Turn around, bright eyes.

Just a quick look back over my shoulder at 2011, courtesy of Google Analytics, to this blog's most popular posts last year. I'll withhold actual numbers so my three regular readers won't realize how isolated this blog is.

The post that was the most popular work of fiction as well as the post with the most overall visits this year was REFLECTIONS IN A GLASS OF MARYLAND RYE by Edward A. Grainger. Kudos to David Cranmer, of Beat to a Pulp renown, for generously providing this excellent Western tale that drew so much deserved attention. This story also elicited far more comments than any other post this year.

The top five book reviews, as blog readership numbers go, were:

1. THE END OF EVERYTHING by Megan Abbott  (6/27/2011)
2. FALL FROM GRACE by Wayne Arthurson  (3/19/2011)
3. ONE TRUE SENTENCE by Craig McDonald (3/8/2011)
4. DISCOUNT NOIR edited by Patricia Abbott and Steve Weddle (2/6/2011)
5. DUST DEVILS by Roger Smith (6/23/2011)

The post that was not directly given over to a book or short story and which drew the most attention was a meme naming my favorite ten Western films, "IT RAINS...:" BEGETS "DROWNING MACHINE." Thanks to Michael, who writes the wonderful blog, It Rains...You Get Wet, and who inspired that post.

The date this blog was unusually popular was June 19, 2011, when the winners of the Watery Grave Invitational were named and the winning stories were posted.

In reviewing the numbers for these most popular posts, one thing becomes hit-over-the-head-with-a-hammer clear: This blog owes everything, everything, to you writers: you novelists, you short-story writers, and fellow bloggers. Thank you. No, thank you.