Hunting for Website Ideas

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I was a bit of a waste of space yesterday. I didn’t get much done in the morning at all, lunch was spent eating, and I was so lethargic come the evening, I switched tactics away from writing because I couldn’t get my concentration up.

So my evening was spent looking for ideas to revamp my website. It may seem not that long ago since I last revamped it, but I’ve never been fully happy with the appearance of it. Also, my blog gets hundreds more hits to it so I need to have that incorporated into the site so I can bring more visits to the main site.

One of the purposes of the blog is to bring in potential new readers round to the idea of buying my books, but when only 10% are going from blog to website, the potential for sales is being lost. Both sites need to be under the same roof and the design needs to be sleeker and more reflective of the work I do. This may involve separating poetry into a new area and putting the focus back on fiction—a decision I’ve not made yet.

Anyway, I got a few ideas, some good and some not so.

Racist Schools
I found out that kids in primary schools aren’t allows to call blackboards blackboards. They have to call them chalkboards even though they’re black. Whiteboards can still be called whiteboards but blackboards must be called chalkboards.

Apparently the school administrators are worried that black people might get upset about being compared to blackboards.

I guess we’ll also have to rename blackbirds as non-whitebirds, blackberries as fruitberries, blackballs as verydarkballs, and Captain Blackheart, well, he’s just gubbed isn’t he?

Google Books Bollo
Google Books launched yesterday. Intrigued to see if any of my books were involved, I ran a search for my name. POOLSIDE POETRY and FRINGE FANTASTIC were listed, although the latter has the following information beside the front cover of my debut poetry collection:

An academic thesis on seven Brian Friel plays: The Enemy Within, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Living Quarters, Making History, Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer and Wonderful Tennessee. This work focuses on Friel’s preoccupation with spiritual characters and themes, in particular on the priest or shaman characters in these plays.

Perfect description of my poetry, wouldn’t you say? Apparently, the author of these previous editions is Niall McGrath, and my book was published by Black Mountain Press in Ballyclare, Ireland.

Not sure what to do about it. Have a pint of lager and shake my head, I guess.

Have a great Friday!

Peace and out!

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