Stephanie Leary

Writer and WordPress consultant

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    • Content Strategy for WordPress (2015)
    • WordPress for Web Developers (2013)
    • Beginning WordPress 3 (2010)
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    • Fascism Watch (2016-17)
    • Content Modeling for WordPress series
    • WordPress Hidden Gems series
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Traveling, and Paint

July 2, 2003 Stephanie Leary

Back from Corpus. My eyes feel like sandpaper and my brain feels like mud. I look forward to Friday, and hope that the tropical storms stay in the Gulf where they belong.

Bob Vila’s Paint Designer is exactly the tool I’ve been wishing I could find, and yet it’s evil and I wish I didn’t know where it is. I’ve spent the last smidgen of my lunch break planning the color scheme (and furniture, and curtains, and artwork) of study I don’t have.

To be honest, I’m not just planning a study. I’m planning an entire writing retreat. You see, I’d like to go on one, and I can’t find any good locations within a reasonable driving distance. It now exists in my head—a green room with polished wood furniture and a view of a pond, or maybe the kind of leafy tree that grew outside Lisa’s study window in Dallas. There’s a bare wooden desk on one side and a couch or maybe a chaise on the other. No books. No phones. No people. Just me and my brain, and nothing that looks remotely like my apartment.

I’m not sure how a desire for a quiet place where I can hear myself (and my characters) think has led me to choosing paint colors on the web. Nevertheless, I’ve grown attached to Robin Hood green.

Perhaps it’s time to start looking for a house.

Life

Latest WordPress Book

Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

Read the sample chapter

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WordPress for Web Developers

WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

WordPress for Web Developers is out now. See what's inside...

The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Screen Options
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Bulk Edit
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Private Status
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Dashboard Feed Readers
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Options.php

Content Modeling for WordPress series

  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 1: analyze content
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 2: functional and organizational requirements
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 3: a sample content model

This is an excerpt from Content Strategy for WordPress.My latest books are Content Strategy for WordPress (2015) and WordPress for Web Developers (2013). Sign up to be notified when I have a new book for you.

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