slip-sliding away…..

Like a lot of others, when I entered the blogosphere, many moons ago, the ‘blogroll’ was an important part of my site. It was a list of your list of virtual colleagues – friends, acquaintances, and even strangers – who you followed and engaged with in this brave new world of Web 2.0, and you posted this on the side of your blog. Readers would quickly see these links, and sometimes give them a try.

But then social media came along, and blogs lost their lustre. People moved over to the shiny new platforms, and blogs were deserted en masse – not just in terms of content posted and read, but also by active engagement: for many, the ‘Like’ button (added to blogs later on) killed off the previous desire to actually comment and discuss material.

While this state of affairs saddened me, I accept it as reality. You can’t change global trends.

But you can stick to your own core, and this is what I’ve done, in maintaining this blog for almost 16 years now. Still posting what matters to me. It’s my virtual home.

But I’d almost completely forgotten about my blogroll (now located in the bottom-right corner of the home page), and was reminded of it the other day.

Hence, I went through a process of cleaning up names and links that have sat there for more than a decade.

And I wanted to highlight to you a few new entries – my favourite people to read in this still-alive medium which provides so much more substance than the fluff that dominates social media.

So, in no particular order, here are three bloggers who I hope will bring something remarkable to your online reading:

• Vance Cariaga: An American in London, who’s a freelance writer and editor, as well as a stay-at-home Dad who cooks decent food, watches too much tennis, bikes around town, listens to a lot of jazz, and reads everything he can get his hands on. His most recent novel is Voodoo Hideaway, a a classic noir novel spanning fifty years and featuring a cast of memorable characters, all caught up in a web of lies and intrigue that sends them on a collision course to a bloody showdown. The story combines the best elements of crime fiction and sci-fi, with a healthy dose of humor tossed in, building tension chapter by chapter until the explosive finale. You can find Vance’s stuff at: https://vancecariaga.com
  
• A Thousand Bits of Paper by Kate Duff: An Australian poet and digital minimalist whose writing is filled with beautiful insights and wisdom. You can find Kate’s writing at https://athousandbitsofpaper.com
  
• The Daily Round by Kitty O’Meara: Early in the pandemic, you may have read a beautiful piece that began: “And the people stayed home…” (read it here). This went absolutely viral, and ended up as a source of comfort for so many around the world. It was later turned into a book and audiobook (read by Kate Winslet). But that’s just one of the multitude of gentle gifts that Kitty has shared on her blog. You can find Kitty’s wise words and reflections at https://the-daily-round.com.

Do you have any profound or amazing blogs you want to recommend? Let me know in the comments, along with a short description.

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