A brief history of blathering about nothing.
I began this blog in what we now fondly recall as the high-blogging era; the 2010s.
Back in those heady days, the blog was about anything and everything – thus the name I first gave it, “It Keeps Me Wondering.” Later, I changed the name to “Blathering About Nothing;” a homage to Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. I still like “It Keeps Me Wondering” though – it’s sort of a personal creed. Maintain the curiosity!
By 2017, momentum for blogging seemed to be flagging, universally and personally. I was tired of blogging because of the pressure to post regularly – at that time, I was trying to post weekly. By then, I’d developed a light-hearted, slightly nonsensical style that made it relatively easy to generate a fun and silly post. Even so, thinking it up, writing & editing it, took up all the spare time I had for being creative.
It began to feel like a chore, and as if blogging weekly was stopping me from doing any other kind of writing. I wanted to try writing in more serious modes, and for publications other than my own blog.
So I stopped blogging, and five years went by. In that time, I had a few poems and a few essays published, in various literary journals. I wrote arts and literature reviews for a Human Rights magazine for two years. I did some short writing courses.
Then, along with the rest of the world, I began wondering if I should start a newsletter on Substack. But if I was going to go back to writing and self-publishing short form pieces, why wouldn’t I just go back to the blog that’s already filled with so much “content”, and where I’ve already accumulated those delightful entities known as “followers?”
Well now, I’m doing both, without much time to devote to either project. I have a Substack called Here is one, where each post is about a sentence I’ve loved in a book or essay. In twelve months, I’ve written three newsletters on it.
Then there’s this blog. I’m here again, too – but I post so sporadically that there were seven months between the last two posts. I just don’t have the time and energy to write posts to a regular schedule, especially because this time around, I’m trying to keep up other writing as well (not to mention a paid, almost full-time job, etc etc).
I’ll post when I have so much time for writing that it doesn’t take away time from other writing. According to the rate I’ve been posting at, that is likely to occur about twice a year.
So there’s a guarantee! If you subscribe to this blog – or to my Substack – you won’t be bombarded with extra emails in your inbox!
In the meantime, I’ll update this page now & then with bits and pieces that have been published elsewhere. A selection is below.
Memoir/essay
A Journey Around My House (Archetype, 2023)
Learning to Light Fires (Moonee Valley Libraries 2021 “Strange Days” Writing Award – second place)
Breathing Together (Slippage Lit, Dec 2020)
When you see a stranger (Stylus Lit, 2017)
Reviews
You Daughters Of Freedom (book review), Right Now, 2020
Visualising Human Rights (book review), Right Now, 2019
Poetry
golden Not Very Quiet, Issue 3, 2018
Thylacine Talking Writing, 2018
Blathering About Nothing 