Draw me a map

I am, truly, floored.

You don't see this chart on my ffn site, so it's on my blog at twilight-dad-dot-blogspot-dot-com.

But it's there.

Firstly, and I hope you 'Top-4' forgive me, of course the U.S.A., the U.K., Canada, and Australia are there, by the hundreds, by the tens of hundreds.

By the thousands. Two thousand readers in the major English-speaking world have view pages from my stories, from My Sister Rosalie (to see that, yes, indeed, Bella Swan is a little freckled thing. Who knew?).

But then there are the other countries, after the top-4, and English is not their primary language, but they are reading these stories. They are getting something from them.

You are getting something from these stories. You, wherever you are, read what I wrote, and ...

Well, by the hundreds. By the hundreds, there are people from, ... well:

Korea, Belgium, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, France, Russia (and a review in RUSSIAN, no less!), Germany, the Phillipines, Kuwait (?!?), and Sweden, and on, and on, and on.

And my most recent review from an anonymous guest: "This story is so good! Can't wait for the continuation!" ... those're your thoughts, too, isn't it? This story (MSR) is so good! and you can't wait for the continuation, can you?

Well, I tell you what... the continuation?

Well. Yes, you can't wait for it, but it's coming. It's hard for me to write, and it may be impossible for you (not) to read (the whole train-wreck thing, right?), but it's coming, because why?

Because I can't write it sometimes. It's too hard.

But this is bigger than me, now. This is Bella, and this is Rosalie, and it's bigger than them, now, too.

Because it's you. It's yours. The story is yours.

And I have to write it, now, even as I don't want to sometimes. Because it's for you.

And you find it so good, and you can't wait for the continuation.

Well, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait. My stupid life and my stupid get in the way of my writing ... ooh! I so HATE it when work gets in the way of my writing! ... and the draft of this next chapter I'm writing is complete crap, as is the draft of every chapter I've written, pretty much, and so I'll have to rewrite the thing, again! ...

But it's coming. This next chapter is coming. And, as usual, it's going to be a doozy.

I hope you like it, for Bella and Rosalie's sake, I hope you like it.

love, geophf

Sing with the fishies? No: swim with the angels!

It's 4:30 am here on the East Coast of the U.S.A. After having published a new chapter of my story "My Sister Rosalie" last night at midnight, the writer in me woke me up at 4 am to check my stats ... nothing gobsmacking this time, so I could weigh in, I could go do some work, I could do a pre-dawn run (I'll do a morning run later), I could grab a little something to snack on...

Instead I'm resisting all temptations (except this one, writing this entry, of course: a writer knows she must strike when the iron is hot, that is: in the moment of inspiration, or it will never get written and will be lost forever among the hundred, the thousand other thoughts she has to share, but never will, because they're lost, forgotten, carried away by the tidal pull of the day and the mundane tasks that pull her away from the keyboard): instead of a piece of dried fruit, or a crushed-nuts-and-seeds wafer, or some chips and dip, I grabbed a bottle of water, and now I'm putting my head on my pillow, and am going to do what comes naturally in this darkest before the dawn hour: sleep.

Good night, my dears. It's a comfort to know your reading this now, not sleeping, as I am, or you glance at this, and decide: 'eh, I'll sleep now, instead. I'm tired.' ... just like me.

It feels good to be a part of a community who understands and is struggling with the same things I struggle with. It makes the fight less burdensome, more worth it.

'nite. zzzzz

Japan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan

Last month 3,225 pages were viewed by 1,208 people from around the world.

Thank you.

Of course, the biggest readerships came the English-speaking countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (thank you).

But there were some surprises in this for me this past month.

Japan, a country whose readers have studiously not read my stories, ever, came in early this month with one reader viewing 21 pages, then, twice more? or two more readers contributing a total of 63 pages views. Japan was number seven this month.

Malaysia, another country I've never noted activity had one reader or two contribute 34 page views, and a new story follower for MSR.

Okay, and finally, Kazakhstan? Seriously? What in my writing attracted a reader or two from Kazakhstan. I don't know one word of their language. I don't have friends from there. I've never set foot in their soil. Why would somebody from there be engrossed in what I have to say about two girls stuck in a cabin in the old American West?

