CELEBRATE ONE THOUSAND POSTS AND I'M ON WIKIPEDIA

As promised, I'm presenting my top ten most popular posts as part of my one thousandth post celebration. This post was first published on March 5, 2013. Four hundred fifty people viewed "HOW I GOT TO BE SO FAMOUS THAT I'M ON WIKIPEDIA". 

Here's #9 on my top ten hits list:


Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Once upon a time, I was a lonely dumped first wife and a lonely blogger. I had a few followers, and then for the longest time, I had 13 followers.

I cried out, How come I have only 13 followers?

And my friends came to the rescue. Legal Mist (who no longer blogs as often as I want her to) gave me advice, and Cinderita (who no longer blogs as often as I want her to) promoted me on her blog. One by one, you came to visit me, and we became friends.

Now I have 159 followers. One of them is the famous author and publisher EC Stilson, who blogs at The Crazy Life Of A Writing Mom. I was intrigued by her because of her great writing and because I noticed that her friends called her Elisa in their comments.

Elisa! That was my Norwegian grandmother's name. I had never met anyone else named Elisa.

Gradually, my new Elisa and I got to know each other better and better, and when Elisa started Wayman Publishing, she let me come along on the roller coaster ride. She knew I used to be a newspaper reporter and editor, so she asked me to edit some of Wayman's books.

I edited Homeless In Hawaii by EC Stilson, True Nonsense by Melynda Fleury (another great friend), and the soon-to-be released The Blogger's Survival Guide: Tips and Tricks for Parent Bloggers, Wordsmiths and Enthusiasts by Lexie Lane and Becky McNeer.

As I edited books, Elisa and I started talking on our cell phones, sometimes several times per week. We realized that she is exactly the right age to be my middle child.

When my no longer a wedding anniversary rolled around last summer, I was sad, but Elisa suggested that we make that day a new anniversary: It morphed into the happy anniversary of the day she became my Middle Child and I became her Mother From Another Planet.

Now, Elisa is so spectacular that Wikipedia has an entry about her at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Hirsch. And she's put me on the carousel with her.

Here's the relevant paragraph: In 2011 Morris was fortunate to meet Dee Ready,^[4] a well-known editor and bestselling author previously published through Crown, Janie Goltz,^[5] a former newspaper reporter and editor, Joshua Carstens,^[6] who’d just graduated with an MA in professional writing, Lexie Lane, a well-known mompreneur, and Fran Fischer, a retired legal editor. It was from the support of these key people that Morris found the strength and knowledge to found Wayman Publishing^[7].

The footnote leads to my LinkedIn Profile. 

I can't believe I'm on Wikipedia!

I may not be the most successful person in my family, but I think I'm the first to make it to Wikipedia; and it's all because Elisa is so generous and loving. 

But perhaps the most interesting part of this story is that Elisa and I have yet to meet face-to-face. In fact, I've only met one other blogger in person. So many of you out there are so extremely important in my life, and sometimes I'm afraid I'll never get to see your faces and tell you in person how much you mean to me. 

So I have to do the best I can right here, saying I LOVE YOU ALL!

One thing kind of irritates me, though. The Hurricane met Elisa. The Hurricane attended a math conference at a university in Salt Lake City. Elisa was right up the street, holding a book signing. My two girls got to go out to lunch together.

Ever since then, The Hurricane has told me over and over and over, Elisa is so sweet; Elisa is so pretty; Elisa is so nice. 

I'm so jealous that if The Hurricane weren't super strong from rowing crew, I would probably put duct tape over her mouth.

Sisters By Choice

Elisa, thank you for inviting me to join you on this journey. 

I swear: We will meet, and I will hug you and all your adorable children.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug, who is on Wikipedia, thanks to Elisa

Update: Middle Child and I met in person a few months ago. I spent a few days staying with her and her adorable children. She's had a great deal of turmoil in her life since then and is no longer blogging regularly. I miss you, Middle Child!