Wednesday, May 15, 2024

The first year of the blog - reviewed

Well, it's been ONE YEAR since the first post on my Sherlockian blog (221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/05/hello.html). At the time I knew it was a little risky to start a blog that awkwardly sat around without posts, and I've tried to keep a good level of activity. Looking at my blog activity, I see I've made 60 posts in 12 months! Some of these posts were short notes or observations, others were drafts of Sherlockian articles I was working on. These article drafts are useful for me to post because they are usually longer than the edited-for-space-or-readability article that is ultimately published. Perhaps best of all I find that ideas I post on the blog are 'markers' I can return to when thinking about concepts to develop into an article or talk.

Looking at my first post on the blog, these were the topics I planned to post on:

1. Posts on Sherlockian books, new and old - including tracing original owners.

2. Books published by the 'Baker Street Irregulars' (because I'm trying to collect all BSI publications)

3. I hope to interview people. This hasn't really eventuated.

4. Report on new Sherlockian publications or events I attend.

Point 3 never really took off because I discovered other blogs already doing interviews in a way that was far better than anything I'd thought of. I did recently interview someone for an article I'm writing and I do have a list of people. I'd like to speak to on specific topics.


What has been 'popular'? Here are the five most viewed blog posts.

1. March 2024: The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library
Most visited, and one of my most recent posts. Describes my visit to the collection while in Toronto, with highlights from the collection including a Beeton's first edition. 

2. August 2023: The Sherlockian podcast world
This could do with a companion piece on Sherlock drama/pastiche postcast series.

3. June 2023: Sherlockian glimpses in London
This is a compilation of sites I visited in London related to the world of Sherlock. I'd like to do the same thing for the Doylean world on a future visit to London.

4. May 2023: Why Does Glen Miranker Collect Books?
This is actually the first post (after the introductory post) that I made. I recorded Glen's presentation to the Red Circle, and continue to record and post scion presentations.

5. September 2023: My fascination with Calabash Press
This fits into the 'book collecting' category - I've been collecting every book published by Calabash press. More importantly, this post lists all books published by Calabash Press.

I've also reflected on my personal favorite posts: 

1. The dancing miners and their photographer
A blog post studying one of the first Sherlockian photographs - taken in Australia - and identifying the location and photographer.

2. Donald Girard Jewell’s Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series
Describing Jewelll's book series that I'd finally managed to bring together.

3. A book is more than just a book. Gisela Susanne Seligmann (1929-?)
Where I identify the backstory of the owner of a cope of The White Company.

A book review, with backstory on the ACD connection to the Cottingley Fairies.

A filming (by me) of a wonderful performance of a new short play written by Ray Betzner and performed at the 2024 William Gillette luncheon.


So there it is. Just like ACD"s list of his twelve best stories, it's true that my favorite posts are a little different from those that are widely read. I'm incredibly thankful that ANYONE reads these posts, and I'm also satisfied that I've managed to continue posting. I don't think I expected to post on Scion meetings as much as I have - and writing these reviews and linking them to presentation recordings is a nice way of capturing the context for these recorded presentations.

My current priority is to write a set of Sherlockian articles I've sketched out, and I'll be posting drafts of these articles in the next few months. 

Conclusion: this blog was totally worth it! 

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