing across the land of Vladvir, there is only one way to be certain. They must find her.

Pre Order


Apple Books
Kindle
Nook
Kobo

The future is wireless (or so they keep saying). My current PC gaming setup is now part of that future with the SteelSeries Arctis 7 headset. These headphones boast the same 40mm speaker drivers as the pro model by SteelSeries, a high quality retractable microphone, and lag-free audio, all in a subtle design free of the gaudy LEDs and faux robotic nonsense that mars most gaming peripherals.

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Comfort

The Arctis 7 features a unique ski-goggle strap adjustment system for improved comfort. It���s a fine way to adjust the fit, but in practice the arc of the metal headband itself is too shallow. Regardless of the nice, infinitely resizable strap, the metal rests against my head when the strap is loose enough for the cups to comfortably cover my ears. Your milage may vary.

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The headphone cushions use a fabric similar to modern sports equipment that supposedly makes them more breathable over long gaming sessions. I���ve found this to be mostly true, though I wish the cushions were thicker. They stay cool and don���t deteriorate like the fake leather material of cheaper headphones.

The whole headset is quite light, and meets my primary goal of being more comfortable than my previous pair, the wired (a very comfortable set if you���re willing to ignore the wire).

Microphone

One of my main complaints with the Kraken Pro v2 was the low quality microphone. I play a lot of Heroes of the Storm and enjoy doing so with friends: strategizing, calling shots, and just generally chatting. The aggressive audio processing, noise gating, and other Razer features never worked properly, and without them, the sound was harsh and difficult to tune.

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The Arctis 7s claim the best microphone in gaming, and though that specific assertion may be hyperbolic, it has been exactly what I was looking for in a mic. My voice sounds more true to life, the controls are simple and direct with no black-box smart switches or toggles. Best of all, background noise is limited by the hardware itself simply by using good mic technique. There���s a large air conditioner next to my desk that I used to have to shut off if I wanted to be on comms, but now that same unit can kick on and off without any complaints from teammates.

Sound Quality

In the audio quality realm, the Arctis 7s struggle a bit. The default configuration lacks bass and soundstage depth. However, the mid and high range are excellent, a very important point if your ear is more attuned to the subtleties of sound design. What these headphones lack in bass can easily be accounted for with a few EQ adjustments at the low end.

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Also a feature of note is the DTS surround sound support. It���s a nice-to-have, and atmospheric games are definitely enhanced by its expanded soundstage and precise positioning when listening for something coming up behind you or off in the distance to one side, but for non-first-person games, you���ll want to turn it off.

Software and Conclusion

The configuration utility is neither excellent nor terrible. Like most software of its kind (especially in the Windows world) it simply is. One nice feature is the ability to set configuration profiles for specific applications. For instance, in the case of a top-down isometric game like Heroes of the Storm, you can set the software to automatically switch off DTS surround and turn on microphone monitoring. Generally, updates are frequent and issues are few.

If you���re looking for a wireless headset, there���s little to dislike about the SteelSeries Arctis 7. I���ve enjoyed being untethered from my desk between rounds while still being able to hear conversations; battery life is long, to the point that it���s a non-issue; and it���s nice to know that my voice sounds more like me whether we���re talking about the latest popular TV series or the next team fight.

You can find the Arctis 7 headset on Amazon for around $150.

One of the things included in the 2018 redesign of BarhamInk.com is a place for gear recommendations and product reviews. I love technology and have written extensively about it on Think Critical, but I���ve also contributed thousands of words and dozens of product photos to sites like the excellent Tools & Toys, the Magazine, and The Loop Magazine.

All of these were fantastic opportunities and excellent experiences which I greatly enjoyed. From time to time, I���d like to continue sharing my experiences with new devices, peripherals, software, and accessories, here, the new home for all of my writing online.

