I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone here. After writing here for two years, I wanted to see how well my work has done.

As of yesterday, I now have a story that has over 7,000 reads. And I am gob smacked. Published 588 days earlier, or about a year and seven months earlier, it has had, on average, almost 12 reads a day since being published. Today, not quite so much, but it still can range from two to ten reads per day depending on the day of the week. And it is on track to reaching 10,000 reads in the next year or two which is another milestone I will enjoy if some of my other works don't pass it first.

I am really pleased with “Hard Pills to Swallow!’s” performance since July of 2017. It wasn’t the story I was expecting to get the most reads though. I thought for sure that might be “Father’s Day Present,” which has the best kudos to read ratio might just be that story.

On a weekly basis, I do check out how my stories get read so I can understand what the audience for my work appreciates the most, which I discern but comparing the keywords of the story to its overall theme, to how many times it has been read since published, the comments made on the story, and if it is still getting kudos.

“Hard Pills to Swallow!” has the highest read count of all my stories and the third highest kudo count of my solo stories which means that not only has it been well received, but its growing kudo count shows it is also being read.

'Hard Pills to Swallow' is not my best daily performer of late though. I have other stories which are being read much more daily, but are more recent, so they don’t have the read count yet.

When I write a story, I have three main goals in mind. One, for it to be entertaining or enjoyable for the reader. Two, for it to have something insightful for the reader as they spend their valuable time reading my story so they don’t feel it is a waste of their time. Three, to format it to be readable or comprehensible so my reader doesn’t get needlessly frustrated. The comments I receive on my work show it to be the case that I achieve my goals, which pleases me no end in that many times I exceed my expectations with my audience. Thank you all for your wonderful comments over the last two years, btw.

I am slowing down to writing about one story a month. And, I am working on enriching the stories too with greater detail of the surroundings, clarity of thought, and better exposition from the characters both verbal and non-verbal through their words and actions. Dorothy Colleen’s comment, along with so many others too, on my latest story, “Fight at the Improv,” sums it up best that it was “Freaking Awesome.” It has me doing an Irish Jig because it shows my skill as a writer is improving when I get a comment like that from a really good author.

I still see a considerable amount of things as a writer I want to work on. And, for some fans of my original offering, I do see light at the end of the tunnel in finishing ‘A Friend in Need is a Friend in Deed.’ In case you didn’t know, I hit a point in that story where I needed to improve my writing skills before I corrected time line issues I had created.

At the end of the day, I must say, seeing that my past stories are being read long after they are published is very encouraging and humbling.

The BC readers are discerning, intelligent, and supportive. I couldn’t have found a finer place to start publishing my stories. Thank you so much for your loyal support and encouragement of all the authors on this site. And thank you Erin for creating and maintaining this site.

And a special thank you to my loyal, if I may claim, fanbase, that do read my stories. I appreciate you more than you realize.

Beaucoup hugs to everyone, and, as they said years ago on the CB radio, see you on the flip flop,

AuP