Each time I look at these stats, I cheer for the countries that read my works. "C'mon, Brazil," I say, "you're so close to beating out Germany for fifth!" And the people read what they read, and they win, taking something away from their reading, and I win, knowing you, in your country, are finding something in what I write.

Now, new paragraph, new thoughts.

What was read this month was also quite interesting for me.

The first surprise was ch 40: "Rule Number One."

Holy F-ck! "Rule Number One" got 46 hits from 18 visitors? That means it was reread an average of twice? Holy ... Crow! What in the world prompted this attention to this crucial chapter.

More surprising? Ch 56: "Nagging - Regrets" ... okay, my worst chapter almost got 40 hits? Were people catching up after my 3-year hiatus with me?

Then, ch 73: "totus tuus" at 96 hits. Do you know how much hate I got for publishing that chapter? Do you know which chapter gets the most views? Why the disconnect? Why hate me for writing it if the majority of you love rereading it?

Then the most recent three with 150+ hits each, of course.

So. "Rule Number One," huh? Really? Tell me why. Preferably by reviewing that chapter, hint-hint.

Thank you. I love you, too, my dear readers.

MSR's Visitors, June 2013

"... but, of course," I thought to myself, "I have 2.5K visitors from the U.S., then the always faithful Canadians, the UK, and Australia follow, and then ..."

And that's when I caught myself. 'Of course...' I have 2.5K visitors to my site from my country? from any country?

Who else can say that?

And that's when I became grateful.

I'm grateful to all the people who come to my site, read something, then go about their lives, and then, faithfully, return, again and again, and read something else, something more.

And 'of course' I have the bulk of my visitors from the English-speaking world. Of course. But why would I have visitors from anywhere in the world at all?

Let me say that again, and savor it: I have visitors from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia.

I've never been to the U.K. (I shall rectify that). I've never been to Australia ... I've been to 'little Australia,' ... Hawaii, and seen the people, seen how differently they carry themselves from people from the U.S. ... it was a very pleasant shock to me to see people who, outwardly, look so much the same as me and my friends in the military stationed there, but inwardly, are so different that they were like an entirely different race, an entirely different species of people. Before cell phones existed, two young girls approached me and asked me if the pay-phone was working. I held it to my ear, heard the dial tone, and told them everything was fine, they could place their call home.

Australia and the U.S. are so different from each other that we have to ask each other if working phones are working, as we can't even hear each other's dial tones and know what it means.

And I have readers, ... lots of readers, in Australia.

And then, ... the other countries, ... the countries where English isn't even the primary language. Let me reel them off for you (let me reel them off for me).

Germany, the Philippines, France, Egypt, Mexico, India, (now back to English) New Zealand, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Spain, China, Portugal, Denmark, Singapore, Israel, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine*, Switzerland*, Hungary, Czech Revar, Morocco, U.A.E., Malaysia, Indonesia*, Iceland, Comoros*, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela*, Korea, Norway, Colombia*, Hong Kong*, Netherland Antilles*, Argentina*, Guatemala*, Virgin Island, U.S.*, Russian Fed*, Austria*

All those countries! Most of which, more than 90% of which I have never (yet) been to, and, being as that I'm now an old man, past my mid-life, I can fairly say most of which I will never see, unless I change my life and who I am and be a person to go see them.

And the starred countries? Those are the countries that had only one visitor, one time. That means, if you're reading this, and you're from one of those countries, you, and you alone, represented your entire country as a visitor to my site.

You. You from the Ukrain, Switzerland, Indonesia, Comoros, Venezuela, Colombia, Hong Kong, Netherland Antilles, Argentina, Guatemala, the Virgin Islands (U.S.), the Russian Federation (?!? the entire Russian Federation!!!), or Austria ... you are the single person in your whole country that got the name of your country mentioned in this post, so I could honor your country, and you.

Thank you.

And I've missed a ton of single persons from other countries who came, alone, but several times over the course of the month of June 2013, so they were recorded as not one visitor, but multiple visits, so you could've been from Hungary, for example, or Iceland, or Ireland, or Sweden, or Morocco, or from a host of other countries that had 2 or 10 or however many visitors more than one, but you, and you alone, placed your country on the above list of 'Countries who had readers visit my site in June 2013.'

