You're My Number ?

Evidently PBW was just named as one of the top 45 author blogs on the internet. I know this because my e-mail screener found the notification in my SPAM folder. Anything that comes with a badge for me to post on my site makes me very leery, as online award badges are sometimes used as a subversive way to build traffic, so I'll just say thank you to the nice man for noticing me.

A few years back I ranked among the top 100 female bloggers on the internet (I'm linking to this one because the guy never e-mailed or badged me; a reader told me about it.) A couple years before that I was in the top 10 genre author blogs on another list picked by [censored], who by doing so created more headaches for me than I want to recall, so I'm going to skip the name and the link on that one as well.

I'm not letting this latest accolade go to my head. With all the writers who have given up actively blogging to twit or facebook, there may only be 45 authors left who do what I do. But it did get me thinking about the blogs and web sites by authors who are not close friends (thus eliminating any pesky conflict of interest while writing this post) that I regularly visit. I seriously adore the market listings at Ralan.com (which is the only site I donate to annually because it is so useful), but I also love the writing-related discussions at Southern Fried Chicas (one of whom is a good friend, I should confess.) I nick more links and videos from The Presurfer than any other place on the internet.

Then there are personalities that attract me. Janet Reid's blog often has very useful info on it, but I read it mostly because she's a little scary, in the very best Last Samurai Agent sense of the word. I occasionally read Carolyn Jewel's blog not only for the unusual topics but because she's interesting and enigmatic. And Kris Reisz always has something obscure and/or fascinating to discuss.

The thing about all top lists that bothers me most is who and what they miss. It's impossible for me to read all the blogs out there in NetPubland, so I can guarantee you that any top ten list of mine will miss writers who have wonderful blogs with tons of useful information. Which is why I'll never officially compile one.

You writers out there, I do want to know if you regularly visit any blogs or sites hosted by another writer that have been helpful to you. If you're inclined to share, let us know about them in comments, and post a link if you have one.