I’m amazed, and relieved, that this is the 100th post. One night in August when I was thinking about starting 49 writers, I fell asleep — and woke up at 5 am in a cold sweat, absolutely sure I shouldn’t start a blog after all. How would I fill it? Where would I find the time? Who would care about it? Was this all a big mistake?
Well, four months later, I’m pretty pleased with the results — and even more pleased that other community members, including some fine Alaska writers, are participating in this blog. In other words, we’re evolving in the right direction, into a real online “we.”
But, WHAT HAVE WE DONE FOR YOU LATELY? Well, that’s what I’d like to know. What do you like best about 49 writers? What would you change? So far, we’ve posted interviews with at least 13 Alaska authors and editors; we’ve given away lots Title Wave gift certificates; we’ve moaned and groaned (and hopefully provided some actual info) about the latest publishing crisis; we’ve featured guest bloggers and everyday folks talking about favorite Alaska books; we’ve swooned over Obama and expressed shock over Sarah; we’ve announced fundraisers, signings, and other events; we’ve wondered about the role of technology (while trying to learn about it before we’re left behind); we’ve occasionally inserted a little humor.
In case you’re wondering, in 4 months we’ve had close to 20,000 hits. That might be small in the million-hit world of celebrity or political blogs, but it’s about 200 times the number of hits I was expecting to get in this blog’s first year. (If we just kept running Sarah posts instead of poet profiles we’d get bigger numbers, but we aren’t in it for the numbers.) What I’m most excited about is our smaller but loyal group of regulars.
Whether you’re a regular or a relative newcomer, head over to the link at right — PLEASE — and take the super-short, super-easy survey (provided by Survey Monkey). Feel free to use the comment boxes to share any ideas or criticisms — confidentially, of course.
Post-survey, sorry, but this from Jezebel (Jezebel http://tinyurl.com/4poglf) via Editorial Ass (http://editorialass.blogspot.com/) gave me an idea—why not have the X number of Alaska books every woman should read (and then for men) — I missed 6 on Jezebel’s list, and would love to have a 49WNM list from you!
oops–I haven’t read 15 of the 75 books every woman should read–don’t want to give the wrong impression!
Hey, that’s a great idea, Kay. Although I’m not sure we need a separate list for men and for women. (Do we?)
I wonder what other topics would stimulate new thinking about Alaska books: i.e. a separate list for cheechakos and sourdoughs? For Alaskans and non-Alaskans? For urban people who need to understand rural Alaska and rural (or wilderness-oriented) people who might not know about urban Alaska? The categories alone help me think of books I’d otherwise forgotten. Fun to brainstorm… Hey, you could even come up with a favorite book per decade to help us track Alaska’s progress from the 1950s to now. It’s endless!
If you don’t mind, let’s keep the ideas rolling here and then I may expand this into a future post topic in the new year.