Bloggers from Around the World

Since Blogger changed a few of its back office options, I’ve noticed the various tools offered to the blog owner. The new layout offers more accessible data and it’s quite interesting to see where the blog traffic originated.
Audience statistics grabbed my attention this morning. In the past, I’ve noticed things like page views, and which blog posts gain the most traffic. If thorough audience stats were available all along, I must’ve missed them, and what a shame. This is pretty interesting stuff and certainly motivated this writer to blog today.
Take a look at the country list below. I’ve included the top ten countries, in order, by number of page views:
United States
India
United Kingdom
Canada
France
Malaysia
Pakistan
Germany
Egypt
Indonesia

Since our blog readers are from around the globe, I started thinking about what books have appealed to readers in the past. Hopefully, some of our friends will drop by and let us know what genres they prefer and what book trends they’re seeing from within their specific region.
Bloggers and guests, please leave a comment and tell us where you call home. Mention how you originally found this blog—not just why you stopped by today, but how you stumbled upon your first visit. Did a certain author steer you here? Did you follow a link from another site? Were you able to locate this blog through a GOOGLE search? Did you see an advertisement or promotion? If you discovered the site after reading one of my books, which one inspired your visit?
After viewing the audience statistics above, I’m curious and would love to know more about your reading tastes and blog interests. Give us information. Tell us about you, what you like to read in terms of authors, books, and genres.
Let us know about your blog preferences. What do you like to see when you visit different blogs? Do you enjoy guest blogger interviews? Do you prefer to read articles about the writing industry or specific books? Would you rather see regular features from various authors and genres? What about columns? Do you follow posts provided by regular contributors?
Regardless of how you found us, I’m sure glad you stopped by. Please let us know where you call home and answer a few questions above, if you have a few minutes.


Destiny

It's Time for Johnny and Lulu to Have Their Ten Minutes of Fame

I must confess. I’m a General Hospital fan. Yes, it is true. I will stop what I’m doing (translation—writing) and shut everything down just to watch an episode of General Hospital. If I’m out of town and can get to a television, I will typically stop what I’m doing just to watch this daytime drama unfold. However, there’s a pending problem. I am beginning to lose interest. Yes, it’s true.

Since I write romance, I’m a sucker for a soap opera “super-couple” and their power romance. You know the type. The good ole days produced a lot of them. Days of Our Lives had Bo and Hope. Patch and Kayla. Roman and Marlena. John and Marlena.

Overall, there were too many to count. Then, Days began to taper off. The super-couples in the making never fully developed (Carrie and Mike, Shawn and Belle) to their full potential and I for one, moved on my merry way. That left me with General Hospital. My one true soap opera love.


General Hospital writers proved they could lure in fans with super-couples like Luke and Laura. Sonny and Brenda. Carly and Sonny. Jax and Brenda. Now, they have the opportunity to bring in a super-couple like Johnny and Lulu and what do they do? They dedicate maybe sixty seconds to the couple a few times each episode. If we’re lucky, they’ll get about three minutes total.

The romance of Johnny and Lulu is a wonderful storyline in the making. However, it is so rushed that viewers could truly blink and miss their appearance. Just blink. Go on, try it. You’ll see.

I’m frustrated.


So, I’m calling out to you. I want to know what you think. I think the writers of soaps have a right-now factor going on. If the writers take the time to think about the couple in the moment that they are writing the script, then the couple has air time. If not, they move on. I mean come on. General Hospital has used up months of great opportunities to have a true super-couple come to life and yet viewers are forced to suffer through Rick and his new love interest.


Speaking of Rick and his new flame, to add insult to injury, the original actress has already been replaced. This hot (not) budding romance is taking up Johnny and Lulu air time? I must take time out and have a slap-on-the-head moment here and ask…why?


Yes, I am a die-hard General Hospital fan. Still, there have been so many super-couples in the making that never materialized simply because the writers didn’t take the time to develop the romance and the characters. So I’m sending out a shout-out to GH, please take the time to see this one through. Johnny and Lulu are white hot together. Now, you just have to make your viewers believer in their love story. This one started off right, let’s just hope it continues!


Now it’s your turn, tell me what you think about soaps now versus those you watched years ago and let me know what you think about Johnny and Lulu if you watch General Hospital! I gave you my opinion, now I’d love to hear yours!



Destiny