Why Do It?
Why blog? There must be as many blogs as there are stars in the sky (well, nearly). Bloggers post about the joys and dismays of their life in a country cottage, a yurt, a converted chicken house or on the thirtieth floor of a city skyscraper, They blog about their travels, their kids, their crafts, their politics and what they like to cook and/or eat. Whatever floats your boat, somebody somewhere is writing an exciting, knowledgeable, witty and entertaining blog about it and you can find it and follow it. More importantly, you can respond with your own bits. It's a 21st century phenomenon,this totally open and accessible sharing of each others lives, indeed, the innermost essence of who we are, and mostly it's good.
Writers are told that they certainly should blog and they do. I follow several and I savour the wisdom, wit and experience that my peers are so generously willing to share.But this old duck of thirty five years writing for children is very much of a pre-blog era and not sure that she is able to compete for her share of bloggery following. In my day, dear readers and writers, it was your bum on a chair and a pen in your hand, or a typewriter and endless cups of coffee (dare I say fags?). You could try talking to somebody who was interested, if you could find one, but mostly it was a solitary, lonesome and scary occupation. Dammit, writing was meant to be in a garret, alone and freezing cold, trying to type with those fingerless mitten thingies and not knowing if your latest story would cover the arrears in the rent.
Now we have World Wide Web! We have online writers' support groups, communities and conferences. We have writers' blogs! It's all so much cosier and friendlier; most of all supportive, and I love it! I guess I can give some advice to emerging writers based on my own experience and philosophy, From time to time I will do so. But guys, essentially I'm a story-teller. We're a breed that's been around pretty much since time began, which might make us the second oldest profession in the world after you-know-what. Goodness knows where we come from, but we're born this way. Inns, hillsides, hearthsides, baronial halls, songs, operas, poems, books, films, and the multiple way we access them, TV, we've forever had our place to gather folk together to experience stories. It has been proven that stories are essential to human existence and so story-tellers have this huge, brilliant, inescapable (we sometimes try to, but we can't) responsibility to turn the whole meaning of life, love, pain, evil, goodness, mystery, laughter and beauty into something we can mirror back to you.
Now we have World Wide Web! We have online writers' support groups, communities and conferences. We have writers' blogs! It's all so much cosier and friendlier; most of all supportive, and I love it! I guess I can give some advice to emerging writers based on my own experience and philosophy, From time to time I will do so. But guys, essentially I'm a story-teller. We're a breed that's been around pretty much since time began, which might make us the second oldest profession in the world after you-know-what. Goodness knows where we come from, but we're born this way. Inns, hillsides, hearthsides, baronial halls, songs, operas, poems, books, films, and the multiple way we access them, TV, we've forever had our place to gather folk together to experience stories. It has been proven that stories are essential to human existence and so story-tellers have this huge, brilliant, inescapable (we sometimes try to, but we can't) responsibility to turn the whole meaning of life, love, pain, evil, goodness, mystery, laughter and beauty into something we can mirror back to you.
So, that's what I do. Mainly, but not always, my stories are for children and young people. They have been published as novels, early readers and picture books. So, I ask again, why blog? I don't think the average follower would be interested in my latest op shop find or what I had for breakfast, so never mind about me.
My blog is another way to tell stories. If I'd lived in my homeland of England five centuries ago, which my ancestors did, I would still have been a story-teller, probably in the tap room of an inn. But today in 2017, by the miracle of IT, I am able to create my own virtual inn, The Hooting Owl. We have a cosy, fire warmed and fire-lit snug for chilly days and storm-ridden nights , a sun-speckled, leafy woodland for lazy summer wandering and yarning and a clifftop vista over the bay where we can sit to spin and share our stories. I shall tell mine and I invite you to tell yours. This blog is not about reality, or at least only reality as told through stories. Please come and share my stories and send me your own. Poems and illustrations are a welcome story-telling vehicle. Send to a.p.martin@bigpond.com and become a part of the Hooting Owl story-telling community.