To that end, I���ll be beginning a new series of posts called ���Kit.��� It���s a simple title prefix that signals to readers they���ll be reading a product review. The first of these will go live tomorrow. Here���s what to look forward to:

My thoughts on a product with a focus on details that don���t make it into the marketing pages. Do not expect a rewrite of what you can already find on the manufacturer���s website.
Photography that shows what the shipped item looks like in the real world. Expect 3-5 clear, high quality shots that give a good sense of the materials and construction.
An affiliate link through which you can purchase the item (where available). These links ensure that I receive a small commission (from Amazon, Apple, or whomever) if you buy one of the items I���ve recommended. It is not my intent to make these posts into a significant revenue stream, but if you choose to buy something on a recommendation from this site, I hope you���ll use the links provided to do so.

And that is the new ���Kit��� post category on the 2018 redesign of BarhamInk.com. I look forward to sharing lots of cool stuff with you in the future.

This summer, the second trilogy in the Alora���s Tear series begins. For today, let���s start with the title to book four.

Alora's Tear, Volume IV:

Circlets and Seekers

Make sure you���ve read the Epilogue to The Voice like Water. I���m so excited to share this story with everyone. Check back for more details, back cover text, excerpt, and of course the fantastic cover art!

Welcome to the redesigned BarhamInk.com, the new home for Alora���s Tear and other writings by me, Nathan Barham. For most people, the take away is this: it���s fast! Like, really fast. Even if you���re on a limited mobile connection, BarhamInk.com should be one of the fastest sites you visit on any given day. And despite the speed increase, all of the content, features, and capabilities from the old site are still here (plus a lot more). If you���ve been following the book series since its debut in 2014 or if you���ve been following my writing on Apple, gaming, and other interests, you���ll notice more changes.

First and foremost, where once there were two sites, now there is only one. When I began writing Think Critical (at natebarham.com) my goal was simply to share my thoughts about technology and gaming, two interests that have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I hosted the site with Tumblr, and though it never really fit the trademark Tumblr aesthetic, there was enough customization that I could make the site look and behave almost exactly as I envisioned it.

In 2014 I published Alora���s Tear: Fragments, and with it, BarhamInk.com on Squarespace. This solution allowed me to focus on content first, things like important locations, a pronunciation guide, and thoughts on writing. Not to mention links for buying books and information about the new publishing entity I���d just created. Secondarily, Squarespace provided easy design templates to work with that didn���t require CSS or HTML.

Fast forward several years���and four novels. Things have changed. Now everything points to BarhamInk.com, one site to communicate my thoughts on various subjects as well as promote and enrich the world of Vladvir, its characters, and any future worlds when Askon and friends turn their final page.

For those who have seen all the iterations of my online writing presence, I thank you especially. Without the readers of Think Critical, I might not have felt confident enough to publish Alora���s Tear on my own. And for those who have always followed the books but never knew about the site that came before, it is my hope that you will enjoy having a more complete picture of the person who crafted Askon���s tale and all the tales yet to come.

Technical site details follow, if you���re into that sort of thing���

Readability

A number of years ago I read Butterick���s Practical Typography. It was the first formal consolidation of all the typography principles I was seeing applied across many of my favorite sites on the web, some of which are still actively maintained today (The Brooks Review, MattGemmell.com, Inessential by Brent Simmons, MacStories, and many others). I used these principles in designing the paperback versions of Alora���s Tear and have done so on BarhamInk.com as well.

Regardless of device, text should be large, clear and high contrast, with ample whitespace between lines and surrounding the content, while line length balances screen size with typeface size, never extending so far that they become tiring for readers. These details alone aim to make a better reading experience whether you���re visiting for a chapter-length excerpt or a blog post of a few dozen words.

The featured typeface is Quattrocento (in its serif and sans versions) to characterize the site���s text in a way that suggests both general purpose writing and medieval fantasy (when reading Vladvir-related content). If you block web fonts, you���ll get Palatino, Garamond, or just plain old serif. And, because I was too attached to it, despite examining dozens of alternatives, Adelle makes its way over from Think Critical for the site title courtesy of TypeKit.

