A Guilty 1000: Go Me?

On March 2012, I moved from my former blogging home to WordPress. Immediately my amount of views went up exponentially as did my followers. After a year and three months I had 500 followers and it seemed to take ages for me to attract folks to read my stuff. I posted a self-congratulatory type of “Go me” write up and now, a short 11 months later I’ve hit a very guilty 1000 follows.

They are guilty because since April 2013, I’ve been refocussed on not just what I have to say about life, my experiences, or my thoughts about how we should be treating one another. In April, I joined a brilliant man named DiMarkco Chandler who had/has a dream. He wants to be the biggest, or one of the biggest, news sites on the Internet in the world. The Guardian Liberty Voice (GLV) has been my home for writing since that time last year, it has also become my real life home and introduced me to some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.

I’ve now written stories/articles that have been read by more than a million people on one story alone and a couple of million or more for the rest. The man who brought me into this dream job is a friend, confident and brother. His dream is for writers to be paid for their writing. Unlike many other sites, like for instance Huff Post, who do not pay writers for their sweat, GLV does and has become another path in my life and I excitedly look forward to each day doing what I love best – “And getting paid to do it,” He cackled wildly…

In the short time I’ve been blogging, I almost died…twice, I lost my job to ill health retirement, I went to South Africa, I lost my house and I’ve moved back to the country of my birth after being gone for over 31 years. I starred in an Independent Short Film Once Bitten, Twice Shy – thanks Tasha met some other wonderful people whom I’ve not spoken to nearly as much as I’ve wanted to, you know what I mean Marilyn? I love all you folks I’ve met and interacted with since joining WordPress.

I’ve also interviewed some wildly talented people and one world famous forensic scientist who is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Kennedy assassinations. I will shortly meet a writer whose daughter’s murder prompted her to write two books about a mother’s search to find her offspring’s killer. My cup truly “runneth over.”

One sad side affect from my new job is that I very rarely post anything on my personal blog. Twice in the last couple of months I’ve posted articles about films. One a documentary and another short independent “autobiographical” short film starring Tony Todd, both of which I’ve supported and are on the road to being produced. I will continue to write when I can on this small slice of Mike. But I do feel guilty at reaching a milestone that, in my mind at least, would probably never be reached. Especially after making the decision to use my blog to link to my GLV work.

I would like to thank all you good folks who have taken the time over the last two years to drop by, read, comment and follow my little blog. I sit here humbled at the attention I’ve received over the years and I’d like to take this moment to say to another film blogger, I finally got to watch the film you raved on and on about and you’re right matey, it is beyond brilliant. Thanks for the heads up, I only had to wait ages to see it on American Neflix.

I will stay on this blogging platform and hopefully will see you all in another 1,000 follows moment. If you’d like to connect with me on Twitter my handle is @MikesFilmTalk, no surprise there, and I’ll wish you all a happy, happy and as good old Roy Rogers used to say, “May your troubles all be small ones.”

Author: Michael Knox-Smith

Former Actor, Former Writer, Former Journalist, USAF Veteran, Former Member Nevada Film Critics Society (As Michael Smith) View all posts by Michael Knox-Smith