by Yesterday, around this time, I received the following email from WordPress.com editrix Michelle Weber:
Hiya David,
Dust off the welcome mat and get ready to welcome some new readers — we’ve picked your post (http://bolesblogs.com/2013/06/04/do-you-remember-kaposis-sarcoma/ ) to feature on Freshly Pressed on WordPress.com!
This must have been a tough post to write, but it’s an important one — thank you. We thought it was a great read and think the rest of the community will agree — we’re really looking forward to the discussion that comes out of it, and are glad we can give it (and you) some more exposure. The wide variety of high-quality content on your site deserves a bigger audience!
Keep up the great blogging! Follow @freshly_pressed on Twitter to be inspired by other great bloggers — we also tweet each new Freshly Pressed post, so it’s the easiest way to know exactly when to start bragging. (I’ve tagged @BolesBlogs in the tweet, so you should get a mention notification as soon as it launches.)
Thanks for being such an awesome part of the WordPress.com community. We couldn’t do it without you!
Cheers,
Michelle
24 hours later, we were live on Freshly Pressed —
— and officially flying on Twitter!
Wowser!
It’s a tremendous thrill and honor to be picked to be on Freshly Pressed for a second time — yes, I know some WordPress.com blogs have more — but after our Boles Blues Black Cat Bone article was featured, my new piece on Kaposi’s Sarcoma means so much more because we were able to repeat the hard-won peer review win in the rising din of thousands of new blogs going online every day.
If you’re new to this Boles Blog — and you’re here because of the Freshly Pressed Effect — we thank you for your generosity and visit. We hope you’ll hang around and pipe up and be involved with us in the future.
We’re always looking for great discussion from good minds.
We thank you for standing with us.
Well done, David — what a tremendous honor. If any article of recent publication deserved it, your fantastic Kaposi’s Sarcoma article was it. Glad you got the recognition you deserve.
Thanks!
Big congrats on the second win! The Kaposi’s Sarcoma article was a great article. Hard to read. Brought back a lot of memories of loss.
Thank you, my love! It was an unexpected, but fully appreciated, win. I know you lost a really good friend to this horror right after we moved to NYC. It was early in the outbreak and we were all just starting to comprehend the horror that would soon astound us by killing all our friends.
I’m happy to read this, David. Your win is well-deserved. I’m glad the editors at WordPress are taking notice. Congratulations!
It’s good to hear from you again, Anne! We have missed you. Thanks for the kind words. It is a real treat to have your words recognized in the world beyond the original howling. SMILE!
Well, I am not at all surprised. Congrats to you. I’m happy WordPress took notice of your article. For me, Do You Remember Kaposi’s Sarcoma was a sad trip to a dark and scary time in recent history.
Thanks for the good words! It’s always great when you comment.
I agree it was scary. There are many of us who are living witnesses to the horror, yet we don’t talk about it much. I think a lot of us have sort of repressed it all for the sake of risking thinking again about how inhuman the whole epidemic was in society. Sometimes it helps to remember even though it often means getting outraged and sad.
If any of your articles deserved this, it was definitely that one! It was informative and emotional all at once. Congratulations and let’s hope it brings in even more readers!
Thanks, Emily! Freshly Pressed is one of the great things about blogging on WordPress.com. Getting featured can really build up blog readership in wonderful ways.
Definitely. The website is just so big that it’s almost a relief to have a few key pieces recommended up front!
I’m with you all the way on that, Emily!
Many well deserved congratulations my friend
Thanks! It was a surprise win! I think I’ll write a follow up today.