Thank you. Because of you, your entire country has been noticed, mentioned, and honored.

Do you know how important you, and you alone, are just by reading my stories? That you are actually doing something? That you are actually reading (and reading in English at that!) and taking in and thinking and being, but then also representing yourself, of course, but also your whole nation, your entire people? Did you know that?

Thank you, people from here, right in my home town, whom I know and whom I don't, and thank you, people from around the entire globe, those of you whom I know, because you've PMed me or, bravely, reviewed my stories.

Thank you.

I would've never known you otherwise. But I wrote, and you came, and you read.

I hear you as you read my words, and understand them and take them into your heart, or don't understand them and struggle with them.

You know me, in the writing of these words. I know you, in the reading of them. I see you.

And I love you.

geophf

Hello, the Netherlands!

Okay, site visitor stats for May, 2013:

So, the good ole U.S.A. in first (3.11k views), no surprises, then Canada (444 views) and the U.K. (378 views) for a near-tie for second (thank you), then Australia (160 views), obviously, ...

All English-speaking countries.

But then the near tie with Australia is ... the Netherlands (at 147 views)? ... the Netherlands' official language is Dutch.

So, what's the draw of MSR, a very English-y story, a story so English-y, in fact, that many English-speaking readers have difficulty with its prose, to the Netherlands, of all places?

Anyone from the country: ... would you like to offer some explanation for this? ... Am I writing this story in a Netherlandescquish style of writing, perhaps? Or is it something else about this story that has such a draw for you and others from your country? Please: do tell!

And ... down further, deeper into the chart, there are more surprises ... like Brazil (hi!) and China (howdy!), like other countries, reading my stories. Thank you all.

Then, if you look at what is read in MSR, I got another surprise. Of course, the most recent chapters are the most read, with "totus tuus" standing out, but the most read chapter? Chapter 24.

Chapter 24, published four years ago is the most read chapter of MSR.

Chapter 24: "Rain by a Rose Garden."

So, what does that tell me? I wonder.

Do you (re)read this chapter because you wish to have the table set for you, a prelude, before you dive into the (very twisted) mind of Rosalie in my story Rose by a Lemon Tree? Or ...

This is the closest that our dearly beloved girl comes to an openly intimate moment with our our aloof, hard, harsh, God-like creature. An openly intimate moment that she doesn't shy away from, no: she initiates it and goes after it with an uninhibited desire that ... well. You know.

And she goes after it with our aloof and unbendable, and that is to say, perhaps, unattainable ... object of desire, and our girl does have her moment, or, her instant, of intimacy, before she is ultimately rejected.

Are you (re)reading this chapter because you want this moment to last more than an instant? Do you want our girl to (re)pursue this moment, or do you want her Rose not to reject her this next time but to accept her? To let her in? To let her past this cold, hard exterior to warm and then to restart her still, dead heart?

What does all this (re)reading of MSR ch 24 mean? TELL ME!

... or, ... *sigh* ... not.

In any case, enjoy your moments, intimate or harsh, of your (re)reading of MSR.

love, geophf

February 2010 stats

On ffn.net/geophf as of February 28, 2010, 9 am EDT, 3845 pages viewed by 1100 readers:

Country Trophies:

Holy Crow (double-digit ratio): Venezuela, Sweden
Improved: USA, Philippines, Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico
Up, Up, and Away (improved ratio twice or more in a row): USA(x2), Philippines, Ireland, Germany(x2), Venezuela, UK(x2), Australia
Reversi (reversed a downward ratio with an upward one): Philippines, UK(x3), Australia(x3), USA(x2), Brazil, Ireland, Canada
Kicking butt (4.0 ratio or higher): Australia, Philippines, Argentina, Austria, Ireland, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden
Player: Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Philippines, Spain, Finland, Canada, Chile, Italy, Indonesia, Netherlands, South Africa, Norway, Argentina, Austria, New Zealand, Ireland, Venezuela, Peru, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden
Top 10er (Feb 2010): USA, UK, Australia, Ireland, Philippines, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, Brazil, Sweden
Comeback Kid (got knocked off the list, but then returned): Germany(x2), Finland
Golden (50 or more page views): USA, Philippines, Ireland, Australia, UK, Brazil, Venezuela, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Germany

Medal holders, 2010 (best medal shown):

Gold: USA
Silver: UK, Canada
Bronze: Australia

It's been crazy, and I've been lazy ('crazy-lazy! They sound the same!' I love my daughters, if you didn't know), but here are the month's totals ... see you all on the other side, and thank you for reading!

