Change Is Afoot

How do you like LLOwens.com's new home page? The full website is still a work in progress as I complete a move into brand-new digs after leaving the hosting platform I've used for 13 years. I've done enough work so far, though, to go ahead and launch an early version of the update.

Now I look forward to completing the (what seems monumental) task of further developing its various pages. At the moment, for example, cover images for most of my still-in-print titles are up on the Books section's Fiction and Nonfiction subpages, but there's nary a book summary to be had. See the buttonlike thingies I added under the home page's main image? They represent the categories, or bookshelves, I expect to build into the site, and someday they will be clickable buttons. I also have plans for adding more useful content to the Author Visits and Bio pages. These things do take time.

Some of you may have noticed another change. Maybe. It's subtle, but to me it's BIG.

Check out the author name I'm now using for my site and this blog. Yep, I've switched to Lisa L. Owens. That's what I used in the contracts for my next two books (biographies coming out in 2017), and for me this shift also signals the beginning of a new phase in my kidlit career. "L. L. Owens" has served me well, but that pen name was essentially chosen for me in the late 1990s when I started publishing. It made total sense at the time, and I have nothing but positive feelings about it. But I've decided to claim my full name as I pursue writing more trade books and fewer titles geared specifically for the school and library market. More on all that another day.

Change is hard — but it is good!