17th Street seems to have been in a permanent state of revolution in recent months, and more big changes continue in this update. I am extremely happy to report that the site has nine new pages of content up this month, and consequently the site has needed to undergo one final reorganisation in order to accommodate them. However, with any luck, this should be the last major reorganisation that will be needed within the foreseeable future. Hooray!
New Content
The site now has seven new pages containing synopses and selected critical response for all of Caleb Carr’s non-Alienist books, both fiction and non-fiction. These pages can be viewed in the other books section of the site. Due to this, all of the Alienist-related content can now be found within one central Alienist books section of the site.
In terms of Alienist-related content, I am pleased to be releasing a new The Angel of Darkness 50-question quiz to match the 40-question quiz that’s already available for The Alienist. More importantly, seven years after promising it, Stevie Taggert finally has a complete character analysis to match the analyses that are already up for the other six main characters of the books. Excitingly, these two new pieces of content mark the completion of three sections of the Alienist books section site–unless and until a new Alienist book is released. To say that I am thrilled to have finally reached this point in 17th Street’s development is a massive understatement.
Finally, the lovely and talented Tiffany who has been creating some wonderful fanart for the books, recently created a delightfully geeky 19th century portrait of me for the about page of the site as a bit of fun. Anyone who is familiar with the leather bound Franklin Library editions of the Alienist books might notice an extra little bit of geekery in the portrait, too. If you haven’t seen her Alienist work already, you can check it out on the message board.
Changing Direction
With most of the site’s content now up to date, I feel that I can begin to embark on the next phase for 17th Street: a change of direction for the blog. My initial goal for 17th Street was to turn the site into something of an online encyclopedia for the Alienist books, and had consequently planned that the Alienist history section of the site should be developed in much the same way as the other sections of the site. However, the internet has changed since the site was opened, and I feel that this point in the site’s development offers an opportunity to go in a different direction.
Although general website updates and Caleb Carr news will still appear here as appropriate, over the coming months the blog will feature twice weekly posts offering discussion on the real history behind some aspect of the books, as well as discussion about Caleb Carr’s other works. Starting toward the end of this month, the first series of posts will begin so keep an eye out through the RSS feed, twitter, tumblr, the newsletter, or the message board.