It felt like Christmas morning today when I woke up and found my new website had gone live. Yes, my website has a new look! My blog now links to my website! And it’s all shiny and new!

I like the feeling of adventure here, and my favorite part is the train on the home page. If you turn your sound up, you’ll hear a little melody of chimes as it passes. That’s an actual jingle from one of the Tokyo train stations; each one has its own melody, and that’s one of my favorite memories of Tokyo. The sound instantly takes me back there. On the “Links” page, under “Portals to Japan,” you’ll find a link to all the Tokyo train station jingles for your listening pleasure! (Or your listening aggravation, depending on how you feel about chimes!)

This site is the creation of my web designer, Denise at Biondo Studio, who has been amazing to work with. I had a vision for this new site which now pales in comparison with what she produced. She made the daunting prospect of a website overhaul feel effortless. If you like her work, please check out her other projects, which include sites for many other young adult and middle grade authors. (I could sit around and watch her flash animation home pages all day). Thank you so very much, Denise!

I also want to publicly thank my friend Patrick Gabridge, who set up my previous site and guided me through the bewildering word of websites. That site served me well for years. I went into this new project with a better understanding of web design and some web vocabulary because of my working with him. And Denise was able to incorporate some of the features he had set up on the previous site. So thank you, Patrick!

And thank you, blog readers and website viewers, who’ve taken the time to visit today. There are so many stations on the Internet where you can fritter away — er, I mean spend — your time, and I’m so glad you’ve gotten off here!