And the winner is ...

ME!

No, not for the grand prize game. You'll have to read down to the end of this post for that info. But I gotta say I've gotten far more out of this blog that I ever counted on. I have met many wonderful people via our cyber connection, discovered several really good books and talented authors, and made some valuable contacts. I'm truly thankful for all of you who take time out of your day to read my crazy thoughts. And yes this whole contest has been a shameful bribe to try and lure some of the lurkers out of hiding. In just a hair over four months this blog has received over 40,000 hits. It seems to grow every week and an average day any more is in the neighborhood of 6oo hits from three or four hundred different IPs a day. I Only ten to fifteen percent of y'all comment and I was curious about the remainder of readers. The contest did help by the way, I used to only get four or five percent to comment.

During the contest I heard form 57 different people. Only 13 of which have I ever met in person. So that means I have 44 brand new friends that I never would have known without this blog.

Here were the top 5 contributors between July 10th and now. I disqualified my lovely wife from both the competition and the top since I didn't want any cries of nepotism. Besides she's already won the grand prize ... ME. Hey, why are all of y'all laughing?

1) Bluefingers - 21 comments

2) AlternateFish- 14 comments

3) Alex Keto- 13 comments

4) Tena - 12 comments

5) The Duck - 11 comments

Only, Bluefingers and Alex have I met in person. And the three of us only met in February at a writers workshop out in Arizona.

Thanks to all of you and as I get time I'm trying to add more of you to my blogroll. If you have given me a link on your site or blog and I haven't returned the favor, please let me know. Now for the winner ....

Oh, the suspense. I thought I'd explain how the winner was chosen first. I wrote down all the names of those who commented. Then I went back to the post where I announced the contest and started writing a number beside each name. Then I walked up to an unsuspecting coworker this morning and said Give me a number between 1 & 198 and she said, 48 which just happens to be Brooke.

Congrats, Brooke if you will drop me an email at travis @ traviserwin.com (no spaces) so I can figure out how to send you your fabulous prize package, which among other surprises will hold autographed copies of Potter Springs by Britta Coleman and Seven by Seven by Deborah Elliott-Upton.

Both of these authors are extremely talented and I'm lucky to call them friends. For those of you who didn't happen to win. Treat yourself by clicking on the links and ordering a copy of both. By the way Brooke offered up nine comments during this time period which tied her for the seventh most.

So thanks again to all and don't let the end of the contest be the end of your commenting. If I can figure out how to do it, I'm going to deliver an upcoming Feedstore Chronicle orally via a YouTube video. I think it will be fun to try. Here's hoping I find a way to keep this blog interesting, fun, and entertaining for the next one-hundred posts.