We thought it would be useful to highlight those members who have a writing presence on the internet. At a time when it’s becoming harder and harder to get published by traditional routes, blogging is one way of getting your words out there into the world and promoting your writing. In the call to create this listing, members were invited to give some small insight into their blogs and that’s been reproduced here wherever offered.

Andy Armitage:  andyarmitage.com

RJ Barker: https://www.rjbarker.com/

Terry Buchan: https://mychoriamb.wordpress.com

Terry’s blog was intended to be a spoof poet’s diary but rapidly veered off course and became a fictionalised account of trivial and slightly less trivial events, as well as a notepad for miscellaneous jottings. He occasionally plunders it for material for sketches and commentary pieces for East Leeds FM radio.

David Cundall: https://www.davidcundall.com/

David aims to post a Pangolin to his site every new moon. He’s just published the 50th of these.

Sunyi Dean: https://www.sunyidean.com

Sunyi writes book reviews, craft or publishing articles, and the occasional personal update. She also puts up reprints of short stories that have been published elsewhere. 

Tim Dempsey: http://hill-joy.blogspot.com/

Tim’s blog is about the mountains and nature. It explores our connection with them through first-person accounts, conveying a madness for the wet, blustery high places of the North. He describes it as a haphazard, bumbling narrative of his journey through grief and loss, bringing a very personal edge to the posts and, he hopes, some insight.

Marg Greenwood: margstravelinscottishislands.wordpress.com

Marg’s blog is about her solo travel in the Scottish Isles, told through words, images and songs.

Graeme Hall: https://graemehall.net/

Bob Hamilton: https://earthdreamery.co.uk/

Bob has been blogging almost daily for the best part of nine years, combining photographs with all kinds of narrative, posting well over half a million words and thousands of pictures in the process. It’s a way for him to find his way back to stories and moments in the past that he might try to flesh out in the future. In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos, this relatively new website collects together his various projects under one roof. 

Caroline Humes: https://carolinehumes.com/ and https://sffdirect.com/

Caroline runs two blogs. First, she has a writer’s site where she blogs about the craft of writing. Second, she also runs the science fiction and fantasy website SFFdirect, where she writes about all things related to SFF, usually with a literary emphasis. Posts are targeted at fans, readers and writers of SFF.

Jane Kite: http://www.janekite.co.uk/

Jane has recently revamped her blog for when she’s away on a writing residency in January at Can Serrat in Spain. She’ll be keeping a record of what happens during the month and will aim to post a photograph and a line or two of poetry/prose or some ideas on most days. 

Iby Knill: http://ibyknill.co.uk/

Kirsty Lambert: https://kirstwrites.wordpress.com/

Kirsty says she has lapsed in recent times but hopes this promotion will stir her into action!

Mark Pennington: https://angelofdent.wordpress.com/

Neil Rathmell: https://neilrathmell.com/

Neil offered some useful advice to bloggers, drawing upon his experience. His blog started out life as a WordPress blog called A Writer’s Diary, on which he blogged regularly as a reader as well as a writer. He says he learned two rules quite early on: blog regularly and don’t publish anything you think you might want to submit to a magazine or enter for a competition—as, if you do, it will immediately and forever be ineligible. For the next four years or so, he regularly published a short essay on some aspect of literature, but kept his own work off the site altogether. Over time, his fortnightly routine went to monthly and then became more sporadic. He says it’s now not really a blog but a website where he keeps up to date with news and information about his writing and which also offers access to well over a hundred literary essays. These continue to be read by somebody somewhere every day.

Emma Storr: https://emmastorr.co.uk/

Emma is still finding her way with the blogging experience. She aims to keep her website up to date with news of her published work, both poetry and reviews, as well as details of readings and events. Individual poems will feature that reflect Emma’s current projects such as the Leeds Lieder Festival in 2020 and the launch of the NHS Anthology These Are The Hands.