Until Friday, I promise!

In return, let’s revisit posts from past Octobers:

Hallowe’en in the Gilded Age
Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free: Ellis Island
Daily Life in the British Parliament, Part One
Interview with Philipp Blom, author of The Vertigo Years
Manors and Mansions: Georgian Court
Fascinating Women: Meta Warrick Fuller

First and foremost, I’d like to thank each and every one of my readers, particularly those who’ve left comments, fostered discussion, and dropped me emails throughout the year. It goes a long, long way to making me feel I’m not writing blog posts in a vacuum! I’d also like to give a special thanks to Melody of Redeeming Qualities for her amazing reviews, to Ay-leen the Peacemaker of Beyond Victoriana for inviting me to contribute to her stellar steampunk community, to Shire Publications for contributing the many, many titles which have helped to make Edwardian Promenade even more accurate, and to PBS for bringing Downton Abbey (among other programs) to the United States–and for inviting me to co-host a live Twitter chat (keep your eyes peeled on the #DowntonPBS hashtag Jan 9th)!

And now, a look back on 2010:

Month with the busiest traffic: October, with 16,603 visitors, and an average of 536 visits per day
Day with the busiest traffic: October 10th, with 1,261 visitors

Top 10 posts:

1. Women of Meiji Japan & Western Fashion
2. Setting the Table
3. An Aristocratic Ménage: Consuelo, Sunny and Gladys
4. Dressing the Edwardian Man
5. The Court Presentation
6. The New Woman, 1880-1915
7. 100 Years: Alpha Kappa Alpha
8. A life of contrast: Daisy, Countess of Warwick
9. How I Take Care Of My Hair

My Favorite Posts to Write:

• The People’s Budget
• The Bridge Mania
• The Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels
• Nancy Astor
• The Washington Bee
• Smoking Etiquette
• The Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes

Interviews

• Sherry Thomas
• Zoë Archer
• Laura Lee Guhrke

Cheers to 2011!

It’s back, and to use a cliché, better than ever. Click the link to download the latest issue of GILDED (with bookmarks for easier perusal)!! Please feel free to leave feedback either here or through my email address.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Cult of the Chafing Dish
The Trials and Tribulations of a Debutante
Excerpt from Octave Uzanne’s “The End of Books”
The Feline Cuisine
The Orient Express
A Truly Transatlantic Society
Behind the Wheel: The Magic and Manners of Early Motoring
Fiction: Somewhere in France by Richard Harding Davis
Answers to last issue’s Giveaway

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The next issue of GILDED is to be released September 28th. Mark your calendars!

I’ve redrawn the name for the winner of Zoe Archer’s Warrior, since the original winner did not claim their prize, and via Random.org, the next winner is: Barbara Elness!

As some of my readers know, I write historical romance. Edwardian Promenade was begun as a place for me to “dump” all of my research and has spun off into a delightful website and community. However, posting regularly is a big time suck, and after spending countless weeks writing, re-writing, editing, and designing GILDED, I realized how much work I actually took on with creating this site and launching a magazine. Couple this with agonizing over the content for both upcoming blog posts and upcoming issues of the magazine, and I’m spent. Plus, I’ve devoted so much of my time to this site and its wonderful readers, I neglected actually doing the writing which inspired my love for the Edwardian era (ironic, isn’t it?).

So here’s the game plan:

1) The “Fascinating Women” posts will remain on a bi-weekly basis.
2) There will be a monthly post on great public domain books I’ve discovered on Google Books.
3) I’m hoping to rope in Melody of Redeeming Qualities for book reviews. ;D
4) More etiquette and food posts.
5) Spotlight on websites, interesting photographs, links, and films I come across.
6) General unexpectedness.

What do you think?