A bit quiet on the website-building front last week. Trying to squeeze in as much summer fun as I can before heading back to the classroom to start a new year of teaching. But I did just add two new pages. One is a contact page listing my brand new email address, along with details on how to acquire precious signed copies of two of my favorite books (that will someday be worth lots of money when I hit the big-time), as well as information for book clubs and schools kind enough to take an interest in my work. I also added a page featuring other places my work has appeared in.

Speaking of teaching, it occurred to me that it would be nice to add a page for teachers who wish to use my books in the classroom. Spinning Out might not be appropriate for classroom use in many schools due to the language, but Truesight, Doppelganger, and A Gathering of Shades have all been used to great effect by several of my talented colleagues in English classrooms at Lyndon Institute. All three novels are very “teachable”, with rich themes for discussion. Truesight is a coming of age story that is firmly grounded in the dystopian tradition, while Doppelganger and A Gathering of Shades explicitly play off of Macbeth and The Odyssey respectively. I’ll hit my peers up for whatever materials they might have (quizzes, tests, discussion questions, etc.), along with some of my own stuff, and make those resources available on this site.

More anon…

Okay. Finished phase one–a page for each work. Next week I’ll dig into the juicier stuff–the kinds of things readers might like to know. But for now it’s a start. Of course, I also have to figure out one other important hitch–how to actually get people to the site. One thing at a time…

In the meantime, check out my summer blog tour to promote my latest book Spinning Out. It was my first real foray into cyberworld and encouraged me to establish an online presence via Facebook and this site. (A special thanks to Lara Starr at Chronicle Books for setting this all up!)

In fact, my very first blog post speaks to this…

On to the tour:

Continue reading →

Added another page today. Decided to go with Doppelganger next. Had fun working in the French and Chinese stuff, though I don’t know if it will stay. Starting to recover from my initial feeling yesterday of being overwhelmed by all this and wondering if I should have just paid someone to put something together. The site is certainly simple, though I kind of like the clean, spare look–it’s got a Scandanavian kind of mojo, the Ikea of websites. Then again, I have a habit of making a virtue of necessity.

Still, sometimes less is more. A site doesn’t need to be fancy–it just needs to have good content. With time, I think this one will.

I’m still digging the idea of a series of essays or posts about the stories behind the stories–everything from the origins of the novels, to their writing and revision, to the issues of design and cover art and titles. Some of these books have some interesting tales behind their creation. Not sure if I should include them here on the front page blog or if they should go on their own pages or on the pages of the titles they’re linked to. That’s the thing about putting a website together. Lots of decisions to make!

I changed the title of the site to “The Accidental Novelist” for reasons that will soon be explained. Stay tuned!

Am going to shoot for getting the rest of the book pages up tomorrow, then I can turn my attention to the really interesting stuff…

Started in on the page today. This whole web creation business is trickier than I thought, even without having to do any coding. I’m learning as I go, though, and things are slowly coming together. Added some links, a page for Spinning Out (with still more content to come.)

I’m planning on having a separate page for each title, with some basic information along with a behind the scenes commentary for fans of the book. Feel free to e-mail any questions you might like answered!

Thanks for stopping by. You’ll notice there’s nothing here right now, but don’t worry–this will soon be rectified. The pages will overfloweth with content, and it will be good. You’ll soon know more than you ever wanted to know about David Stahler Jr.. But for now, I have to stake my claim and start putting it all together.

Come back in a week or so. Or maybe two–it’s summer, after all…