Six Education

Today The Rap Sheet turns six years old. That’s right, I embarked on this blogging adventure way back in May 2006, spinning The Rap Sheet off from January Magazine. At the time, I envisioned perhaps writing a post once or twice a week--just enough to establish The Rap Sheet’s presence and usefulness without letting the effort overtake everything else I had to do. Well, as anyone who reads this page on a regular basis knows, my blogging mates and I have been producing many more than one post every seven days. In fact, last Friday we clocked in our 5,000th post. That means ... 833 posts every 12 months, or an average of 16 posts per week (though the frequency has picked up some over the last couple of years).

There’s no way I could have accomplished all of this by myself. The Rap Sheet boasts a star cast of contributors (you will find their names under “The Usual Suspects” in the right-hand column). Although some of those people write more than others, I am indebted to all of them for helping to build this blog’s backlog and reputation.

Even after half a dozen years at this task, there continue to be many things I wish to accomplish with The Rap Sheet. I haven’t yet finished compiling my rundown of the 25 best crime drama openers, for instance. My 40th anniversary tribute to The NBC Mystery Movie continues to roll out--if ever so slowly (sorry about that, folks). And there are dozens more copycat book covers yet to be ridiculed ... er, examined. Beyond all of that, I hope to put together a couple of episode-by-episode recaps of older TV crime and mystery shows, revive The Rap Sheet’s “Books You Have to Read” series, add to our already rich inventory of author interviews, and give away lots more new books. The fact that I still haven’t tired of this blog speaks not only to my own editorial energies, but also to the encouragement so many readers and novelists have given me ever since ’06.

So on this sixth anniversary--which happens, as well, to be Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday (he’d have turned 153 today)--let me thank everyone who has noticed, enjoyed, and contributed their talents to this little corner of the blogosphere. We hope The Rap Sheet will continue to inform and delight for many years to come.