Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Re-Launch!

As crazy as it sounds, we’ve been sailing this blogging ship for more than four years now. After starting on Blogger in 2007, we refit the ship a year later and settled over here on WordPress. We’ve gained new crew members and watched others venture off to other waters. Through it all, we’ve been writing, revising, plotting, pantsing, whining, and cursing our little pirate hearts out.

We wouldn’t have it any other way. But the boards grew dingy and the crew grew weary , so it’s time to change things up a bit.

As you can see right away, the ship has a new look. HUGE thanks to Carrie Spencer, aspiring writer,  self-proclaimed smartass, and my new hero, The Revenge is looking brighter and better than ever. We’ll hopefully add new elements as we go and at least now we have the ability to do so.

Amenities

Chance has a brand new bar – solid mahogany with even more storage space for all the rum, and extra stools for more carousing room. Galley ‘Ho Santa has a brand new kitchen with a huge slide out (RV style), full ventilation and a powerful A/C system. Gourmet all the way!

Our new cabins are state of the art with Nags Head hammocks and dumbwaiters that make getting food from the galley that much easier. The writing room has laptops, iPads, and fully-loaded eReaders for both research and recharging. As always, Wi-Fi is top notch. And we couldn’t forget the hotties. They all have new swim trunks, of varying sizes, and are available for back rubs, long walks on the beach, and all other means of inspiration as called upon.

Schedule

Other than our makeover, our blogging schedule is being tweaked to give us more time to write and still take care of husbands, kids, pooches, kitties, and demanding day-job bosses. Life happens, even for pirates. So our new schedule is as follows:

Monday – Rotation of Capt. Hellion and Bo’sun

Wednesday – Rotation of Quartermaster Sin, Gunner Marn, Coxswain Hal, and Dead Reckoning Donna

Friday – Rotation of 2nd Chance and Striker Soule (newest member of the crew soon to be introduced) with the last Friday of the month still reserved for The Assassin, Leslie Langtry.

As you can see, we will no longer be blogging five days a week. We will also be taking the weekends off. Posting on Sundays was getting in the way of the drinking. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Guests

We’re hoping to have even more guest bloggers and the month of June is proof. On June 6th we welcome Tiffany Clare talking about her new release THE SECRET DESIRES OF A GOVERNESS. (Hands down, prettiest cover of the year.) Then on June 8th Susan Sey pays us a visit to talk about her follow up to MONEY, HONEY called MONEY SHOT. I CANNOT WAIT for this book. Whoot! (fangirl moment over)

But wait, there’s more!

June 13th we welcome Science Fiction/Fantasy writer A.C. Crispin who is an author after our pirate hearts. Ms. Crispin has written a prequel to Pirates of the Caribbean for Disney called THE PRICE OF FREEDOM so we can get all the scoop on the young Jack Sparrow!

Then we’ll be talking more pirates with Jennifer Bray-Weber on the 20th when she brings her debut in the Romancing the Pirate series, BLOOD AND TREASURE to The Revenge.

It’s a month of changes, new sails, awesome guests, and as always, plenty of rum. What do you think of the new look? Anyone going to miss us on Tuesdays and Thursday?? Any guests you’d like to see grace the decks?

89 comments:

2nd Chance said...

OMG!Look at this bar! Oh, I want to sprawl all over it and just...

Where's Hector?

2nd Chance said...

Hey! Which ship is us? ;-)

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

CONGRATS, Mateys!

The refit Revenge looks FANTASTIC!

Fill up me tankard with a glitter hoo-ha, Chancey! Let's get this party started. :-)

AC

Marnee said...

Chance, they're ALL ours, of course!

Marnee said...

Look how snazzy we look! I love the new look! Great job to Carrie Spencer!!

And what a fun month! Lots of stuff going on.

PS, I love the favicon. ;)

Hal said...

Woo-hoo! *hal takes a flying leap off one of the masts, hanging on to a rope* The new ship is awesome! And the favicon! Thanks for all the hard work, Carrie and Terri! I'm loving the changes and ready to rock and roll with the fun guests and new schedule!

