Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve written something in here! I almost forgot how to use this thing, until I remembered how easy it was. I’m not going to expand this particular post, because the news is short and sweet. Beneath the Stitching and Explosive have both gotten entirely new layouts for 2008.

I still have to write up a master fic list (the library will soon be all fics listed in alphabetical order, but there will still be links to author’s pages)—unless we suddenly get a large amount of fic, which isn’t so likely. I will need contact information from willing authors and artists, in case the readers/viewers wish to contact them. Send your preferred methods (or none) to darknightdestiny@gmail.com.

As always, send your icons, fanfiction and fanart to darknightdestiny@gmail.com. I have a few private “wanted” lists, but you’ll know those when you get them, and then you can say “sure!” or shove them in my face! Oh, this is so exciting. =)

You know it’s bad when people are leaving you messages in your guestbook saying, “I love the new additions/changes to the site!” when you haven’t even put your update notices up yet. Gyargh… I’m slipping muchly. Life has been hectic lately and not always agreeable, but at least I’ve gotten some things sorted out. My living space is pretty much decluttered and pretty (during those times when the space remains open), and I hope to do better. It gets annoying what with toys and dishes and whatnot everywhere but where they belong, despite my constant nagging reminding.

In other news, I won the Halloween writing contest on the Fantasy World Network. This means Sarah has been giving me interviews, which has been a BLAST. Those will be up later, both on the FWXD page and on mine. And now…

In Beneath the Stitching, the VincentxTifa Shrine:

• Aesthetics: Probably the biggest change on the page during this time is that I’ve exchanged the graphics more times than I care to count. The about page looks different now, as does the navigation strip and the links page, not to mention that there is a separate links page for banners those who want to link to the site can use.
• Fanfiction: I haven’t added much here—which is a shame, because I’m now remembering that I have a list to attend to. However, Asphyxiation by Tijuana Pirate has been up for a few weeks, and today I’ve added Return to Me, a oneshot by Confusednazgul, previously only accessible through her LiveJournal.
• Other Additions: The songs Sweet Child of Mine by Guns ‘n’ Roses, and Demons by Nyles Lannon. Must remind myself to add more icons tonight.

In Explosive, the VincentxVeld Shrine:

• Aesthetics: None, save that I switched most of the backgrounds to be a uniform black (save for a couple tables), and there’s a new linking banner, two more of which I should be adding soon. Once I remember where I put them.
• Fanfiction: Fiscal Year, a delightful oneshot collaboration by Cendri and Drakon.
• Other Additions: Not so much.

In Dark’s Studio:

• Aesthetics: I’ve re-sectioned my home page and changed the buttons around. I will probably shorten my links list, especially those links that could be connected to my fan shrines instead of my personal page. The writing section is one now, and divided into three smaller pages. I might divide the fanfiction subsection, depending on how reliable (or not) other servers are. If I ever do sell anything, I’ll throw up a store section with links. As it is, the writing consists of demo chapters, fanfiction and miscellaneous articles and reviews.
• Content: As I write and publish new fanfiction or articles, I’m copying them as I go along onto the home page. The rest is going to be a lot of backlogging, but the new writing is all consistent and in time. I added a screen shot of the October FF7 Citadel page, which features the custom Vincent Valentine banner I rendered for the event, to the fanart section. Other new features are the song Mating Game by Bitter-Sweet, and I’ve added my birthday story for Steph to the original selections in the fiction section. The articles section currently only contains my year-old review for Dirge of Cerberus, but there is more on the way.

Oh, and… this page and my LiveJournal now look different. So don’t be surprised if I decide on a whim to change other color schemes. I’m a nut.

I had plans for more updates before I made this post, but life has gotten rather hectic as of late. I just have a huge mental list of things I have to deal with—and some I cannot deal with, which only makes me fret and feel helpless. Either way, I should hopefully have another wave of things coming soon, and once I am finished with the lists I’ve been handed… I will feel better about sending out my requests. Best to take it one step at a time.

In Beneath the Stitching, the VincentxTifa Shrine:

• Aesthetics: Moved the Official artwork to the About Page, and created thumbnails for the artist’s works, making space for a more varied selection from each contributor.
• Fanfiction: Added The Young Man Plays Piano, by Cendri, and Be Bold, But Not Too Bold, by Memoriam.
• Fanart: Added Apart Too Long and Forfeit, Part Two by The Tiramisu of Impending Doom.
• Other Additions: Calculation Theme mp3 by Metric.

In Explosive, the VincentxVerdot Shrine:

• Aesthetics: Moved the Official artwork to the About Page (the Capslock of Love FAQ), and redesigned that to resemble a comic book page.
• Fanfiction: Added The Alexandrite Cross, Grave-digging, Insanity Loves Company: Part One and Trained Liars by Cendri. Added Get Up and Use Me by Darknightdestiny. Added Passive (aggressive) and We All Fall Down by Tijuana Pirate.
• Fanart: Still none. Send to darknightdestiny@darknightdestiny.com.
• Other Additions: Got rid of the Bulletproof mp3 by Alabama State Penitentiary 3, and added Bad Sun by The Bravery and Battleflag by Lo-Fidelity All-stars.

Stay tuned. =)

These past few days since my migration from Livejournal have been spent getting everything on my domain pages in order—from getting rid of old and useless files, to creating new ones, archiving and formatting. If I’m going to migrate, I’m going to do it fully, and I’m going to do it correctly.

