Every so often I get an email that says, “Someone is now following, Laura Best, author.”

Sounds a bit creepy, right? Someone is following you..

I mean, should I be checking over my shoulder? You know, just in case some weird little guy with big eyes, stringy hair, and bad oral health is after me?

Na, afraid not,there’s nothing sinister or vile about these emails. In fact, it’s all good. WordPress so kindly lets their bloggers know who out there in blogland is following their blog. But what if the person following your blog isn’t a blogger themselves or a wordpress blogger for that matter? Since WordPress doesn’t know you, the email sent simply states— “someone.” So take heart, if you’re not a wordpress blogger you’re still someone. If you’re someone following my blog, then I happen to think you’re an extra special someone. So take a bow or maybe even do a little dance to celebrate your specialness.

I’ve got to give credit to all my non-blogging friends who drop in to read my posts. You’re all pretty special and I appreciate your visits. Although I don’t publish every post I write to Facebook, I can pretty much count on the fact that if I do, many of you come on by to read what I’ve got to say. Just so ya know this writer/blogger appreciates those visits.

I’m always astounded when my non-blogging buddies get up the courage to leave a comment, especially that first time. I try and put myself in your place, wondering if I would be so brave. Of course to do so, I’d have to get in my time machine, and go back in time before I ever had a blog of my own, back when a blog was this mysterious and scary thing that I would never dream of commenting on.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like such a big deal to all the bloggers out there, but I know it takes courage to post a comment, at least for the first time. It can be just as scary as hitting “publish” on your very first blog post.

Quite a few of my non-blogging friends have subscribed to my blog, which simply means they receive an email every time I update. Since I added that little feature to the sidebar of my blog a decent number of you have signed up, and I just want to say thanks. I really do appreciate the support. I sometimes think that those of us in the blogging community forget about all the non-bloggers out there who stop by our blogs. Don’t worry, we all appreciate the support we receive. To us you’re all “someone,” regardless of those creepy little emails informing us that we’re being followed.

* Oh, and by the way, that creepy little picture of Gollum was sketched by my son, Matt, back when he was in high school. I wanted to add a caption below the picture but wordpress kept saying no. Anyway, I think it was the first sketch he ever drew. Pretty darn good I’d say. Wouldn’t you?