Donna said...

Wow, I love the remodel. It's got everything we need (including more free time! LOL) I'm just gonna check to see how the Hotties are doing, to see if there's enough room in their new swim trunks, er, I mean, their new quarters. :)

Hal said...

Oh, and the book covers on the side - great idea! I can't wait until I have book covers to add to the line *knocks on the wooden bar*

carrie spencer said...

Congratulations on the new look! =) Glad you like the favicon too...lol...it was my favorite part.
*off to find those Hotties*

=)

carrie

JK Coi said...

Looking good! Congratulations!!

Bosun said...

Yes, we're a whole fleet! lol!

Bosun said...

We CANNOT thank you enough, Carrie. Now you need to go sell a book so we can throw the pirate blow out of the year in your honor!

You are officially an HONORARY PIRATE! SMARTASS SPENCER! LOL!

Bosun said...

Thanks, JK. And lookie here, we can "nest" comments. It's like getting all sorts of new toys on Christmas morning.

Bosun said...

I knew you West Coasters would get the party going early. LOL! Thanks, AC. It was time to brighten the place up!

Bosun said...

BTW - Now all the pirates need to head to Gravatar and get yourselves a little picture for your comments. Let's try to keep it PG-13.

Or not. ;)

Sin said...

Awesome! Carrie you did some outstanding work!! Thank you so much for the new look. And the pirates who instigated the whole new look too.

Maria Zannini said...

And yet another fine reason to raise a toast. I think the page loads faster too. Huzzah!

Well done!

Bosun said...

We'll all get there, Hal. We've got a big column to fill!

Bosun said...

Thanks, Maria. Here, let me fill that glass for you.

carrie spencer said...

lol..working on the book selling! and looking forward to a pirate party! =) Any problem with a vodka drinking pirate? (I'm an import, so I hope it's allowed...)
=)

Scapegoat said...

The site looks amazing!!!!!

I love the cover additions to the side and the line up of guest authors looks like we'll be having a great time.

I lift my tankard to a toast:

To the Revenge Crew & Honory Pirates -

May your glass always be full
And your characters not be dull

To your plot making sense
And your heroes not being dense

To the words coming with ease
And dialogue that leaves you pleased

But most of all to this community of writers & friends
Here's to hoping it never ends!

Cheers!

Scapegoat said...

ooohhh - love that you can reply directly under the comments now!!!!!

Scapegoat said...

we're taking over the writing seas!

Bosun said...

I "technically" don't drink at all and Q keeps a secret stash of scotch, so I don't think vodka will be a problem. LOL!

Scapegoat said...

I need to make one for wordpress since I work on bloggers platform for both my blogs, wordpress always has me looking like I'm a masked stranger. :)

Bosun said...

You're not supposed to make a pirate cry before 10am!!! Thanks, sweetie. LOVE the toast!

Lisa said...

The new look is pirate perfecto!!! I love it! Miss you wenches! Enjoy the new digs;)

Sin said...

I miss you too Wenchie Pooh.

Sin said...

Nothing wrong with a couple of pirates having some vodka. I'll even mosey up to the crow's nest and rummage around for my blueberry vodka.

Donna said...

I think that's the best toast I've ever heard!

*clinks glass with Scape*

*drains glass*

*refills glass to clink with other pirates*

I better pace myself today.

Elyssa Papa said...

I love the new look! I like the white--it does make it a little bit easier to read the blog and comments. Now where is Captain Jack?

Donna said...

I was just getting ready to AXE you where you get the little pic.

And I'm going to have to check out all the other comments, now that they're nested, to make sure I don't miss anything.

Whew! I've got a lot on my To Do list already today.

Donna said...

I haven't heard of a "Drink Code" before, so I'm pretty sure you can quaff whatever you like.

I don't even think we have "Drink Guidelines", but we could check with our Bartender when she finally stumbles in. :)

Donna said...

Well, that was weird. It moved my smiley face to go in front of the word "Bartender". LOL

Hellion said...

I love the new rigging! Oh, I feel like we're our own little Pirate Cove, aren't we?