On Darknightdestiny.com:

• Aesthetics: A new layout with new graphics. The formatting has changed to that of the Shrines; the navigation is on the left along with an mp3 player which will not be affected during the visit by anything other than the viewer’s actions. Also a new color scheme and some neatly laid-out tables that are easy on the eyes.
• Content: I’ve added and deleted some of the sites to which Darknightdestiny.com was linked (ex. check out The Final Fantasy Fanlisting), fixed the link to the Fantasy World Net web-page, and added the fanfiction archive of which I was speaking. My stories currently link out to other sources, but as I get the time I will be replacing them with my own pages. Best to have everything in one place and secondary copies elsewhere, just in case. I’ve also added a fanart section, though it is currently void of content. I am waiting until I can finish a few of my newer pieces, which I’m not so ashamed of posting. Also, five new tunes (one is familiar to those who visit the VinxTifa Shrine).
• P.S. I like guest-book entries. Also, if anything does not show properly in your browser, or the color scheme is hard to see on your screen, leave me a message using the e-mail address provided.

On Beneath the Stitching, the VincentxTifa Shrine:

• Aesthetics: I’ve changed the color scheme for the authors pages, and the stories themselves are within more colorful tables. Now that I’m looking at it, I think I will do the same for the indexes. With the grey there was not a chance of anything clashing, but it’s so dull. Also, removed the banners from the links section. Banners are nice and pretty, but they were throwing off my placement horribly. Maybe one day when I have the time, I’ll figure something out.
• Fanfiction: Added Allegory by Ayezur, Café Noir by Jess Angel, and Asphyxiation and Nightmares by Tijuana Pirate. Because this is the first newsletter, be sure to check for anything else you missed inbetween—I’d been adding little things here and there for a while.
• Fanart: Tender Greetings by The Tiramisu of Impending Doom. Because the “About” section of the site looks a bit dull, I’ll be sending the official Square-Enix art to that page, and eventually creating pages for the artists. I had not done this, because we only have three artists so far, and each of them have only one picture on the Shrine. Since then, I have received a second from one of them, so I will have to think up a proper layout for the Images section.
• Other Additions: Added Breathless, a VxT Shrine and ShinRa Electric Co. to the links list. Added ten new VinTifa lyric-icons by Cendri to the Iconic/Graphics section.

On Explosive: The VincentxVeld Shrine:

• Aesthetics: This is the big one. This Shrine has also taken on the layout of the other two sites, complete with navigation sidebar and music. The Index tables have kept their blue on blue color scheme, and the author pages have changed a small bit as well. The background of the site however, will remain black, as I find that works best with a wide variety of content; there are tables for that sort of thing. Also took out the banners for the sites to which the Shrine is linked, just to keep things neat.
• Fanfiction: Added And the Radio Plays… and The Love Song of V. Michael Dragoon by Cendri, and Gomen Nasai and Killing Mrs. ShinRa by Drakonlily. I have plans to add more stories tonight. Ladies, I’ve got your lists right here. But I also have a wanted list, which I need to talk to you about. This includes a collaboration done between Drakon and TP, and an old duet between Cendri and Drakon featuring Vineld and Cid. I will try to be on chat tonight.
• Fanart: Still no fanart. I need to talk to Cendri about getting me some cool graphic to represent herself, or a doll that Drak’s made up, to put on the “Capslock of Love” section. I want to lay that out like a comic book, and I also want to move any official art to that page, like with the other Shrine. The only problem is that I’ve got nothing else to fill the Fanart section with until someone sends me a submission or I finish my own! If you have any Vineld fanart, send it to vxv@darknightdestiny.com!!
• Other Additions: Added The Veld Fanlisting, The Jenova Project and ShinRa Electric Co. to the links section.

It’s a start, but I’m not nearly done.

Darknightdestiny.com is getting a facelift. Much like the Vin-Tifa shrine (Beneath the Stitching), I’m going to throw the links off to the left along with a media player, so that the screen doesn’t look so squished. I will probably go through several phases of adding and deleting pages as I go along, because I can’t decide right now what will stay and what will go. Will I mix my fan-art and my original art? I don’t know right now, though I can say that there’s a very small amount that I’m satisfied with, and for now I might as well.

This all started when LiveJournal began randomly deleting fandom archives. I just feel better knowing that I have everything of mine stored on my own site, because it’s really been scattered for long enough, and I should have been doing this a long time ago. Kind of a waste of money paying for the domain when I’m only just now beginning to use it to it’s fullest, but oh well.

I am going to start off tonight by creating buttons and framework. I will compile that story archive I’ve been meaning to draw up for my writing Livejournal, and put it on its own page on the main domain. At first it will only be a list of links to where my stories are hosted elsewhere, but I’ll be replacing them with my own pages as I find the time to make and beautify them.

I’ve been thinking that I might create a message board for the home page and for each of the shrines, just so that people can discuss the stories, the fandoms, what’s coming next, etc. It all depends on whether or not I have the time to monitor them (although if I am successful in moving everything to one location, this might not be as hard as it could be). I cannot say whether or not many would be interested in registering or continuing long-lasting conversation about either shrine or their pairings, or if anyone is interested in discussing my original works at all. If I do create message boards for the sites, they will most likely replace the guestbooks.

Either way, I’ve a lot of work to do. Many things to catch up on and manage, much to throw away and much to back up and store. I’ve got to look for appropriate graphics and music, think up the best navigation scheme possible, and get started coding it before I can actually put it up on the site.

Wish me luck!