Blog Two Hundred

August 2014.... final days living temporarily down South

Blog Two Hundred
Welcome to my 200th blog. Time to look back. Older? Wiser? Healthier? Back when I started writing a blog (in August 2014 - see pictures above) I’d just taken early retirement and had a dream of trying to write (and finish) a novel. I imagined blogging might make me produce words that were spewed out regularly into cyberspace. It might teach me about writing deadlines and train me to keep on writing, keep on churning out stuff that might form into a novel. Well, now in 2018 (see pictures below) my bucket list dream of writing (and finishing) a novel is approaching fruition.

Scenes from March 2018 including birthday pals Sally & Maggie, at Salt's Mill with bass player and sterling friend, Dudley Phillips, Emily, Harriet and Chris. (An Autumn pudding for wintry Spring and a new laptop.) 

Blogspot Data
Comparing Blog One Hundred (31st May 2016) with the stats of Blog Two Hundred:

• TheReadinessIsAllLetBe had been visited (in early June 2016) over 13,000 times
• Now the visitor tally is 36,638
• Back then people in 76 countries had followed links to the site
• Now, it’s 104 countries (I don’t expect that to go any higher)
• The most frequent countries to visit my blog in 2016, apart from the UK, were the US, Ireland, Russia, France and Germany
• Now, China has replaced France in the top 6
• The most frequently-mentioned topics in 2016 were: Family, Shakespeare, History, Yorkshire and Reading
• Now, Writing has replaced Reading in the top 5

Apart from Family weddings, parties and holidays the most popular blogs (so far) seem to be about Wine, the Catholic Church, Brexit, the “Tampon Tax,” the book H is for Hawk and the film God’s Own Country. So much for my ambition (back when I started in August 2014) to focus on the works of William Shakespeare!

March 2018 - Sally's birthday - What stature is she of? asks Jacques. "Just as high as my heart."

Frequency of posting
I posted

• 25 times in 2014
• 50 times in 2015
• 60 times in 2016 (5 per month)
• 60 times in 2017 (5 per month)
• 5 so far in 2018 (working to 3 per month this year)

I’ve reduced the number of blog posts to 3 per month in order to spend more time writing Rhenium Tales, my trilogy for the Young Adult market that is moving along apace. July 2018 is my personal deadline for submitting it to professional agents. A few people (in addition to First Reader Emily) are getting glimpses and giving me feedback. Nick Shelton has produced brilliant designs for particular aspects of the story. Book 2 is pouring out reasonably easily and Book 1, Raydan Wakes, is about a third of the way through its final edit before submission.

I started this blog in August 2014. Time passes and now....

Funny how…. Time will tell….
Funny how time goes by…. Funny how in August 2014 I had no idea who Raydan Brain was, or Vera Valente, or Pheebus Yadiel…. Rhenium was a rare element in the periodic table, used in the manufacture of aeroplanes…. now, to me, Rhenium’s a planet in a galaxy far, far away. Only Time Will Tell whether Rhenium, Pheebus, Vera and Raydan will become familiar to anyone else…. In the summer of 2014 I didn't imagine the arctic weather of March 2018. Now I can. Back in 2014 I didn't know Chris Grimley. Now I do. Here’s to the next 100 blogs!

Can Spring be far behind?