Happy New Year to everyone and I hope it will be all that you hope. After lying dormant for most of the festivities I had a belated present from a most unexpected source.
Yesterday I was doing some housekeeping on this blog site when I noticed that the day’s statistics on viewing numbers were shooting through the roof. As I squinted at the numbers going upwards all the time I tried to figure out what was happening. In one day I received as many views as I have in some years!
Finally I noticed a “pingback” message. Basically a pingback tells you that another site has inserted a link that comes to a post on my blog. Intrigued I checked it out. It was in The Guardian. There were just two words “Ravenser Odd” and, given the subject matter of the article – flooding and sea defences – the puzzle was solved.
I incorporated the post – Ravenser Odd – The Town Under the Sea into my local history book – Close to the Edge: Tales from the Holderness Coast. It has proved to be one of my most popular posts.
Whilst theoretically I understand how quickly and how far the press can spread the word, when it comes to spreading some of my words, it’s quite breathtaking. I hope all those who came to read the post had a good snuffle around the site. As a bonus, sales of the book have suddenly shot up too.Lovely start to the year.
writeonthebeach 
I am absolutely DELIGHTED for you! So richly deserved. You are a writer that I respect and have a very high opinion of, as you know and to get this fillip from the press (whom I generally moan and groan about these days) unexpectedly is marvelous. The by-product of book sales going up, is of course even more welcome 😉 By the way, my daughter has finally sorted out the issue I had with downloading books form Amazon using the kindle app on my iPad (when I say I am a luddite, I do not jest even slightly) so I will be adding your books to the pile, as I have been promising for aeons in the next few days – all hail Kindle unlimited 😃 Happiest of new year to you – may it be full of good surprises (this being just the start) and a treasure trove of dreams come true to add some glitter to your year ✨
Ah thank you O. You are very kind. It was all a bit surreal at the time… I genuinely thought I’d been hacked or it was sort of joke. Anyway it kind of makes up for the postponement of my knee op until mid Feb which means it’ll be well into our spring before I’m walking well again. You could say I’m hopping mad. Take care of yourself and I wish you the happiest of New Year’s with all your dreams coming to fruition. I have a sneaky feeling one of them has???
Brilliant. Hope some of those visitors have stayed with you.
Good luck with the op.
Thanks Cath. Yes I’ve some new followers too which is always pleasing.
It seems like you might be back to blog-reading again. I hope that means you’re recuperating successfully…or even that you’ve been so busy arranging your new book business that you’ve not had time to post us the latest news? Either way, good to have you back 🙂