Writing Communities

One of the many pleasures I get from the blogging game is the chance of getting to know fascinating people whose paths would otherwise never cross with mine. And the same is true of the writing game as a whole(and yes, in some respects it is reasonable to think of it as a game – at least, in my opinion.)

A couple of days ago, for instance, and completely out of the blue, I received a call from a lady called Sarina Stapledon. She’d been told by a friend that Waterloo Sunset featured, in passing, the legendary science fiction writer, Olaf Stapledon. And it turns out that Sarina is the late Olaf’s daughter in law. She and her husband have invited me to visit them for a chat about Olaf, and I’m looking forward to filling the many gaps in my knowledge about a writer of distinction who just happened to have a day job working for a shipping company in the heart of Liverpool.

I was also contacted by a writer called Frank Burton, whose website features promotes his own work. I haven’t had a chance as yet to read the novella he told me about, and which is available via his website, but his email communicated great enthusiasm for writing, so I’m looking forward to it.

Blogs provide wonderful opportunities for mid-list writers like me to get some review coverage at a time when the review space in print newspapers seems constantly to diminish. From the comments on this blog, and the information contained in others mentioned in the blogroll, I derive a great deal of enjoyment, as well as intriguing snippets of information.

Naturally, I’m glad when people say nice things about this blog and a couple of jolly good writers based in the US and whom I’ve never met have this week given awards to ‘Do you write under your own name?’ Julia Buckley kindly gave me a ‘Blog Sisterhood Award’ (actually, I’m also a member of Mystery Women, which continues to baffle Mrs Edwards) for a blog with ‘great attitude’. Eric Mayer generously bestowed a Premio Dardos ("prize darts" in Italian) award for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and personal values in the form of creative and original writing. Much appreciated. However, I’m going to wimp out of nominating 25 other blogs for these awards, and I’ll content myself with saying that the blogs in the blogroll offer a great deal of info and entertainment to me, and I’m sure you’ll find plenty in them to appeal to you too.