Blow by blow: the UK, at the very end, surged to 2nd place, earning the silver. Germany made an 11th hour come-back, regaining the list, knocking Mexico off.

January 2010 stats

On ffn.net/geophf as of January 31, 2010, 9 am EDT, 5,142 pages viewed by 1,524 readers:

	Country	views	readers	ratio	Δ
1.	USA	3022	846	3.6	-
2.	Canada	368	67	5.5	-
3.	United Kingdom	280	126	2.2	-
4.	Malaysia	268	34	7.9	v
5.	Australia	241	99	2.4	v
6.	Philippines	110	34	3.3	v
7.	New Zealand	94	22	4.3	v
8.	Chile	88	15	5.9	v
9.	Germany	84	26	3.2	-
10.	Argentina	50	3	17.0	-

Country Trophies:

Holy Crow (double-digit ratio): Korea, Republic of, Argentina
Improved: USA, Malaysia, Chile, Germany, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, Philippines
Up, Up, and Away (improved ratio twice or more in a row): Malaysia(x7), Germany, Canada(x5), Chile, United Kingdom(x2), Philippines(x2)
Reversi (reversed a downward ratio with an upward one): USA(x4), Canada(x5), Brazil, Philippines(x2), United Kingdom, Chile
Kicking butt (4.0 ratio or higher): Philippines, USA, Australia, Sweden, Vietnam, Korea, Republic of, Bulgaria, Chile, France, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Malaysia
Player: Philippines, USA, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, Costa Rica, Germany, Brazil, Denmark, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Chile, Vietnam, Korea, Republic of, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Argentina
Top 10er (Jan 2010): United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Chile, Germany, Argentina
Comeback Kid (got knocked off the list, but then returned): Brazil, Chile, France, Germany
Golden (50 or more page views): USA, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom, Chile, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, Philippines

Wow! Your page views have pushed this site to 5,142 for the month, more than 1,000 hits more than the previous record of 4057 in November 2009; thank you all!

Year End Stats for 2009

Thank you to all the readers from all the countries that showed interest for my stories on ffn. For the year 2009 there were 25448 page views and 10688 readers (yielding a ratio of 2.38 pages viewed per reader).

The following countries placed in the top three slots for the year 2009 (highest metal medal (say that three times quickly) earned shown for the country):

• Bronze (3rd place): Brazil


• Silver (2nd place): UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, Israel


• Gold (1st place): USA

It took approximately 150 page views (reading MSR three times) to make the list; it took on average 1500 page views to score the gold.

The following are the countries that viewed 50 or more pages in a month for this year, earning them a Golden trophy (reading MSR once in a month will earn this trophy):

Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, UK, USA

Thank you again to all the countries and to all the readers of my stories. If you wish to see your country here on this list next year, you simply need to read MSR once in one month. To earn a medal for your country, read MSR thrice in one month.

Read MSR! Not only is it good for your soul, but it shows nationalistic pride!

Um ... yeah. Well, anyway, thank you all again.

December 2009 stats

The end result for the month of December 2009 for page views, readership and ratios on ffn are as follows:

• Top 10er (Dec 2009):
  1. USA
  2. UK
  3. Australia
  4. Canada
  5. Romania
  6. Brazil
  7. Philippines
  8. Italy
  9. Germany
  10. Spain
  
  It took 29 page views (or reading ½ MSR) to make the top 10 list this month.


