Come out, come out, wherever you are...

I know you're out there. You give yourselves away. You see, every month or so I stop blogging for a few days. Then, I wait. It doesn't take long before the emails begin to arrive. The "Where have you been?" emails. You know the ones. You write them.

Why do I do it? The no-blog days? Because sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself here. Admittedly, talking to myself is something I'm...well, familiar with. Let's just leave it at that and move on, though, since my holding conversations with myself (outside of this blog, I mean) is not the topic we're discussing right now. No, the topic is you, and your reading this blog (for which I'm eternally grateful!) but not commenting. That's right, I know you're reading because my random no-blog days clue me right in to that fact. If you weren't reading, you wouldn't know I'm not blogging. See?

Tricky, aren't I?

Anyhow, the point of this random blog-reading experiment has been to see how many of you are actually reading. Quite a few, it turns out, which is something I find amazing but that, too, is the topic for another post.

Now that I know you're out there, I want to encourage you to interact with the rest of us. It's painless, I promise. Simply leave a comment. That's it. Just speak to us, partly so I know I'm not here talking to myself but mostly so others can hear your thoughts. I know you've got great things to say and I'd love it if you began to comment here.

Oh, and for those of you who comment regularly, I send huge cyberhugs. Thank you so much! It's rewarding to hear your thoughts, and I've met quite a few interesting people just through reader/writer interaction. Now, the rest of you need to speak up. I know you're there...you know I'm here...what are you waiting for?

A new year is nearly upon us. January 1st I've got a contest beginning right here on my blog. You'll have a daily chance to enter this contest. How? I'll tell you on Tuesday. But it will be a painless process, I promise. :)