Happy new years, everyone! It was exactly one year ago today that I officially unveiled (har har) this website. And what a crazy fucking year it's been.

I spent the first half of 2006 aggressively promoting the hell out of my book the traditional ways, with readings all over the country and lots of press with radio interviews, newspaper articles, and tv appearances. It was really REALLY exhausting, often demoralizing, and didn't seem to do much for book sales, honestly. I mean, the book did fine … but not great.

The second half of the year I focused exclusively on promoting the book via this website and not only did book sales markedly improve, but I started making money from offbeat advertisements! Yay. That makes the entrepreneur in me happy. Traffic has gone from 8,000 visits in January 2007 to over 60,000 in December 2007. DAMN! You could draw all sorts of conclusions from this (mainstream media dead? print being eclipsed by web? elvis still alive?) but I'll just say that I'm happy it's working out. Thanks to each of you for being a part of that working out-ness!

With a year of content on the site now, I know it's easy for things to get lost in the archives … and with there being a whole new wave of freshly engaged offbeat brides for 2008, I'm going to start occasionally linking to older posts that I think have stood the test of time, just as a way to keep older stuff fresh in the minds of newer brides and to keep from having to repeat myself.

Also, incidentally, today is Andreas and my "real" anniversary. We don't really celebrate our wedding anniversary but we're all about our "kissaversary," which was New Years Day, 1998. WOOHOO! That baby wearing the pink wig? That was me the first night I kissed Andreas.

There are hundreds of cutie-cute offbeat brides over on the Offbeat Bride Tribe, but Zombie Kitten here caught my eye because, well, she's got excellent taste in user icons.

Just a quick reminder, too: if you haven't checked out the Offbeat Bride Tribe, you really should. There are specific bride groups for offbeat subgenres like Brides who like brides, Anti-white dress brides and Ecobrides.

Whew: My book tour is over.

Really, I couldn't have hoped for a better "end of the road" event than LA. The reading was so much fun, the house perfectly packed, and I even managed to drag Andreas on stage to read his sidebar.

Then I dragged Heidi on stage to embarrass her over her antics at our wedding reception.

And then I cut up a penis cake that somehow managed to be even more obscene than the penis cake at the book release party, way back in February … which seems like a lifetime ago.

So long ago that I can hardly remember why penis cake became an offbeat party staple. Who the fuck's promotional idea is this? (…oh yeah: mine.) I bookended my book tour with penis cake and a Wai-Ching dress on both ends. I'm not sure what that means.

Lots of photos over here, including shots from most of the other places I toured.

(Thanks to leahpeah for the photo!)