First, please stop sending me concerned email. I did not snap, heh. I like it how when it’s a dark gloomy design with blood dripping off the walls, everybody thinks situation is normal and when it’s funny and cheerful, people start asking if I need medical help.
Back before the first book came out, I had a livejournal with a cute Foxxeh theme. Foxxeh is the cuter version of the firefox logo character. I liked my foxxeh a lot. I had one header where he was playing with cherry blossoms and one when he was laying by a lake.
And then the book came out and suddenly we needed a professional website. It had to be dark. And edgy. And it was meant to communicate the fact that I am a Serious Writer. A friend made one for me, introducing me to the awesome art of the photo image manipulation – thanks, Reece – and we had our dark and edgy website.
Here is the header from it.
A string of dark and edgy website graphics followed. Each new book deserved a new banner. (William isn’t gone, btw, he is in the Edge part of the website.) All my friends had dark and edgy websites as well. There is some sort of unspoken rule that if you have an urban fantasy/paranormal romance, someone has to either bleed, have a tattoo, or hug a gravestone on your website.
I missed my foxxeh. He was cute and despite writing with a touch of a dark edge, I like cute things. I was about ten or so when my toys were put away into the attic because my parents decided that stuffed animals were no longer appropriate for a child of my age. But haha! I can now have cute stuffed animals and nobody can take them away from me. And I have two actually, three now, because Gordon donated some money to the World Wild Life Fund and they sent me a lynx, which kind of looks tough.
Please don’t send me stuffed animals. I don’t collect them. I just like to have one or two, and that’s all.
About three days ago in the middle of a frustrating battle with taxes and payroll services (don’t move a business to a new state if you can help it), it dawned on me that we don’t have anything coming out until May. We don’t have to actively promote until April or so. I was sick of the algae stained swamp paper look of the blog and I was even more sick of being a virtual billboard. Bleh. So I started looking around for some sort of new layout. I chatted about it with some friends, mentioning that the swamp layout made my eyes hurt, and Meljean said:
Anything that is pretty and pleasant to look at will maybe make it less of a pain to go online and look at it?
About the same time I happened to browse Marjorie Liu’s blog and it has happy mermaids on it. So I decided that damn it, it was our website, and since you are here for the content and not graphics anyway, we could do whatever the hell we wanted. I was looking through the Shutterstock images, stumbled onto the sun background, showed it to Gordon, and he laughed. So now the website has a new cute fall theme. I even got all of our pets, with the exception of Sam, in the footer. 
PS. To peeps who are demanding I take it down: No. I like you, but you don’t get to tell me what to do.
Love it!
Although I love the dark & edgy too.
Themes are like clothes — it’s nice to get to change things around as the mood inspires you.
LOL@ the Ps
When I came to the website, I had to do a double take to check if the address was right.
I could care less what your layout looks like I’m just here for some snippets and the blog. I wasn’t really a fan of the last layout, something about well ab dudes puts me off. But this layout makes me smile.
Love your P.S. comment! I for one am glad you change your site every now and then. To me its fun to see what you will do next.
I had just assumed that because you made comments on a web designer earlier, he had retaliated by changing your site to REM mode
I like the new vampire-pirate-swashbuckling chinese sun
PS: Part-way through Kate Daniels 2. Reallllly digging this one.
right you are, this is your blog, your site. cute pets
Heh, I’ll admit it threw me for a loop when I clicked on favorites, selected your websites and the brand new look appeared.
I particularly dig the bottom header- very cute.
The fact that people email over something so trivial and inconsequential just baffles me. I’ll echo others… just here for the content and snippets.
Play, change whatever to your hearts content.
a vampire pirate sun – cool!
I haven’t been on for a few days so only just read WTF?etc. I can’t, won’t and wouldn’t dream of speaking for someone else— but I really like the website revamps- so glad you keep doing it ( congrats to Alice for posting in your defence , and for doing it so confidently and directly— you must be proud of her) xxx
I just saw the new website and should note I like it! Cute
I like it!!! I think it’s refreshing to see a blog that is funny-autumn themed instead of gloomy halloween right now. most people dress their blog/homepage in dark and creepy for halloween, you’ve done it the other way round
hehe
the fangs are a nice touch…
Vampire pirate sun is cute!
