It's Coming to the End... Sort of?

Three weeks from today it will be Friday, May 4th. It will also be the 365th day in a row that I'll have blogged without missing a single day.

Huzzah!

It will also be the last day that I'll be blogging without missing a single day.

When I started this blog my intent was to give myself a place to write some of the more funny, light-hearted things I'm capable of writing, since I seem to have fallen into the habit of writing Horror stories.  I am comfortable writing Horror, and I've managed to get a few things published in the genre, but that's not all I can do. I have a story that will be in an anthology of Christmas stories that's coming out this December that proves it, but I needed to remind myself more often.

So I started coming here and reminding myself every day.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part this blog has been a lot of fun. I have some anectotes in here that, with a little polish, I might submit somewhere as short stories. I have done some writing in here that I like very much, and I think I was, at times, pretty entertaining, and that was a good portion of the fun.

Also, I have some people who have become my constant audience, and that has been great too. Every writer loves to have his stuff read, and most want to have it liked. The fact that I had a returning audience, however small, was like a vitamin shot in the arm for me on a pretty much daily basis.

The problem is that this blog takes time. I have a few projects going where I am trying to get more of my writing published - the only way to make a name for myself out there is to get my name out there. I have stories I'm writing for magazines and e-zines, as well as some books simmering on the back burners of my writing stove, some short story collections as well as a possible future novel. Well, two novels. And a couple of novellas... Okay, I have a lot of stuff to do, and I think I'm going to need some of the time this blog has been taking, both in the writing part and the thinking part.

That's another thing. It's hard to come up with something to write about every day that you, my readers, might find funny. Sometimes I dropped the ball, and when I go back and read some of my entries I can always tell when it was one of those days. Mixed in with some pretty funny stories and some not bad writing, there are quite a few stinkers; days where I was stuck for something and just wrote anything I could think of, funny or not. When I read those posts, I'm embarrassed by them; If you all were good enough to take the time to read this stuff, the least I should have done is the best I could for you. Sometimes I didn't. All I can do is tell you all "sorry about that."

So, this May 4th will bring me to the end of my daily blog.... but not of blogging entirely.

I have too much fun here to quit this thing entirely, but I do think I need to cut it back a bit. I need to free up some more of my time so I can finish my projects and get my name out there, as best I can. I'm 42 people, and I'll be 43 by the time May 4th rolls around. With regards to writing - I think I have to get a wiggle on. But I still want this reminder that I can write things that might make people laugh from time to time, and I want to keep practicing at doing just that.

Also, I do like having an audience, however small.

Oh, and so you know: Though I can see from day to day that blog pages are read, and which blog pages are read, I can not see anything about the people doing the reading. If I register 40 page reads in a day, I have no way of knowing if that was 40 individuals logging in and reading a page each, or if there were 5 people reading 8 pages each, or if it was simply a single visitor, bored out of their mind and with time to kill, flipping along and reading 40 pages in a day. When I say I have no idea how large my audience is, and that I'm not sure, for the most part, who makes it up, I'm not kidding.

Now - on to the pitch for votes!
I have 3 weeks to decide how often I will be blogging after the 4th. I see some writers who blog once a week, some once a month, and some just whenever the mood strikes them and they feel like sticking some words together. I was thinking about once a week, but then I was thinking about once a month... Hell, I can't make up my mind, so I decided to ask for your opinion.

In the upper right corner of the page you'll find a poll asking you how often you think I should blog: once a month, once a week, and whenever I feel like it. Please, weigh in and let me know what you want. You all are my very first audience, and I'd love it if you all had a say. So please don't just read all this, shrug and move on to do something else. Take a second to vote up above there. The more votes I get the better I'll feel about whatever decision is made, and I'm leaving the poll up there right until the 4th, so everyone has time to vote, including people who only read me once a week.

Whatever the outcome, I'll have both more time for my fiction as well as time to give you all the best work I can, hopefully entertaining you with every post.

Looking forward to your votes!

Talk to you later!

                   -Thank you for your time, every bit of it.

                                                        -Rob