You probably wouldn’t know it from reading the content of this blog, but in real life I am a graphic and web designer as well as a writer. I made this site, using WordPress and a CSS theme I built. Before The Mossy Skull, there was In the Lee of a Stunted Pine, which ran on MovableType. I also designed ChessMaine.net, a chess news site which won Best State Website from the Chess Journalists of America in 2007, and a host of other sites.

The point is, I’ve been doing this kind of thing for a while now, I’m pretty good at it, and I can always use more of it to do. Without it, I wouldn’t have enough money to keep myself alive, let alone keep writing on the side. Writing, not unlike crime, doesn’t really pay.

So if you think you can help me out or vice-versa, please drop me a line. You might even want to have a look at the Sunwurm Studios site (my freelance alter ego).

For those of you who use WordPress and would like to know the nuts and bolts of how this site does what it does, below is a list of the plug-ins I have currently installed. Someday maybe I’ll share the Mossy Skull theme too… but for now I think I like it too much to share.

• All in One SEO Pack v1.6.7
  Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. Options configuration panel | Donate | Support | Amazon WishlistMichael Torbert
• Advanced Export for WordPress & WordPress MU v2.8.3
  Adds an Advanced Export to the Tools menu which allows selective exporting of pages, posts, specific categories and/or post statuses by date.Ron Rennick
• Akismet v2.2.6
  Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin.Matt Mullenweg
• Brian’s Threaded Comments v1.5.20
  This gives you threaded comments and a “wandering” comment form.Brian Meidell
• Counterize II v2.14.1
  Simple counter-plugin with no external libs – saves timestamp, visited URl, referring URl and browserinformation in database, and can display total hits, unique hits and other statistics in WordPress webpages. Admin-interface available with detailed information…Steffen Forkmann
• FeedBurner FeedSmith v2.3.1
  Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.FeedBurner
• Google XML Sitemaps v3.1.6
  This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration PageArne Brachhold
• GoodShelf v1.0mjd
  Wordpress plugin for displaying books from GoodReadsSaophalkun Ponlu with hacks by MJD
• Redirection v2.1.25
  Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errorsJohn Godley
• Recent Comments Widget v4.0
  This plugin will add a list of the most frequent comments posted to your blog. They are gathered in descending order (newest at the top), but then group them together by post title, so that comments from the same post are listed together. The list items will be links to the comments, and will contain the name of the commenter. Derived from the “Top/Recent Commenters” plugin by Scott Reilly (http://www.coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/)Jared Bangs
• Random Image v5.0
  Display a random image that links back to the post it came from. Configure the plugin in Settings > Random Image.Justin Watt
• Subscribe To Comments v2.1.2
  Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based on version 1 from ScriptygoddessMark Jaquith
• ShareThis v3.2
  Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites. Configuration options are here. Questions on configuration, etc.? Make sure to read the README.ShareThis
• Wickett Twitter Widget v1.0.1
  Display Tweets in the sidebar of your blogAutomattic Inc.