Ruminations on 100 Posts

100 Posts! Woo Hoo!

When I started this, I planned two posts per month. Four years to 100. It’s been just over two years because I’ve upped the post rate and added some new topics for consideration.

The book reviews and interviews have been popular. I’ll continue them. In the next few weeks you’ll see interviews with a New York Times best-selling author and another author/videographer whose short video has been viewed over 100 million times. Both are spectacular human beings with much to offer the world and have a couple of things in common.

Some of my highest-ranking posts have surprised me. It turns out that my readers:

• Like dogs
• Are somewhat spiritual
• Geek out on science
• Read
• Care about survival strategies
• Are into solar power

Okay, more solar-science-survival dogs in the future.

I’ve done a bunch of podcasts and they’ve been a mixed bag. Some, like Unstoppable Mindset, The Future of You, Sci-fi Saturday Night, Siren Radio, Mind Dog TV, and NBC’s Mystery Hour, have been both wonderful experiences and highly rated. It’s very easy to see how the hosts of those programs built a following. Then there’s another end of the spectrum:

Potato Chip Girl. I was interviewed by a 17-year-old who ate potato chips during the 9-minute recording and griped about her younger brother for most of it. It never aired.

Stoner. This is purely supposition, but I think there’s a good chance that another guest on a podcast was stoned during the interview. We were being interviewed at the same time and the other guest faded in and out as if they wandered away from the microphone, having forgotten that they were on a podcast. They also couldn’t figure out how to work their webcam, possibly stole the art for their book covers, and didn’t know that real publishers pay authors for their work. I’m fairly certain that the host cringed throughout. I know I did. Maybe next time I’ll just pretend the internet failed and go watch another episode of Ozark.

Written interviews are also mixed. There’s a group that asks every author the same questions. If I find that tedious, imagine how it is for big authors. How many times do you want to answer “Where do you get your ideas?” On the other hand, I love interviews that ask me things specific to my book: “Why did Feral leave Minneapolis?” Or, “What do you want readers to take away from this book?” Best yet, “If this were a real theme park, what would be your favorite quest and why?” 

Good interviewers have read the book or the blog and know a little about me. That’s why I decided only to interview authors whose work I have read. Then I try to dig into their back story a bit more and work to come up with questions they haven’t been asked (much) before.

What I didn’t expect: Readers from other countries. I’ve got a fair number of readers outside the US. The biggest groups are in India and Turkey. I never anticipated that but am ever grateful. 

Speaking of which, Book 2: Fire is currently at the publisher. I’m in the revision cycle and we are anticipating publication around Christmas 2022. Here are a couple of things that people who don’t read this blog won’t know:

• The “binary” section dividers will contain a message
• There will be imbedded QR codes leading to bonus content
• Will and Feral…wait, there’s no way that I’m disclosing what happens between Will and Feral…or if they survive
• A new quest takes the place of War on Mars

Finally, I’ve learned that I crave feedback. The blog, the book, the website, the pictures of my dogs, I want to hear about it. Many, many thanks to Arnav for correcting my usage of Hindu, Hindi, and Hinduism. Accuracy matters!