The start of a new year is like a fresh snowstorm, the world a momentary blank slate waiting to see who will leave their footprints on it.

I’ve got big plans for 2022; and if I’ve learned anything over the past two years, it’s that 2022 has got plans for me that I know nothing about yet.

Before we charge forth, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this site’s most viewed posts over the past year.

Top 3 Most Viewed Posts Written in 2021

1. The First Divine Feud: Bette and Miriam
2. The Posse Turns 40
3. Hedy Lamarr: Cursed by Beauty

My Favorite 3 Posts Written in 2021 (in addition to the above)

1. The Heiress (1949): Ascending to New Heights
2. Sunrise (1927): Hollywood Rowboat Murders Go Way Back
3. Notorious (1946): Hollywood’s Longest, Sexiest Kiss

Thank you all for making 2021 a record year for this blog in terms of visitors and views. Wishing you health and happiness and a trail of footprints in 2022.

Exactly five years ago today, I hung my shingle out on the internet.  Over the past five years, I’ve blogged with varying amounts of regularity, shooting for at least a post a week.

When I started, I wasn’t sure how long the blog would last, but I had an idea that I would take to it.  For while it’s been five years of blogging, I’ve spent most of my life putting words on paper. 

The earliest notebook in the photograph above is a diary I started on Christmas Day, 1990, at nine years old.  I’m a sporadic diary keeper at best, and most of the paper in the stack are novels and short stories.  The diaries are mainly commonplace books where I collect quotes and ideas.  This blog has become the record of my daily life.

Over the past five years, I’ve written 160,000 words across over 700 posts.

To take a quick trip down memory lane, here are links to some of the highest viewed posts in the blog’s history.

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2016 – Movie Night At the Cheswick

Eulogy for movies nights at our local cinema.

2016 – Dear Michael Phelps

Growing up with the king of the pool.

2017 – Epic Quests for Rings

Lacey Chabert is the Tom Brady of Hallmark movies, which aren’t that different from watching a football game.  A personal favorite, and an opinion I still stand by.

2017 – The Girls in the Stacks

Who says nothing exciting ever happens in libraries?

2018 – Whole 30 Fail

I try the Whole 30 diet so you don’t have to.

2019 – Night At The Airport

How I nearly ended up on a terrorist watch list.

2020 – Stella Dallas: Barbara’s Four-Hanky Smash

Barbara Stanwyck’s Oscar that got away.

2021 – The First Divine Feud: Bette and Miriam

If you thought Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were rivals, you should’ve seen Bette and Miriam Hopkins. They did all but pull one another’s hair onset. Actually, they probably did that too.

And the most viewed post in the five-year history of this blog?

2020 – Double Indemnity: The Crown Jewel of Film Noir

Even in a bad wig, never bet against Barbara Stanwyck.

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Time is the most precious thing we have. I appreciate you giving me some of yours. Hidden diaries have their uses, but writers need readers to complete the circle of creative life.

Thanks for being here.  See you Sunday.

Blinker is here to tell you that moving forward, the weekly blog post will move from Sunday mornings to Friday mornings.  We hope it’ll kick your weekend off with a bang!

We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning!

 

Today, Melanie and the other 2016 Golden Heart Nominees in the Romantic Suspense category are featured on the “Kiss and Thrill” blog.  Melanie talks about the inspiration for “Ruby Red.”  You can find the conversation with Melanie and her fellow nominees here.

For more information on the Golden Heart, click here.