Dear Readers,

It is officially the 202 day anniversary of my blog.  Happy randomly selected day of celebration to me!

In honor of this auspicious event, I’ve decided to put up links to my personal favorite posts since the blog’s inception.  Those of you who are newer readers can delight in posts you missed out on the first time around and faithful readers from Day 1 can wander down that beloved path known as Memory Lane.  It’ll be fun, I promise!

Soooo, without further ado and in no particular order, here are my 5 favorite posts from the last 202 days:

1. A golden oldie from my first month blogging, in which I ponder the age old writer’s dilemma between experience and imagination.  What’s the right balance, especially when writing speculative fiction?

2. My first ever post, a discussion of the role of realism in fantasy writing.  How much gritty, true-to-life detail do we want in our fiction?  Do we prefer George R.R. Martin’s misery, blood, and betrayal or would we rather hang out with Tolkein’s noble heroes and misty elves?

3. My reflections on the handicaps (and advantages) of writing fiction when you come from an academic background.  The post title says it all (sort of): the curse of academia.

4. My musings on the pleasures to be had in re-reading old favorites.  I know why I love to do this.  Why do you?

5. Finally, here’s one from a few months ago that generated rather a lot of comments and discussion:  how we respond to critiques of our writing.

Enjoy, and feel free to share links to your favorite posts from your own blogs (or, hell, share ones from the blogs of total strangers!) in the comments.

And, because you can never say it enough, many thanks to YOU for making me feel like I’m not just flinging my thoughts out into a dark and empty void.  I love you all.