I have been looking back over the blogs that I followed in 2017 and wondering what happened to some of the writers. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, some write sporadically, but often enough for me to know that I can expect to see them back on-line. For instance, I follow an American who periodically introduces his readers to contemporary Canadian artists. I first encountered him when we were in Nova Scotia, and he has directed me to several interesting galleries.

Some of the blogs were more like a series of diary entries. That is they didn’t seem to be trying to engage a reader, but using the forum to vent, usually about love gone wrong. Sometimes these took the form of long phrases strung out to resemble poetry. I taught college students for 30 years, so I am certainly familiar with these voices. Most of these blogs have disappeared, probably because the writers’ lives improved. I miss them, though, since they reminded me of my former students and their drama filled lives.

More puzzling to me are the writers who were very consistent over many months and then just stopped writing. They had acquired the necessary discipline to post regularly and their content was interesting and well phrased. I have no idea what has happened to them. Was it just a lark? Did they find another passion they preferred? I would love to see a post some time about why writers quit.

Well, Happy New Year’s to all. We are in a deep freeze here, cold even for New England. No warmth in sight for at least another week, and even then it will just get back to freezing. 6 degrees F right now, -3 degrees F tonight.(helpful conversion table says this is -14 C to -19 C). Too cold to celebrate outdoors, so I will call it a night. Off to the flannel sheets and quilts. It’s a night to be thankful for goose down!