A to Z Reflection (and poison PS)

Another A to Z done and dusted. Now it’s time to look back and reflect. I always like to look at the statistics (I am a scientist after all), so please bear with me while I rattle off a few numbers. If you’d rather skip that, I have a fabulous PS to add to my poisons series below the A to Z winner badge.

I did a lot of research for this year’s A to Z with the intention of having my posts written before April started… unfortunately I didn’t manage that so it was a bit of a stretch getting through this month. That meant, to claim the time I needed to finish writing the posts, I didn’t spend as much time visiting other blogs (I got to about 55).

My little corner of cyberspace had 1,752 visitors (the most I’ve had during an A to Z to date). Each visitor, on average, viewed 5 pages on my website.

There were about 270 comments left by those visitors, with C (cyanide) attracting the most comments. However, the most popular letter in terms of visitors was T (thallium), followed by S (strychnine) and C (cyanide).

Most visitors were from the USA, then Aussies and Canadians.

There were some letters that were a little tricky because I had a limited pool from which to select, so I cheated with letters U, X, Y and Z falling within the word, rather than at the start.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during A to Z April. I’ve enjoyed hearing from you and I hope you learnt more than you ever wanted to about poison. And on that note, for one last peek into the world of poisons, keep reading ๐Ÿ™‚

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Conveniently, DP Lyle gave a virtual talk to the Mystery Writers of America Rocky Mountain Chapter in March. If you haven’t heard of Doug, I’ve included his bio, but rest assured he knows what he is talking about. This is a workshop, so goes for about 90 mins, but well worth the listen if you are interested in poisons (he gets into a lot of detail).

DP Lyle, MD is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning; and Edgar (2), Shamus, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, USA Today Best Book Award (2), and Foreward INDIES Book of the Year nominated author of 20 books, both non-fiction and fiction. He has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Womenโ€™s Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars.

Hosted by the Mystery Writers of America Rocky Mountain Chapter (11 March 2021)

24 comments on “A to Z Reflection (and poison PS)

  1. Thanks for hosting & being so active out there! I appreciate every one of your comments even if I don’t reply to them all. A rather daunting task! Hope to see you next year in the challenge!

    Pulp Paper & Pigment-My Fiber Art Blog

  2. Giggling Fattie

    May 3, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    Well done, friend!! I loved your theme this year! As always I learned a lot. I should probably get around to writing my own reflection haha but it will have to wait until after work maybe!

  3. Congrats on completing the challenge! It was a great theme, might come in handy later (strictly in fiction of course!)

  4. I did stopped a few times by but I didn’t know what to say. I thought you had a really good theme which can be useful for writers but what does one say about poisons?

    Congrats on finishing the challenge.

    Have a lovely day.

    • Haha, yes, better no comment than, “Fascinating, i’m taking notes for the future (I’m not an author)”, lol.

  5. Congratulations for making it through, Anita. Woot!

  6. I learned a lot for sure, your posts were very documented. I don’t mean to use all this knowledge though ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ˜„. Great stats ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

    • Thanks, Frederique. Likewise I learnt a lot from yours. The difference is I will use some of the knowledge from your posts!

  7. It’s the commenting that’s the hardest part of doing A to Z. Congrats on making it to the end.

    • Thanks, Liz. I think the commenting is the hardest. I would have liked to have visited more blogs, but at least I got more than 50 (which was the minimum benchmark I’d set myself).

  8. Thanks for putting in the effort for us to comment on.

  9. Interesting video on poison as a murder weapon. May find it useful for a future mystery novel or short story. Thanks for including it here today. I only made it to #155 on the sign-up list and am only coming across your site today. Will be checking back to learn about all the poisons. Congratulations on completing the Challenge.

    • Thanks, Gail. Making it to #155 is a HUGE achievement (you shouldn’t pre-fix it with “only”!).

  10. I quite enjoyed your series, although I’m not sure that’s exactly the right thing one should say about poisons. I promise I’m not a poisoner, but I DID often consider when reading your posts whether the poison being discussed would fit into my poison ring. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Oooh, you have a poison ring? They are such fascinating pieces of jewellery. Is yours antique?

  11. What an intriguing theme! And for the third time today, I’ve come across a blog I wish I’d seen sooner. No matter. I’ll be back!

  12. So much work on a subject that hopefully none of us will either use or have used on us! Fascinating – well done on completing the Challenge!

    • Thanks, Andrew. I hope my info on poison is only ever used to kill fictional characters for sure!

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