And we have the nesting comments. I feel like a puppy with three tails.

Now have to look into the Gravatar thing. How do I do that? I'm so behind. Favicon, gravatar...lost, I tell you, completely lost.

Bosun said...

Ely - Jack is working super hard in the next few weeks so he's resting. LOL! I think he's interviewing nearly all the guests!

It is brighter, isn't it? The old look was fun, but all that spilled rum was starting to take a toll.

Bosun said...

It is hard to keep up with the nesting. LOL! Okay, Carrie moved the Captcha per DRD's request. The Favicon is the little skull-n-crossbones that show up next to the blog title in your address bar (top of your internet page.) Only shows up on some systems and won't show up for me at home so you might not see it.

I did the Gravatar thing last night and it was fast and painless. Go to Gravatar.com and sign up. Then you get to upload a pic. Easy-peasy. You can upload a few and change them out when you get the urge.

Bosun said...

I should have known Sin would pick a Manga avatar. LOL! Looks great!

Sin said...

With a ninja star. It's perfect.

Hellion said...

Why would we pick our real pictures? I don't want to be recognized, you know.

Bosun said...

You can put anything you want! LOL! That's why I didn't say "Put your smiling faces up there", because I knew that would be silly to say to this crew.

MistyJo said...

Congrats! You look fabulous, especially the bar. What a room to house all that rum!

Bosun said...

Thanks, Misty. Can you tell we have our priorities in line around here? LOL!

Marnee said...

I agree about the book covers. I can't wait to be part of that too....

Bosun said...

Reminds me, a quick click on any of those covers takes you right to the place where you can buy them. Just in case you want to add any of those awesome books to your collection.

Janga said...

Love the new look, Pirates! Love the new info and its accessibility too. Congratulations to all of you and tons of good wishes for another four years and more. I look forward to all the posts and parties ahead.

Bosun said...

Donna - It moved my smiley face too! LOL! Huh.

Bosun said...

Thanks, Janga. You did the makeover first and your blog is so pretty! Thanks for sticking with us all these years and here's hoping one of those future parties is for you. :)

2nd Chance said...

Mr Chance looked over me shoulder last night and said... "Hmmm. A bunch of those ships are damaged."

Must have been one hell of a party we threw!

2nd Chance said...

I'm so proud a' that bar!

*sniff!

And I started out wit' jus' a plank, a rickety stool and an empty keg ta sit on!

BTW, I did clean up last night after me celebration with Hector. He likes the height! ;-)

Bosun said...

Getting pubbed is like fighting a battle. A great sea battle. We're preparing for battle.

Marnee said...

I need to think about what sort of avatar I want. This isn't a decision I want to make lightly.

*trying to find a way to look ten pounds lighter in avatar form*

Bosun said...

Eeeeeeewwwwww!!!!!!

Do NOT overshare!!

Bosun said...

I'm considering switching to a pic of Penelope Cruz from POTC. Think she'd mind?

2nd Chance said...

*note to self

Order new crate of shamwows and shamwow tissues.

2nd Chance said...

It's a little picture! No one will notice!

Is my double chin showing?

2nd Chance said...

Yeah, not sure I really like the nesting when it comes to finding out whether someone has ... uh ... nested after me?

2nd Chance said...

Hey, pirates. My contest ended last night... And I swear this, on a stack of bibles... The prizes were chosen by the kraken and his handy dandy random number generator...

Our fearless leader won the Sony Pocket Reader!

Bosun said...

WHOOHOOOOO!!!!! The Captain has joined the 21st century!

You are going to preload it with all your books, right? LOL!

2nd Chance said...

Body shots. ;-)

Scapegoat said...

AWESOME!!!!! WAHOO!!!!! Now we need to load her up on ebooks :)

Julie said...

OMGWe have a fleet? The Captain won an ereader ? AND We’re preparing for battle? Well heck ... it doesn't get any better than that!

Bosun said...

When we stir shit up, we really stir it, Julie. LOL! Thanks!

Mary Danielson said...

