2013 was a good year for the Sillyverse blog. I wrote, you all replied. So this end of year will sum up what I did, what you did, and what’s to come.
Martha’s Children
What did I do? In 2013, I finished The Dragon Lady of Stockbridge, and started and completed two more long stories, Martha’s Children and Nightfeather: Ghosts. Toss in the short stories The Misplaced Voyage and Dead Cellphone, historical posts to illuminate the stories, reviews, and some personal reflections, and it’s been a busy year writing on the blog.
What did you do? There have been over 200 people following this blog since October. You’ve “liked” what I’ve written over 1000 times, and there have been over 10,000 views of the blog since its inception.
An atypical reader: my most constant readers are mostly female
So much for statistics. There are three types of readers of this blog. There are the fiction readers, for whom the blog was originally developed. They are actually the smallest group of readers on the blog, but the most frequent readers. Then there are the readers who follow the more substantial historical and personal blog posts, a fair percentage of the “followers.” (I’d rather call them discriminating readers.) Finally, this blog regularly receives visits from people looking for information on certain topics, mostly concerned with magic, as it turns out.
It’s the last group that made my posts on Marjorie Cameron, the end of the Templars, and my review of The Witch of Prague among the most popular this year. The only non-magic-related blog post to crack the top five was my account of childhood vacations on Winnisquam.
Marjorie, you keep haunting my readers
The frequent commentors are a different breed — they’re all fiction readers. Let me welcome Judy of Janthina Images to their exalted (and sometimes exhausted) ranks, along withcrimsonprose of the fiction, poetry, and nonsense blog called (not surprisingly) crimsomprose, Russell of Edward & Amelia vs. the Vampire King, E. J. Barnes, and Dana Peleg. A special “thank you” to you all.
What’s to come? The blog has been stable this year: a lot of writing, a fair number of viewers in well-understood categories. Some of the growth, sadly, is illusory: several of those 236 followers are from blogs that no longer exist (which makes it, shall we say, extremely unlikely that they are still reading mine) or from blogs selling commercial products and services as their main reason for existing (which makes it merely highly unlikely that they are actually reading mine).
I expect January will be devoted to catching up on reviews, with new writing beginning in February. Probably the new schedule will be for a fiction post on Friday, and another post, whether historical, magical, personal, or a review, on Monday or Tuesday. That’s cutting back a bit from what I did this year, partly to make time to revise some of the fiction and find the best way to publish it.
Thanks for your time and thoughts in 2013,
and a happy new year to you all.
Sillyverse 
I see you have noticed the same thing as I remarked upon, of the followers. But the stats are still pretty impressive. (And see how devoted this follower is; I have left my bed to read this.) Well done, and let’s all see great new things in 2014!
Another coincidence, noting about the followers!
Yes, I was reviewing all the followers and their blogs after what you and Judy did, and thought it odd that extinct blogs are still considered to be active followers. It was a bit depressing, but I got a positive comment the next day that eradicated my bad mood. 🙂
I have to say, the award has activated what could have been sleeping followers. At least, I’m now getting the likes clicked where before has been silence.
We’ll see if I have something similar happen.
And Judy mentioned you in her post, below.
Yea, I’m slow in catching up. It’s as well I had posts ready and scheduled otherwise nothing would have gone out these past few days. I thought today I’d be better, but not. Oh well, it will pass.
I’d say it has been a wonderfully prolific year on Sillyverse!! The stories are fun to read with likeable characters and plot lines. I think it is kind of cool to use the vehicle of WordPress to revive serialized story telling. No other type of story telling..other than oral I guess where you can tweak each telling a tad depending on the mood of the author..allows for streaming interaction with the audience. Great platform to hone ones skills..for that eventual book??? 🙂 (That comment is for you too..CP!!)
Thank you for a great year and an additional reason to say Thank Goodness it Is Friday!!
PS: I love the book reviews too!!
I hope to continue to please in 2014. Thank you! 🙂
Thanks so much, dear Brian, for a most delightful year. Can’t wait to see what you have for us, your readers up your sleeve this year!
And thank you for reading and commenting and supporting. 🙂