Links and headings take on my favorite shade of green (Askon���s signature cloak is the same color for both practical and sentimental reasons), differentiating them from body text and navigation links. All links take on the underline text decoration when you hover over them with the cursor. Pretty standard, of course, but intentional nonetheless.

Images

Images take on several forms, most notably the large, highly detailed art from Isis Sousa, whose work is as much a part of the Alora���s Tear series as are my words. These big beautiful digital paintings take center stage, setting the tone for each volume���s preview page. Inside posts, images are smaller and can flow alongside the text on the desktop or tablet, while remaining inline on phone screens.

Navigation

Navigation links are persistent across the site,but do not follow the reader (I despise sites that do this) as they scroll down the page. On desktop, each category has the ability to show a dropdown submenu for more options. For instance, the about section has a dropdown for The Author, Barham Ink, and The Site.

On mobile, there���s one link to buy books and a menu that takes readers to the main sections of the site, the submenu links from the desktop dropdown are provided above the content so mobile users don���t miss out on any of the content suggestions from the desktop version. Lastly, a second set of navigation appears below the featured image on book buying pages to highlight the places where you can purchase Alora���s Tear in paperback and ebook.

Responsive Design

In a world where most people consider their phone to be their primary computer (even if they don���t know it consciously) websites should present themselves in a way that makes life on a mobile device easier, and arguably the best version of that site. At the very least, desktop and mobile should be equals in content and access, while having individual design decisions that emphasize the strengths of the platform. BarhamInk.com is designed with these principles in mind. Anything that you can find easily on desktop, you can find just as easily on mobile.

A Note on Accessibility

Typography and readability are to 2013 (or so) as Accessibility is to 2018 (or so). In the intervening years, Apple has made significant efforts in their products to account for people of all abilities to enjoy them. I���d like to be doing the same here. My first step was to increase text size and contrast and to include alt-text on all images. The work of writers like Steven Aquino have helped me to understand that this should be an area of concern for all designers. If you find anything on the site that makes reading it unnecessarily difficult for certain people, please let me know.

Jekyll

I first heard about Jekyll from Matt Gemmell. It���s a static website generator that for my purposes, does three things:

Gives full control of HTML and CSS styling

Squarespace allowed some customization, but every template I tried had dependencies and corner cases where the site just never looked the way I wanted.
Tumblr had more control in this way; however, the platform itself was not designed for hosting websites like BarhamInk.com and Think Critical always felt shoehorned into a community where it didn���t belong.


Makes everything load much faster

Both previous sites, and especially the Squarespace version, were inexplicably (at least to me and other laypersons) slow to load. It���s a site with some text and a few images. Why a four or five second load time?
Jekyll uses static pages, which ends up meaning that loading the site is down to a small fraction of a second on a fast connection, and even when the connection is slow, the text and structure loads quickly while the images appear as they download.


Allows me to write in Markdown

Now, this is definitely not an exclusive feature, but as I use Ulysses to write novels, I���ve become very attached to Markdown syntax in my writing. Years ago, I attempted to get Marco Arment���s Second Crack working because I was attracted to the idea of typing up a plaintext Markdown document, dropping it into a folder, and having that post appear on my website. No Tumblr app needed, no Squarespace blog app needed, no visiting a web interface to post���just my words in the simplest file format possible and a folder that syncs.
Jekyll gets most of the way there, though it does require a push to the host. Maybe now that the site is in action, I���ll be able to find a way to just drop content into a folder and watch it appear.




Closing Thoughts

If you���ve made it this far, bravo! And I thank you. This site redesign has been an obsessive labor of love only equaled by the amount of focus I spend on the paperback versions of my books. Unfortunately I am not nearly as adept with HTML/CSS as I am with a descriptive paragraph or dialogue, but I hope my efforts make using the site more pleasant and reflect the attention to detail that I try to apply to all of my work.

-Nate