Giving Thanks ~ To You: Reaching 500

The images for 500 online mostly fall into two categories: cars and cash currency. The one exception is the lyrics for the folk song "500 Miles." However, my quest for a fine 500 is for you, my 500 subscribers. Thank you so much. I was a latecomer to blogs and began The Alchemist's Kitchen exactly four years ago just as everyone else was moving to something called Twitter.

Thank you to those of you who leave comments --- I love hearing your ideas and suggestions. Or just plain hearing from you. Thank you to those who wrote in to help me choose cover art for Cloud Pharmacy (which will be published in February) and thank you to those who participated in the 2013 Poetry Giveaway -- over 77 poets participated in all. Wow. And the poetry lovers came from almost every corner of the globe: Italy, South Africa, New Zealand and the Philippines are some of the countries I remember.

Thank you for following me to teach ekphrastic poetry at Anam Cara in Ireland and for providing much needed support when I went through my cat Otis's final weeks care taking for him nearly round the clock.

Then there are the wonderful books sent for review, the readers who came out to meet me on book tour in Boston, Miami, and San Diego.  It's easy to believe I'm writing into the dark, the click of the keys my only certain company. However, with 500 followers that can't really be true.

So please; keep leaving comments, sending emails, asking about book reviews, and anything else that comes to mind. I'm here into the indefinite future. And yes, I very much hope that you are, too!