It was one year ago today — after eighteen months lurking around the blogs of Noah, Puzzle Doctor, Rich, Sergio, and TomCat — that I finally settled on a title for an undertaking of my own, registered on WordPress, put up this opening salvo, and then sat back and thought…er, so what happens now?
What has happened is that a lot of you have turned up, embraced my almost deliberately awkward corner of detective fiction — virtually no living authors, nothing after 1959 that isn’t an obscure and dense puzzle, a rejection of a great deal of the accepted classics from the era I do deign to read…seriously, it’s a wonder anyone comes here at all — and have digested my ramblings, lurked around some, commented, engaged, cajoled, and generally encouraged me to keep writing about what I love.
Suffice to say, if none of that had happened then I would have packed it in (The Invisible Event was always half-chosen as a wry title, in the event of its failure) and gone about my life as before. But I would have missed out on a decent slice of the intelligence, the erudition, the insight, the humour, the community, and the sheer enthusiasm that you all bring to these discussions both here and elsewhere. Watching it from the sidelines was a lot of fun, playing the game has been even better.
So, today’s post in lieu of a review is to say thank-you. To everyone who dropped in once, looks in every so often, lurks regularly, to those who check every post, comment obsessively, whether you pay any attention to my opinions or not: thank-you. I know I’m not changing the world, but I do hugely enjoy doing this and it’s been a real pleasure to engage in the blogging community on a topic that you’ve helped make me appreciate even more over these twelve months.
You guys are awesome, and I hope we get to continue doing this for a long while yet.
Happy Birthday! 😀 Thanks so much for the thoughtful and engaging posts, which have enriched my experience of the mystery genre. I can’t speak for other readers, but for me, you were the first to recommend Max Afford, Norman Berrow and Rupert Penny. (To be fair, I first read of Penny from a different blog, but you were the one who pointed me to the Random House re-prints, and got me to actually read one of his novels.) And you have had to put up with all my excoriations against certain John Dickson Carr novels. 😛
Excoriations, nonsense. We discuss things here and everyone is welcome to disagree 🙂 Thanks for sticking with me despite my unapologetically blind love of all (most) things JDC…plenty more to come, too…
I’m right behind you, Boo! Seven posts away from 100, five weeks away from le premiere anniversaire! That makes us peers . . . except people actually READ your stuff! And I’m one of them. Congrats, you Halter fool, you!
Who’s not reading Brad’s stuff, eh? Who come here, sees the complimentary things I write about Brad’s posts, and thinks…”Nah, I’ll give that a miss”? Shocking.
Or are you being modest, a mere 150 views a day? Seriously, dude, you’re setting a standard that I’m trying to match a lot of the time!
Congratulations! The first year is the toughest but you’re doing a great job (and having fun, which is the important part). I wish you many years to come!
The third wedding anniversary is apparently Leather…maybe you can do something with that? I’ll leave it to your expertise to decide what form that might take…
Nice to know that there’s still one aspect of my life in which I qualify as a whippersnapper. Thanks for the kind words, and indeed bringing me to the attention of the community at large when I got started…
Much ta, much ta…this won’t be an annual thing that I roll out, but I figure the first birthday is one worth noting. Next up: maybe the tenth? Perhaps that’s too optimistic…let’s go with the fifth.
Congrats on having served your first year among us, but only very few have escaped from this corner of the blogosphere. So it’s not like you had much of a choice. Anyway, here’s to many more years to come! 😉
JJ: August was god-awful-busy, so I’m just scrolling through what I missed from my fellow bloggers now. Happy blogiversary! So glad you joined us out here in blogland.
The Invisible Event 
Buon anniversario JJ – complimenti!
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Grazie mille!
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Happy Birthday! 😀 Thanks so much for the thoughtful and engaging posts, which have enriched my experience of the mystery genre. I can’t speak for other readers, but for me, you were the first to recommend Max Afford, Norman Berrow and Rupert Penny. (To be fair, I first read of Penny from a different blog, but you were the one who pointed me to the Random House re-prints, and got me to actually read one of his novels.) And you have had to put up with all my excoriations against certain John Dickson Carr novels. 😛
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Excoriations, nonsense. We discuss things here and everyone is welcome to disagree 🙂 Thanks for sticking with me despite my unapologetically blind love of all (most) things JDC…plenty more to come, too…
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Happy Bloganniversary. Keep it up!
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I’m right behind you, Boo! Seven posts away from 100, five weeks away from le premiere anniversaire! That makes us peers . . . except people actually READ your stuff! And I’m one of them. Congrats, you Halter fool, you!
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Who’s not reading Brad’s stuff, eh? Who come here, sees the complimentary things I write about Brad’s posts, and thinks…”Nah, I’ll give that a miss”? Shocking.
Or are you being modest, a mere 150 views a day? Seriously, dude, you’re setting a standard that I’m trying to match a lot of the time!
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Congratulations! The first year is the toughest but you’re doing a great job (and having fun, which is the important part). I wish you many years to come!
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Many thanks, Noah. As one of the people who inspired me to get started that means a lot.
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Congrats on the anniversary!
Hm. Just checked and discovered I’m about three weeks away from my own third birthday. Well, Noirish’s.
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The third wedding anniversary is apparently Leather…maybe you can do something with that? I’ll leave it to your expertise to decide what form that might take…
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Congratulations, you young whippersnapper, you. Keep up the good work.
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Nice to know that there’s still one aspect of my life in which I qualify as a whippersnapper. Thanks for the kind words, and indeed bringing me to the attention of the community at large when I got started…
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You’re welcome. And keep up the good work
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Congratulations JJ!
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Much ta, much ta…this won’t be an annual thing that I roll out, but I figure the first birthday is one worth noting. Next up: maybe the tenth? Perhaps that’s too optimistic…let’s go with the fifth.
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Congrats on having served your first year among us, but only very few have escaped from this corner of the blogosphere. So it’s not like you had much of a choice. Anyway, here’s to many more years to come! 😉
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And perhaps every year to celebrate a new book of short stories, eh? You pick ’em and we’ll put it together!
Okay, okay, let’s just finish this first one first 🙂
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Yay JJ! Keep it Going!
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Many thanks — that’s very much the plan, it’s too much fun to quit just yet! Onwards and (perhaps) upwards…
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Delayed woo~ Doing better than me. XD
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Nah, not better, just…more able to ignore life things; which ain’t necessarily a good thing…!
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JJ: August was god-awful-busy, so I’m just scrolling through what I missed from my fellow bloggers now. Happy blogiversary! So glad you joined us out here in blogland.
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Well, it’s about bloody time… 😉
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