I’m still obsessing over the Game of Thrones episode last night so I’m running behind on everything else. I think I’m still in shock somewhat. But I have picked up a few links of interest for this week.

• You have to see the chart that Smashwords has created as part of their three-year retrospective. The growth in their site traffic over time is incredible to see. Congratulations to Smashwords, and thank you for giving writers a place to connect with readers, with no barriers at all.

• I love Project Gutenberg. I probably have 50 different books on my Kindle that originated with them. So I was happy to hear that Project Gutenberg now has a Facebook page. Head on over and “Like” them! I did.

• We all know that healthcare, and the widespread lack of healthcare, causes a lot of heartache in this country. But you might not have thought about how the need to provide healthcare for yourself and your family can impact a writer’s ability to work. Jim Hines has a moving post describing his own need to keep his day job because of health issues in his family, and how much he wishes that wasn’t the case. A must-read post.

• You put a lot of time and effort into crafting your blog posts, and letting people know what you’ve written. But what’s the best day and time to publish? When are you most likely to get the pageviews you crave? Shane S. at Awesome Content points us to a study that analyzes traffic patterns and points you to your best chances.

Obviously I don’t do so well on this front, or I would have finished this post in the morning. But I was busy mourning Eddard!

• Steven Lyle Jordan at Tech Catcher has an essay up discussing the ebook revolution and placing it in context with other major industrial revolutions of the world. He talks about the phenomenon by which items once scarce suddenly become abundant, and the ways that overthrows and sometimes overwhelms existing systems. It’s a thoughtful read in a longer form, and well worth the time.