It’s a Sunday afternoon in North Central Florida, and I am rather in heaven poking under the hood of my redesigned website. Yes, this one.

I’ve created and run four websites since 2009, but this is the first time I’ve hired a professional web designer. What a difference that has made!

All the things I tried to do myself on this site for a year — tinkering around, in vain — she was able to conjure in just a few days. Features like blurbs, events, newsletter sign up, a pop-up, etc. Please don’t tell me that stuff is easy. I’m a writer, not a graphics person.

I am thrilled to recommend Jenny Medford of Austin-based Websy Daisy.

Her business creates custom sites for authors, artists and creators. You’ll see on her portfolio page that she specializes in children’s book authors, but as my site demonstrates, her abilities encompass more than kids lit.

It can be a challenge for authors to conceptualize their work and their author identity in purely visual terms. I was fortunate to have written a book that includes photographs by my long-time collaborator, Jorge Vera, which were the jumping-off point for the site redesign.

I’ve got lots more tinkering to do as I familiarize myself with my shiny new build. Happy Sunday to you all!