about this blog

April 10th, 2011

It occurred to me recently that this site really needs an About page, since there's nothing to explain who I am or what's going on here.

First of all, if you're visiting from wordpress.com, you should be aware that this blog is self-hosted (it's not part of wordpress.com), so you would need to register here in order to comment. That confuses a lot of people who are used to the automatic login when you travel between blogs on wordpress.com and want to leave comments. I'm entirely in favor of comments, but you'll have to register to leave them (it's really easy, and you only have to do it once).

I considered moving this whole site to wordpress.com, but there are customizations here that would not be possible if I wasn't running it this way (and, having put together websites of various kinds for... 14 years[?], I'm kind of used to running my own show).

As for me, I've been writing for over 40 years (and a couple of my characters do go back clear to the beginning). The stuff from the first couple of decades wasn't that great (to be kind) and I started a lot of things that I never finished. Then, in the late 1980s, I started A Sane Woman, my first novel, which was published in little monthly chapbooks.

But then somebody gave me a modem and I got online (dialup BBSs, in those days) and I knew I had finally found the best way to get my writing to people. So, I shelved A Sane Woman (which wouldn't have worked in the format of BBS posts) and started something else, which eventually turned into U-town, my second novel. I didn't finish that either (it kind of got out of control, and there was one snag in the plot that I couldn't figure out how to solve). That's when I started to write movie reviews. A few of them were pretty good, I think, so I've posted them here.

But there I was, nearly 50 years old, and it started to bug me that I had two unfinished novels sitting around, so I decided to finish them both for my 50th birthday, which I did. Since then, I've written a series of mystery stories, and a new novella called Stevie One.

I've never been published conventionally, but A Sane Woman is available in hard copy: www.u-town.com/jansleet. I've experimented with putting U-town, the second novel, on paper, but it would be a really big book (it's around 170,000 words), and some chapters are really designed to be read online since they have hypertext aspects.

The mystery stories are located here. Jan Sleet, the detective character, was in both A Sane Woman and U-town (she's in everything I write) but I thought she deserved to be in some more conventional detective stories as well, especially since in U-town there actually is a murder mystery, but she doesn't get to solve it.

Stevie One is located here. There's an HTML version designed specifically for e-readers.

Also, I've been blogging for over five years, having started completely by accident. I talk about that here.

Entry Filed under: Blog News

9 Comments Add your own

  • 1. klaus  |  April 12th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    “I considered moving this whole thing to wordpress.com, but there are customizations here that would not be possible if I wasn’t running it this way”

    I’ve been running my movie review site on wordpress.com and like the convenience of not having to worry about hosting – as well as the associated costs. Although I do think about self hosting from time to time – especially as a way to get rid of the wordpress ads.

  • 2. Anthony Lee Collins  |  April 12th, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    There are some things here that are customized, because when I started they couldn’t be done with regular WordPress (like the navigation bar up top, which is hand coded). I think the wp menus are more flexible than they were a few versions ago, but I’m used to doing it this way.

    Also, even if I moved the blog to wordpress.com, I’d still have to keep the site and the hosting, since there are some other sites here as well.

  • 3. maasmith7  |  June 2nd, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    Hi, Anthony! I have given you the Irresistibly Sweet Blog award. Details at my blog: http://maasmith7.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/the-irresistibly-sweet-blog-award/

  • 4. Anthony Lee Collins  |  June 3rd, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Oh, gracious. Thank you. I see from your post that I need to pay this forward, as it were. Fair enough.

    I was just thinking that I need to add a blogroll. I’ll probably work on that at the same time.

  • 5. How Sweet Is This? | Laur&hellip  |  June 9th, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    […] Thanks, Anthony! That’s so, well, sweet of you! You can find his website here. If you want to know more about Anthony and his many interesting projects, check out his About page. […]

  • 6. rorydean  |  July 28th, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    Hello Anthony, Mr. Collins as it were

    Stumbled over here from Klaus’ site. I have to say, that was a bit of a commitment, the whole signing up and registering thing. I see the need, the point of it all really; seems like today it is necessary to add a bump in the road to dissuade the casual hobgoblin – kind of like eliminating the anonymous account of excess manure.

    At any rate, enjoyed your posts and thought I’d say hello and maybe stick around for a while. Look forward to it.

    best->

  • 7. Anthony Lee Collins  |  July 29th, 2011 at 12:44 am

    Rory, welcome. Glad you decided to visit.

    I’m sorry about the registration thing, but I can tell you that an average of one spammer a day registers at the site, and then leaves when it’s clear that they can’t do anything (comments are moderated). I clear their registrations out about once a week. So, if not for the bumps in the road, you’d be seeing a lot of ads in between the comments.

  • 8. laikhervn  |  December 15th, 2012 at 12:51 am

    Got registered. The email went to spam.

    Good to meet you, man. Will be checking out your stuff more as time allows.

    I promise to behave myself.

  • 9. Anthony Lee Collins  |  December 15th, 2012 at 10:07 am

    Welcome aboard!

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