Online presence
Phew, how the weeks fly by! I’ve just noted my tally … well over 600 posts.
So, a moment to pause and ask myself, why do I even have a blog? and why do I continue to write it every week? Initially, of course, it was set up to give me a profile (sounds so grand, doesn’t it?) which people could consult to see who I am, how I operate, why I write my style of novels, what I stand for. Some form of online presence is a prerequisite for authors nowadays, and the advice is: choose the ones with which you feel most comfortable. I’m at ease with this format.
But in my case, it’s more than that.
In my medical ethics novels, I make a point of leaving lots of breathing space for readers to form their own conclusions about the issues that provide the backdrop to each story. They aren’t polemics; they aren’t a vehicle for my opinions; they’re novels … although it’s not uncommon for readers to ask me what my personal views are. If I give nothing away about myself I can come across as a blank canvas. A blog gives me a vehicle to occasionally declare my hand in a controlled kind of way. It may be what I think of a piece of legislation, or a world event, or a book, or what someone has said, or an experience I’ve had. Anything really which has made me think, about which I have something to say. Reading back over some of it, I hardly recognise myself!! Did I actually formulate that argument, or articulate that thought?
Life can be so full, that it’s all too easy to skim read, only half-attend when listening to a programme/lecture/seminar or going to an event/function. But if I know I’m going to print on the topic, it concentrates the mind wonderfully. ‘I write to find out what I think!‘, as Stephen King said. Knowing my thoughts will be shared with others somehow allows me the mental bandwidth to think things through properly and reach a logical conclusion that I’d be prepared to defend. And it’s good for me personally to keep the little grey cells nudging one another.
If you too find what I have to say of interest, that’s a bonus! Thanks for visiting.
The Vanishing Year Light in the darkness