Dance to the beat of your own drum!!!!! I love the sun! xx
I love the new website!
I like the new theme, it’s cute.
Oh thanks for toning the white down a notch. My eyes appreciate it
You know, I felt oddly cheerful most of today… I blame you :giggles: Told everyone it’s Ilona’s fault I’m so darn happy. :grumbling to myself all the while about happy vampire suns: :shakes head and mutters quietly to herself: Better than Sparkly Vampires anyday!
Love the vampire sun!
Your blog, decorate anyway you please. Disregard the insolent whiners
lol it’s darker than yesterday…
heck ya, don’t let anyone tell you what to do ever. i don’t know why some people feel the need to tell others how to run their lives. anyways dark and gloomy is cool but fun and cheerful makes us smile. for me it’s all good oh and never questioned your guys’ sanity. lol.
In the last few weeks I’ve had computer problems, and then problems with the library site that I get on every day–it’s been sending me to a strange search engine. Today when I saw your new site I thought, “What evil trick is my computer playing on me now?!” Glad it’s you, not my computer! I like it. You keep us on our toes. And I like the pets at the bottom.
At first I had thought that I had the wrong web-site, so I closed out of it and retyped the address.
Change is good for the soul, plus it keeps everyone on their toes and keeps things interesting. I love the graphics you have for the books, but when you are in-between releases, why not have something different.
The disclaimers are cracking me up. Maybe I’m not nice enough, but I haven’t yet had the urge to send you something.
I like it – it’s cheerful in a really bizarre kind of way (where else would you see a pirate sun?!) Makes me smile when I log on anyway
I like it- it’s easy to look at and really cute, especially the pets at the bottom.
The sun is pretty badass as well!
I like it. I have actually gotten seriously tired of how a lot of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance writers feel like everyone has to wear black all the time, wear leather bustiers all the time, and/or just other leather clothing. Most of the characters/covers that have people wearing leather and looking all gothic tend to have it just as a “fashion statement” instead of the leather actually being functional. It really stops being creative when the majority of people do the exact same thing. That’s a unique thing about your books that I enjoy; people wear clothing that isn’t supposed to just shock people by being *gasp* leather or gothic. The stuff they wear isn’t given higher priority than what they’re doing. And while I know this is sort of off topic, isn’t it also really quite on topic? What your website “wears” isn’t as important to me as what it does/is. Just because it’s Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance doesn’t mean it has to be dark. Which seems to be another trend that I’ve noticed in a lot of my books – a focus on vampires, werewolves, and demons, creatures usually concentrated in horror books moreso than like high fantasy. Or at least that’s what my limited experience has been (I’m not going to claim to know every book in the world, or ever genre or trend). And that is another reason I like your books: you guys bring a lot of non-traditional Urban Fantasy creatures into the mix, and you’ve made up some really scary bad guys.
Ok, I think I’ve rambled enough. Have a good day
Why are some people such asses and feel that they have any and all right to tell other people what they are allowed to do and how they should represent themselves? I dig your new website. Threw me a bit and I had to recheck the address bar to be sure I’d come to the right place. But, you’re right, it’s your page. Do what YOU like. Me? I’ll keep reading your stuff and visiting your website regularly regardless how you decorate.
That sun cracks me up evertime I get a glimpse of it in the background! Who couldn’t love a happy vampire pirate sun? Keep on doing what you wanna do (regardless of what grumblebumb people say), it’s worked out pretty good for you (and us readers) so far!
I like it. I was “what the Hell, is going on here” But I thought it was funny. I get why you did it. And like you said it’s YOUR page so do as you please.
wow, I was unable to check in here for several days and here’s what I got upon my return
it’s nice to have some cheerfulness for a change, stereotypes are sooo boring 
and actually one of the (many) things I like about your books is that despite having a dark edge or whatever they do not leave the reader hopeless or desperate (yup, I’m a sucker for moderately happy endings and not wanting to go and kill myself over the injustice of the world after finishing a book %))
and no on is the boss of you, that’s for sure
I love this. Love the sunshine and rainbows. Lately, there have been some very grumpy posts in general over the internet. *smiles* I definately dig the pets in the background, especially the pug. Happy, joy! Keep blissful and may the unicorns smile upon you.