July twenty-second marks my first anniversary at Red Room. I didn’t know what to expect when I joined because I read about Red Room in Oprah. I was leery and insecure, had this nebulous idea of an online support group where English professors with imaginary red pens pointed out my spell check snafus.

I was nervous about the Dashboard on my homepage tracking my personal stats. Would anybody besides family read my work? (All these insecurities—at least I acted like a writer.) This first year my blogs, articles, poetry, reviews and published work were viewed over fifteen thousand times. I realize it's a drop in the bucket for many writers but my goal was ten thousand. I’m thrilled, thanks to my readers.
    
I received professional support from Red Room Staffers Huntington Sharp, Gina Misiroglu and Jennifer Gibbons. They helped renew my interest in writing and contributed to this year’s successes.  My Red Room neighbors offered consistent encouragement. Thanks to all of you for your endearing support and taking time from your writing to read and comment on mine. What I received in Red Room was a far cry—a Julie Andrews sweet, yodel-ay-hee-hoo—from what I imagined.
   
Some of my readers are Facebook and family friends. I appreciate your loyalty. Most of you I don’t know. I wish I did so I could thank you personally. I understand anonymity is the way of the internet...just know I’m grateful.
 
And forgive me for being an irregular blogger. I'm only a year old.