:: 08-01-05 ::
Eee gads, time to update. It's been a while, I see. Busy working on that practice nowel. No, it's not done, but getting there.

Star Trek is gone ... at least from the TV. Even my mother said she didn't think television would be the same without a brand new Trek series on. But, Trek lives, and it will not die. Perhaps this is what the franchise needs -- a time to rest, to heal, to mend ...

:: 03-17-03 ::
A few words about this site ....
I created it using Notepad and plain ole HTML, coded myself from tutorials created by J. Barta. Most of the Javascript stuff is from the JavaSource website. Links to both of these sites are in a cardboard box in the cellar. (You have to be at home with the mundanes to get there.) I optimized this site for 1024x768 but have tried to keep in mind those with 800x600 settings. (Hence the two Reader Theaters - the smaller screen is still under construction.) I am currently using XP and IEv6.0 which might explain why some remnants of scripting no longer work. One of these days I'll get around to fixing it.

Remnants ...
This site began its life on 01-01-01. It was about that time that I had written enough of my fannish fiction to want to get it online for others to read. I also wanted to pay homage to my co-workers, the fine people at Quad Systems. Quad had just filed bancruptcy and many of my friends disappeared to the lines of unemployment. I gathered my photos of everyone and put together a slide show. It's called the Purple Album because that was the title of the parent code ... and because it many ways, that expresses my feelings about the whole situation. (Quad did not die. It was eaten by a HUGE company and life goes on. The corporate culture is different, but not necessarily worse. The new folk have their own interesting personalities.)

But, putting my story and my tribute online was just not enough content for a site - too single dimensional - not rich enough within that dimension, so I "rediscovered" my very first homepage which was created for the purpose of teaching myself how to code in HTML. It was fun doing and re-doing since it not only let me play with the structures of code and the visual output, but allowed me to be creative in a visual medium. Paint Shop Pro helped. It gave me the ability to create animated gifs and dimensionalize jpgs. The rediscovered site is from 1999 and an older computer.

What this site is about ...
It's about creating - personal creating - and putting that creative stuff to work. Right now, that seems to be the heart of it, but still, that is not enough. As time goes on, I will try to expand certain areas of the site to make it of more interest to visitors. I know the Mundanes (the RL me, of course) will want you to find the library full of books that would interest you. I have tried to include my favorite sites for just sitting down and reading - from fanfiction to original science fiction to graphics to science to sites put together by friends. My bedroom will be a place of meditations, things to think about, personal stuff. The cellar is just full of fun stuff - games I play all the time, puzzles I do and re-do (and will change around every so often to keep it fresh.)

Walter's Interdimensional Storage will expand as I get ideas. (And there IS a real Walter, though he does not have access to anything interdimensional, inspite of all his trying.) I hope to include more stories in my Reader Theater. I have friends who write, and whose writing I like, so I would like to showcase some of their work here. It is a mixture of fan fiction and original work. Eventually I will get more of my own stuff up there, but that is another matter.

Fannish fiction ...
Originally I intended to use this site to put my fannish fiction online but that is not happening. Not that I am not writing fannish fiction, I am, at least I am writing ONE fannish story. It is my practice novel. I have been told, and seen that it is true, that you learn to write by writing, so I am writing a practice novel, one to put out there for others to read but more importantly for me to learn the craft. When it is finished I will put it back up on the site but right now, since it is mutating daily, well ...

So. That's about it for now. Would love to hear from you if you have comments.

Take care & God bless,
Frances Roman-Vollmer

*These short poems represent some of my favorite Haiku - by various masters.

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