08 | July | 2013 |

So welcome to the new digs. After we moved from Joomla to WordPress, we found out that the theme we had selected had some corrupt code in the header — which is why the web site kept going ashes, ashes, we all fall down, like it was a little kid or something. There will still be adjustments in appearance, and some arrangement, but we are close to being done.

Here are a few things to help orient you.

You will notice that most of the items in the menu bar across the top are not yet populated. But that’s coming, say I. So’s Christmas, some of you might reply, but that would be rude and unwarranted and you should be ashamed.

Some of you have lamented the loss of the comments from the old site, but they are not lost. We still have them in a box somewhere, and when we carve out space and time for somebody to do the donkey work of transferring them, we can still do that. But — let us be frank — that is not on the front burner just yet.

Moving to WordPress meant a different approach to categories, and what has happened is this — a bunch of the old categories have been converted to tags, while some of the old categories remain categories. Just jump in there and mill about confusedly.

You will please notice on the right sidebar an opportunity to sign up for Canon Press news. This little sleeper feature is actually the big noise. This will be made plain in the box itself in the near future, but the basic deal is this. Anyone who signs up for Canon Press updates in that space will start getting free content on a monthly basis. This content will be e-books for the most part, but I would not put it past us to send our content in other forms from time to time. And these will be books and so on that are generally not available elsewhere.

Then last, you should also note a smart phone app logo up there, with a DW on it. This means that if you have a smart phone, you can sign up for it, and have Mablog right at your fingertips. Just think, you are there, standing in the line at the post office, and there are six people ahead of you, and they all look like stamp collectors who want to browse while they chat lazily with the post office personnel serving them. All you have to do is haul out your phone, tap on that icon, and whee! you are in the middle of a fight with Rachel Held Evans.

Thanks for your attention, and there is more info on that app below — in the previous post.

Death By Living is due to be released in just a few weeks. A follow-up to Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl, this book brings us a lot more of the same — Chestertonian exuberance, vivid descriptions, and the romance of orthodoxy. One of the perks we have in our family is that we get to read stuff like this on the done-writing date instead of the release date, which is a lot of fun. But in addition to the fun — for we were not put on this earth for pleasure alone — this means that we are in a position to say that this book is the hot stuff.

Now I understand, as the purchaser of many books, that placing a pre-order is not nearly as satisfying as just ordering one that will consequently be on your doorstep in just a few days. But ask yourself, as you go back and forth in your mind about this, what is the right thing to do?

UPDATE! If you pre-order from Canon, here, you will get a copy signed by the author.

(Note the new cover for Tilt.)