What does one learn over 2000 posts made over 7 years, 6 months, and 10 days?

Here are a few things that I've learned during that time span:

• It is better to say what you feel than to pretend that you don't feel at all.

• There are plenty of talented people writing today that many are unaware of due to linguistic/cultural differences.

• There is an audience for almost anything.

• There are plenty of people who are more passionate than I am about a whole host of things.  Sometimes, that passion is even in the right spot.

• People look forward to me skewering something/someone, yet don't respond that much when I praise something read/someone else.

• Learning other languages helps with the understanding of others as well as your own abilities and limitations.

• Very few bloggers have groupies of any gender.  I am no exception to that.

• If you do something exceptional, many will doubt that you did it alone.   Sometimes, they are even correct, but for the wrong reasons most of the time.

• Procrastination and insomnia are never your friends when blogging, reviewing, or translating.

• Friendships can be made through blogging.

• Canadians are never to be trusted when it comes to blogging about books and/or cover art.  They likely still rock out to Air Supply and Hall and Oates. 

• Not everyone blogs hoping to "make the big time."  Some of us have no desire to be writers or publicists.

• If you know how to balance a friendship with a writer with honest reviews (or better, private comments but no public reviews in case personal bias has set in), you might find yourself receiving strange packages in the mail on occasion.

• YouTube clips of authors doing interpretative dance routines scare the hell out of me.

• When you hold a physical book that has a translation of yours inside, it is a very special feeling, even more than when the e-edition was viewed earlier.

• Generosity is a cherished thing.  Others cherish it at least as much, so keep that in mind.

• You can learn a lot from an argument/debate if you'll listen for a minute.  Doesn't mean you accept what's heard, though.

• Squirrels are very lovable creatures, even if they read faster and more diligently than most humans do.

• Jacques Barcia may one day be able to train that cagefighting alpaca that I urged him to write about years ago.

• Paul Smith seems to be trying without realizing it to prove that the myth of ginger=soulless is false.

• Mihai/Dark Wolf is too good of a person to be dealing with the likes of me on a regular basis.

• Fábio Fernandes is the rare sort of writer/friend who understands that when I noted something off, it was meant to help and not castigate.

• Aishwarya knows how to joke with me while making very good, serious points about literature.

• Harry Markov will one day admit that Serbian rabid reading squirrels are superior to his native Bulgarian ones.

• Ken/Neth someday will agree with me regarding fantasy literature, but despite it all, he's been a good person to know for the past 10 years.

• Aidan Moher is one of the few Canadians worth knowing ;)

•  Charles Tan is not really Satan.

• Danny Bonaduce has yet to write that killer novel that I believe he is capable of producing

• There really are too many good people in this world to dwell on the negative aspects of life, literature, and blogging.  I should remember that more often.

I think that covers what I would say in public (in private, there'd be another to thank, but I think it best to say that elsewhere).   Thanks for reading, for however long you have been reading this blog.










P.S.  This is the blog's 2000th post, not my 2000th here.  But between here, Vaguely Borgesian, Best American Fantasy, Weird Fiction Review, and Gogol's Overcoat, I've made over 2000 posts.

P.P.S.  Yes, the squirrels did write part of the entries here.  Can you blame them for wanting more love?


P.P.P.S.  I will be an uncle for the first time in late September/early October.  I just didn't want to say that in a full post and here is a great time to mention that exciting part in my personal life, which I don't discuss much here on this blog.