But just because it’s nauseatingly sweet, doesn’t mean it’s not true. Since I posted the Longest Blog Ever about a week ago, I’ve received roughly one billion messages. There were e-mails, phone calls, facebook wall posts, strip-o-grams, and alien beams shot directly into my head from the icy depths of space.

Yeah. They read my blog in space, apparently. Who knew.

Seriously though, the vast majority of these messages have been displays of loving support and kindness. Many of them terribly sweet, funny, or touching in turn. Only a very few were snarky.

And yes, there was one turd. But it was a tiny thing among all the rest. A turdlet. And it didn’t spoil my day. Instead I laughed a great booming laugh at his ineffectual flailing rage.

On synchronicity:

Now, I should mention that I don’t actually read any blogs myself. There are a few I peek in on occasionally, but my addictive web-wanderings lean more toward comics.

So after I posted my blog, I was surprised to learn that George RR Martin wrote a blog on a similar subject about a week before I posted mine.

I saw Mr. Martin at Worldcon last year. And I almost went up to him and asked, “How have you gone this long without killing someone?” Because however much flak I happen to get from fans, he has to get a thousand times more.

In my opinion, he’s a saint. If I had to deal with that level of fan dickishness, I would have already lost my shit in some spectacular way. There would be a video of me on youtube, gone all berserk with nerd rage, holding someone up by the neck, shouting “I’ve got your sequel right here, bitch!”

I didn’t actually approach him and say that though. Because it seemed a weird way to introduce myself. Still, know that I’m on your side Mr. Martin. Slow writers represent. Um. Yo.

Several of you also brought Scalzi’s post to my attention as well. Apparently, just a couple hours before I posted up my blog, John Scalzi over at Whatever wrote a blog on the topic of authors. It’s a good read. Not only did we make a lot of the same points, we even made some of the same jokes. It was more than slightly eerie, to tell you the truth.

I just wish I’d skipped the last revision, and posted my blog a day earlier. That way it would have looked like he was ripping me off instead of the other way around.

Concerning the flood of love: (Ew)

I just wanted to mention that I did read all the messages. All of them. Though I only responded to a small fraction of what came in because there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

While I was reading through them, I snipped out some of the clever, bizarre, and funny things people wrote.

Then I cleverly lost the file I saved those quotes into. And I just don’t have time to winnow through several hundred messages again to dig them out. Rest assured that I enjoyed them all. Even the turd.

There is one message that I got after I made the post that just about knocked me over though.

My husband reads fantasy and I, the English teacher, prefer “real literature.” The Name of the Wind is what I get for being so smug. It is an incredible novel! Our first baby is due this April and I’m not sure what the two of us anticipate more: our new daughter or the Wise Man’s Fear!

Well done, Mr. Rothfuss, well done!

If that isn’t intimidating, I don’t know what is. I have a terrible mental image of a woman going into labor in the fantasy isle of Borders.

Oh, and here’s something else I thought y’all might get a kick out of:

You might have to click on it to see the joke.

It’s here…

I’m guessing that someone at B&N has a sense of humor, or there’s a profoundly weird glitch in their system.

(Edit: B&N insiders reveal the truth about this in the comments below. Thanks for the clue-in folks.)

Either way, I would just like to say I’m confident of my ability to get book two out before this deadline. Rest assured.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to thank everyone for their support. I’ll be posting up a few other blogs this week, so stay tuned.

Fondly,

pat