• Holy Crow (double-digit ratio): Romania


• Improved (ratio): USA, UK, Australia, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Philippines


• Up, Up, and Away (improved ratio twice or more): UK(x6), Australia(x4), USA(x3), New Zealand, Brazil, Sweden, Canada(x2), Philippines


• Reversi (reversed a downward ratio direction to an upward one): Australia(x4), UK, Brazil, USA(x2)


• Kicking Butt (4.0 ratio or higher): UK, Tanzania, Romania, Spain, Puerto Rico


• Player (show up on the top 10 list during the month): Australia, USA, UK, Hungary, Germany,Israel, Hong Kong, France, Greece, Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Italy, Tanzania, New Zealand, Romania, Puerto Rico, Philippines
  
  Yes, Australia held the number 1 slot at the beginning of the month.


• Comeback Kid (got knocked off the list, but then made it back on): France, Italy, New Zealand, Germany, Spain


• Golden (50 or more page views): USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Romania, Brazil, Philippines

There were 3497 page views with a total of 1231 readers for this month. Good show everyone and every country! Thank you for your interest in my stories.

November 2009 stats

So, I'm moving all this to a spreadsheet, so I won't be showing the numbers here any more. The end result for the month of November 2009 for page views on ffn are as follows:

• Top 10er (Nov 2009)
  
  1. USA
  2. Australia
  3. UK
  4. Canada
  5. Ireland
  6. Germany
  7. South Korea
  8. Brazil
  9. Singapore
  10. Italy
  
  
• Holy Crow: South Korea (double digit page-view-to-readership ratio)


• Improved: UK, Ireland, Germany (improved ratio)
  Germany rallied at the end of the month to edge South Korea out of the 6th place position


• Reversi: Canada (reversed a downward ratio trend to an upward one)


• Kicking butt: South Korea, Australia, Ireland (4.0 or more page-views to readership ratio)


• Player: USA, Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, South Korea, Germany, Brazil, Singapore, Sweden, Poland, Italy (shows up on the top 10 any time during the month)


• Comeback Kid: Italy (Got knocked off the list, but then returned)

There were a total of 4,057 page views from 1,475 visitors for the month of November, 2009. This was the most-read/most-readers month my stories have seen, so far, nearly doubling the second-place month both in pages viewed and readers.

So, thank you. I thank each and every one of you for reading my stories. Remember to review, too, please.

October 2009 Story Stats

So, fanfiction.net is kind enough to provide authors with statistics on their stories (page views, unique page views, and sources by country). I find it interesting that my readership has an international flavour. Here are the countries of origin of my readership (format: Country, Page Views, Page Viewers -- sorry for the formatting ... a table view messes up the blog layout something fierce):

October 2009 Readership stats for geophf/ffn

USA  1150 372 
UK  248 61 
Brazil  88 19 
Canada  65 33 
Australia  61 24 up 3
Ireland  36 10 
Sweden  33 8 
Mexico  29 22 
Israel  22 14 
Italy  22 19 
Belgium  20 6 
Denmark  19 7 
Germany  16 13 
argentina  14 5 up 3
philippines  11 4 
greece  11 3 
france  9 5 
spain  9 3 
Poland  8 5 up 3
costa rica  8 2 
south africa  7 1 
new zealand  7 4 
Lithuania  4 1 
netherlands  4 4 up 1
Singapore  4 4 
croatia  3 2 up 6
trinidad  3 2 
indonesia  2 1 up 2
india  2 2 up 5
russia  2 1 up 14
romania  2 2 up 1
peru  2 1 up 2
colombia  2 1 up 1
tanzania  2 2 
bahrain  2 1 
vietnam  1 1 
turkey  1 1 up 1
switzerland  1 1 
hungary  1 1 
finland  1 1  up 6
bahamas  1 1  up 6
brunei  1 1 up 3
norway  1 1  up 2
estonia  1 1 up 4
dominican  1 1 
malaysai  1 1 

totals: 1938 675 

The "up x" column is a little self-study I did over the last few days of the month. Apparently, the Russian became interested in my story.

The moral of this story is this: do you wish your country to go up in the rating? Read more pages of MSR or another story on my ffn profile, that's how fewer Brazilians managed to edge out the more numerous readers from Canada and Australia (who also made an end of the month come-back) to claim one of the top three spots on the readership list. You could put your country there.

I wonder if I would have more (or any, for that matter) Korean readers if they knew MSR's Book III companion piece was entitled Rhee (이): Lady Didyme's Handmaid.

Thank you to all the readers from all the countries that found something in my stories interesting enough to stop to read them.