Outlandish Observations is 6 years old!

Six years ago today, I started Outlandish Observations!

I had two goals in mind when I started this blog. The first was simply to learn about blogging. The second was to create a central repository for news and information for OUTLANDER fans, a place where people could go to find answers to commonly asked questions, links to other OUTLANDER-related sites, and the latest information on Diana Gabaldon's new and upcoming releases.

To say that this blog has succeeded far beyond my wildest imaginings is a severe understatement! In the beginning, I never expected anyone to visit my site except a few dozen of my friends from the Compuserve Books and Writers Community and LOL. I didn't talk about it on Compuserve for the first couple of years, because I was very reluctant to draw attention to it where Diana Gabaldon could see -- which seems silly in retrospect, but it's true. Suffice it to say that I did get over that shyness, eventually. <g>

I was delighted to see Outlandish Observations, and my Friday Fun Facts, mentioned in the Acknowledgements to WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD:



The FFF have been on hiatus for a few months -- I've just been much too busy! -- but I do intend eventually to put together some all-new FFF posts focusing on WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD. (Maybe later this fall, after the craziness surrounding the TV series subsides a bit.)

Since the premiere of the OUTLANDER TV series, daily traffic on my site has gone way, way up! I've had three times more visitors this month than a year ago, as you can see from the chart below. (The blue represents unique visits, and the green is page views.)



Special thanks to all of my followers on the Outlandish Observations Facebook page! Last year at this time I had 4,195 followers on Facebook. Today that number is 5,455, an increase of 30%! I'm amazed and delighted that so many new people have found my site in recent months. Welcome, and I hope you take some time to look around and see what else is available here.

Outlandish Observations was one of the first successful OUTLANDER-related blogs. These days there are dozens and dozens of fan-sites, Facebook groups, and so on. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned! <g> I'm proud to be a part of such a thriving, creative, and enthusiastic worldwide community of fans, united in our passion for these books and characters and this amazing story Diana Gabaldon has created.

No question about it, this is a very exciting time for OUTLANDER fans everywhere! It's quite a challenge to keep up with everything that's going on these days, and I hope you're finding this site helpful.

Many, many thanks to all of you who've visited Outlandish Observations over the past six years. It's been an amazing journey, and I'm so glad you've come along for the ride.

THANK YOU ALL!!