My First Blogiversary: 1 yr of madness

Today is an important day for many reasons: it's my first day back to the real world after RWA ATL (woo hoo), it's my first day back to work at the day job (traveling to SC), but most importantly it’s my first blogiversary! Today marks one full year of blogging. One year of doing *anything* deserves a celebration so I plan to indulge.

I thought I’d go over my stats (in case you didn’t notice, I’m a bit of a numbers geek):

Number of blogs: 70
Number of hits: 2,607
Top three most popular posts (in order):

1. 7 Literary Agents You Should Follow – 74 hits

2. Author Interview: Priya Kanaparti re Dracian Legacy – 72 hits

Note: Priya is a fabulous writer, CP, and friend. Stay tuned because she's been gracious enough to let me interview her again.

3. Maven Blog Tour – Warning: Girl Cooties – 59 hits

I accomplished several of my blogging goals:
1. Write regularly
2. Create a resource list that I – and other writers – could use on this wild ride
3. Participate more fully in the writing community.

I think number 3 has been my favorite so far. My favorite posts, so far, are those where I host a blog tour stop, reveal a new cover for an author, review books, and interview authors. Maybe it’s the baby journalist sleeping inside me. *backs out of room quietly* *lets journalist sleep*

Blogging has been fun and hard. I understand why authors get blogging burnout. In fact, several prominent authors have written about blogging burnout lately, my favorite was the post by Natalie Whipple. If you can relate to Natalie or other authors posting about burnout Jami Gold shares great tips on burnout recovery . Burnout can happen for a number of reasons but the two most common are: it's time consuming and distracting. There are days when I write more words for blog posts than my WIP.

All in all, I’ve really enjoyed this last year. I think blogging has made me accountable and more committed to my goals. All of the work and discipline over the last year has made me a better writer.

So happy blogiversary everyone who's enjoyed this blog over the last year. To celebrate I’ve collected hot boy gifs for your enjoyment.

Zac Effron, because he's adorable and hot:




Jax Teller, because he's a bad boy with honor:




The men of Firefly, because hello brains and beauty:




Peter from Fringe, *see above about brains and beauty*:




And my classic crush, Mr. Thornton of North and South, because of this smile:




Stay tuned this week for a fun give-aways and RWA recap.