Another milestone

One million visitors. . .

Shit man, that's like a LOT of people. More than I ever thought possible, to tell the truth. More than I probably deserve. But for some reason, more SFF fans stop by the Hotlist than any other fantasy and science fiction book-reviewing blog out there.

A million visitors is a hell of a lot of people, to be sure. Yet numbers are just numbers. Of course, Neil Gaiman gets that many hits on any given week. Then again, my friend John gets more hits than Gaiman and Scalzy combined and most of you have never heard of him. So what the heck, right?

I'd be remiss if I didn't use this opportunity to thank you all for hanging around these parts the way you do. One can only hope that you have discovered new authors and new books along the way. That's what I'm here for, after all. I've never taken myself too seriously, yet it's undeniably nice to have such a vast audience.

I must also thank the four authors who gave me a chance at the very beginning, and whose interviews helped me get noticed. So thank you to David B. Coe, Tad Williams, L. E. Modesitt, jr., and Robin Hobb for accepting to do a Q&A with me way back when.

Many thanks to all the editors, publicists, marketing folks, and agents on both sides of the Atlantic who helped me make this as fun and interesting as I possibly could. They are too numerous to name in this post, but they're the ones responsible for most of what's going on around here. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist wouldn't be half as good without them.

Many thanks to my fellow bloggers (Jay, Rob, Larry, William, Ken, Adam, Robert, Aidan, Chris, Graeme, and many, many others) and the denizens of various SFF message boards like asoiaf.westeros.org, sffworld.com, wotmania.com, malazanempire.com, and all my other usual hang out spots for being such a lively online community. We seldom all agree on things, but it wouldn't be fun otherwise.

Thanks to the kudos from people such as George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie. Though I've never considered myself a particularly good reviewer, it's always nice to receive compliments and realize that you are appreciated.

Most of all, thanks to all the SFF authors, past, present, and future. In genres supposedly filled with 90% crap, these men and women have filled my head with wonders for more than two decades. And for that I'll be eternally grateful.

Finally, let me close the show by quoting Glen Cook: "Stop taking it so damned seriously." At the end of the day, being part of the SFF online community is supposed to be fun. In this house at least. . .

All the best,

Patrick St-Denis

P. S. One million visitors! Fuck me. . .