PuttingMy Feet In the Dirt Prompt#1 Juicy Jokes and Buttered Books

Artists: AI

We all started our blogs back at about the same time around 2006.

One of us fancied himself to be a political wit,  the other saw himself as the Big Daddy of our activist circle,  I saw myself as someone who just liked to write about ghosts and cannibals.

One day we started to talk about our blog traffic.

They each got around 20 a day, if they posted something- which wasn’t bad in a universe of blogs. So one day they asked me where I was and I hmmed and fudged and said. ” Well. I do okay.”

They smirked, they smiled they gave me advice about how to be a better blogger.

For some reason they wouldn’t let up about the numbers. So I said,  ” Well. Like I get a couple of hundred. ”

” Oh in a month?”

Then I did exactly what I wouldn’t do today. I gave a non- answer. I said. ” Uh. Huh.”

” Well keep at it maybe you can build your count up- but if all you’re doing is writing fiction. Well. That’s hard. People want information. Plus you have to be really good to get a base for that.”

That got my goat but good. They just compared themselves to journalists- and were they? Hell. No. They just spewed back what they saw on TV or heard from Tom Hartman.

I wrote every single day. I spent more time reading books then watching TV. I had been writing since I was nine years old.

So I coughed up my stats.

” No. That’s not a week or a month. I get over 200 hits a day. ”

I could tell you what they were eating and drinking that day because their mouths dropped open.

We were at a Cafe and one of us had a laptop so I went on my blog and showed them my stat reports.

” During Halloween, it’s triple that. ”

I tried not to smile, but I did.

It was a little victory, they never asked about my blog or my writing again.  On the other hand, of the three of us I’m still writing.

My stats aren’t what they used to be, but that’s okay- right?

I think so. I’m still writing, I think I’ve gotten better at it and I don’t need numbers to make me feel good about what I’ve accomplishments.