WordPress prepared a statistical summary of activity on my blog for 2012. But I’d rather give you my version of what really happened on the blog this year.

This blog, Sillyverse, which is my first and only blog so far, began on August 21, 2012. Its original purpose was to publish The Dragon Lady of Stockbridge, which began appearing weekly starting Friday, August 31, 2012. 18 chapters have appeared on schedule so far. Along the way, I decided to put up a second post every week, usually on Mondays, on topics related to reading and writing fiction. I also decided to get more creative with my posts, which is why they typically are illustrated now. That’s the author’s story, in a nutshell.

You, my readers, have changed greatly from the beginning of this blog. The initial readers were primarily Facebook friends who had read “The Troubles of the Farnsworths” when I originally wrote it on Facebook. I picked up a scattering of visitors and followers over the next three months, who seemed equally attracted by what I had to say about magic and writing as by the story I was telling.

Then came WordPress’s choice to display my blog entry “Beyond fan fiction, a personal account,” on their “Freshly Pressed” page. I got 97 hits on my blog the first hour after it appeared there, which is more than I ever got in an entire day. And many of you decided to  stay with me. In fact, the majority of followers of this blog came from the four days that post was on “Freshly Pressed.” Amazing what visibility can do!

Probably not a typical reader of this blog

The attention has been wonderful. It has also been perplexing for me. You see, more of you follow my posts than read Dragon Lady, which was the original reason I started this blog. (In fact, “On Huckman Causeway,” a short story I wrote for Halloween, has had more visitors than any chapter of Dragon Lady except the first.)  So I find myself with two audiences, the one I originally sought, and the one I’ve acquired and to which I owe most of the attention this blog receives. I’m still trying to figure out what that means and how that should guide the direction of this blog.

If you’re not reading “Dragon Lady,” you probably don’t know what this is

I’m thankful to you all, but must call out a few of you by name. Russell of “Edward and Amelia versus the Vampire King,” crimsonprose, and lly1205 of “Serial Outlet” have been my most frequent commenters, along with Dana Peleg and E. J. Barnes, who also did the dragon-headed walking stick illustrations. Patrick Latter, Tourism Oxford, and ellisnelson were the first three people to follow this blog. I happen to like all the blogs that belong to these people, and recommend them to my readers. Don’t think they are all like my blog; some are quite different!

For 2013, I expect to continue posting twice a week. Dragon Lady should finish in February. Something will take its place, I’m just not sure what. Or when, for that matter, as I may need to take a break for a month, or not. I’m going to try to get to visit more of your blogs; “Freshly Pressed” created a backlog of blogs to visit that I’m only slowly working through.

Apart from that, I look forward to hearing from you all. Thank you.