Can you believe it?!? Eight years ago today, I slapped the title of a very very old song on a shingle and set up shop as a blogger. My goal was to be a part of the conversation about all things having to do with the mystery genre that we all love. If I tend to run off the mouth a bit more about a certain Queen of Crime than anyone else, well . . . you don’t mess with Number One! But along the way, I’ve been introduced to countless authors, old and new, from all over the world. I’ve watched a lot of films and TV shows. And best of all, I’ve made a lot of really good friends. 

Heck, I’m even in a Book Club!

I decided to compile a few stats. This is my 586^th post, so I’m nowhere near as prolific as, say, my best bud JJ over at The Invisible Event, who started his blog around the same time and has posted nearly double the content! I had a theory to cover that: the pandemic, which caused me to retire and thus gave me much more time to read, ironically played havoc with my attention span and turned me into one of the slowest readers on the planet, even as the constant stream of new books keeps arriving at my door, causing my TBR pile to totter!!

But just for fun, I checked how many posts I’ve created each year since this whole thing started, and the results are . . . weird! In 2020, the Year We All Stayed Home, I posted 47 times, the smallest annual output I’ve ever had. Well, that seems natural. Everyone was in a panic! I was cleaning my fruit with Clorox Wipes and walking down empty streets with a mask on! And the stuff I was writing – remember Murder at Dungarees?? Oy!

But, oddly enough, during the previous year, 2019, I had created only 48 posts! What was going on there? Curtis Evans never said anything about a sophomore slump! But the previous years had been so productive: 2016=99 posts (the most ever), 2017=81, 2018=65. And then I couldn’t manage a post a week! 

I can’t help feeling that the pandemic robbed me of some mojo, but in examining the numbers I find that things picked up in 2021 (70 posts) and 2022 (86 – the second highest!). So here I am, still churning along, about to soldier on into Year Nine. I’m very fond of setting goals that I never keep. But there are a few things that are coming up for sure if you keep checking this space. 

First, you can expect the final three installments of my RANKING MARPLE project on the 15^th of each month, followed by a final summation at the end of the year. This one has been a joy – but when I’m done, I should probably get started on the back half of both my RE-BRANDING project (that’s Christianna Brand, one of the best) and A CARTER DICKSON CELEBRATION (you can start catching up here, – we’re just into the 1940’s!)

Speaking of Christie, I’m over-the-moon excited to announce that my buddies Sergio Angelini and Nick Cardillo are gathering with me for a virtual meeting on October 7, the purpose of which is to draft, in Screen Drafts-style, the Twenty Best Agatha Christie Novels of All Time. (Earlier this year, we did the same thing with The Top 13 Hitchcock films.) I will be reporting how we mucked it up crafted the definitive list soon after that. Watch this space!

Every holiday season, Kate hosts the Reprint of the Year Award over at her place. This is where multiple bloggers participate, along with her readers, to select the most exciting republished classic mysteries of 2023. Each blogger gets two nominees and posts on their own site, and when we’re done the readers get to vote for their top choice. And the always generous Kate even lets the readers themselves add one or two nominees to the mix!! My two books have been selected; you’ll be able to discover what they are on December 9 and 16. (And since the 16^th is my birthday, you can then vote for my choices and help put me over the top! I won this in 2021, and the feeling is heady!)

And, of course, you can expect more reviews, including the latest from James Scott Byrnside and Janice Hallett, yet another series by Stuart Gibbs, more (ugh!) books from Book Club, and – if I can get my head together – a special mini-series featuring my favorite Los Angeles criminal attorney . . . and babes. Lots of babes!!

There I go, biting off more than . . . ! Oh, let’s get to it!