Snazzy new digs, pirates! I LOVE the new design. Also, congratulations on four - holy cow, that's a lot! - years of blogging! I can't wait to see what the next four hold. :D

Bosun said...

Huh. No. Dang it. Off to try again.

Bosun said...

Thanks, Mary. We never remember our own anniversary, so it's good we can go check to see when we started.

Okay, I changed my avatar, let's see if it works.

P. Kirby said...

Ooo! Pretty ships. Me likes!

Irisheyes said...

Wow, this is totally awesome!!! I love the new digs and I tried the avatar thingy, let's see if it works...

Congrats, ladies. I like the line-up and I like that you're taking more time for you - you'll stick around longer that way :)

Irisheyes said...

Guess it didn't work! LOL!!!! Back to the drawing board. Moved my smiley, too!

Irisheyes said...

Let's see if it took this time!

Bosun said...

Thanks Pat and Irish.

Uhm, Irish, did you mean to go all black like that? LOL!

My avatar finally updated. And you can't really tell what it is. LOL!

Hellion said...

The fearless Captain has been looking at e-books all morning in preparation of getting it in the mail!!

Irisheyes said...

YAY! You can't really see mine either... green eyeshadow and iris and a shamrock for the pupil! What is yours, Ter?

Bosun said...

Oh, there you are, Irish!

Anna Campbell said...

Ahoy, me hearties! Must say the ship is looking all ship-shape (well, you'd hope it was ship shape, wouldn't you? Who wants to sail in a banana?) and Bristol-fashion! Love the new look and long may the Revenge sail!

Bosun said...

Hiya, Anna! She's lookin' all shiney and new, ain't she? And look at her tear through that mess a enemy ships. LOL!

Our goal is to have as many new covers on our column as the Banditas. We have a ways to go!

Hellion said...

I love Irish's--and I know I'd love Bo'suns if I could figure out what it is. *LOL*

It'll be 4 years in October. Right now we're at 3 1/2 years. Of course, I'd love if we could blog forever, but my go-to goal right now is 5 years. Surely we can make it to five years, please, please, please.

Hellion said...

While we're making announcements about winners, I did the Random generator for Julia Quinn's Just Like Heaven--and Donna won! Donnaroo, if you email me your mailing address, I'll pop it in the mail to you!!

Bosun said...

Congrats, Donna! Prizes are flying around here today. In fact, I probably should have given a prize away today. LOL! Didn't even think about it.

Hellion said...

It's not too late, Bo'eey--you can always rob your bookshelves of something you haven't read yet and probably won't get to in the next five years....

Bosun said...

Now you're trying funny names to get me back for the spooge thing.

:)

Won't work. Someday, when I get a chance to blog again, I'll give a book away. Just to make you happy.

Hellion said...

No, I just wanted to call you Bo'eey, like David Bowie. I thought it was fitting is all. *LOL*

2nd Chance said...

I have some unworn pirate socks we could give away...

Or I'll donate a book to the cause!

;-)

Bosun said...

You're up on Friday. Go for it. LOL!

I just got a bug bite on my PINKY. WTF?? And we have so many comments, we now have two pages. Wow.

2nd Chance said...

Socks or the book? ;-)

Or both!

Donna said...

Wow, how exciting! I'll email you my address. Today is an eclipse, so maybe that's why all the good vibes are going around. :) (Note to smiley: stay where I put you, okay?)

I haven't changed the avatar yet. So I'll have the default one that looks like the handicapped parking symbol. (Hope I don't get a ticket.)

AJ said...

I've been reading back through the entries on your fabulous website, having just discovered it, but I wanted to stop for a moment to tell you that the CALENDARRRRR just made me spit Diet Coke on my keyboard. Love it (and the new bar!)...

Bosun said...

Thanks, AJ! I'm happy you found us and that we could entertain you.

Sorry about the keyboard. This is why we keep that supply of Shamwows around.

:)

Hope you'll come back. We love new pirate pals!

2nd Chance said...

I adores me new bar and plan on spiffin' up me image so that's I looks more appropriate fer me background...

Hey! Quit the laughin'!