One year on ...

The View from the Blue House turns one today.  In my first post, Opening Gambits, I set the target of posting one or two posts a week, plus a short story once a month.  Well, I’ve managed to post just about every day – 354 posts in total – though I’ve only managed six short stories (plus another 50+ posts on the other blog I contribute to – Ireland After NAMA).  I guess the thing that surprises me most, is the number of book reviews I’ve posted – 111 in total.  Because this is the first time I’ve kept a record of my reading, up until now I’ve had little conception of the throughput of books.  Certainly writing the reviews has given me a better conception of what I like in a story that is hopefully starting to feedback into my own fiction.  My first review was of Stuart Neville’s, The Twelve (and I’m looking forward to the next instalment, Collusion).  Thankfully, Maxine of Petrona discovered TVFTBH fairly shortly after I started – spotting a review I’d written of Jo Nesbo’s, The Devil’s Star - and introducing me and the blog to the Crime and Mystery Fiction Friendfeed community and a supportive audience of other crime fiction bloggers.  The blog has a small, but relatively consistent number of visits a day, and it’s been a pleasure to write and share reviews, ideas and observations with everyone that has stopped by – it’s much appreciated.  And so to the next year …