This site is finally up and running. Not sure I like the theme, may tweak it a bit, may change it completely. Much depends on what my mother, Betsy Thornton, for whom the theme was designed, thinks of it.

I essentially scoured the WordPress theme sites for interesting themes that I could use as a starting point. I wanted a fixed width site with the header flush to the top of the page. I also wanted drop shadowed edges and to be able to have portions of my header image float over this edge. Finally, I wanted to have a simple patterned background image that would repeat nicely.

In terms of colors and actual graphics, I initially wanted to do a dark theme so I could then use the cover for A Whole New Life which depicts a car driving down a road a night with lightning in the background. However I had a hard time finding a portion of that cover that would look right as a header. Also tried portions of other book covers, many of which also have dark compositions, but had the same problem. That said I haven’t given up on the dark theme possibilities…

Still, thinking more about the site, I wasn’t sure it would make sense to associate it graphically with one particular book cover. Thus, this theme was an attempt to abstract out ideas from all the novels as well as perhaps something of the author. One graphic element I did take from a couple of book covers was the circular text.

-Alex