Still Blogging After All These Years

The eclipse was awesome, by the way.

Hello, my friends, all 15 of you.

In theory, there are over 10,000 people who follow this blog. Maybe I should write “people,” since who knows how many are bots, dormant accounts, dormant humans (RIP). There was a time, though, a long decade ago, when this was a bopping little community, not just here at Drinking Tips but across WordPress. I treasured that community, and it even developed into some actual off-blog friendships. (Hi, Bill.)

I read somewhere that the average lifespan of a blog is five years. And that’s a real blog, people using the platform to express their thoughts, their dreams, their recipes. Me, I used this space mostly to repost my weekly newspaper column. Then I took a three-month sabbatical that turned into three years. I now write once a month for the local, which is probably about right.

In the interim, readers seem to have fallen away. And it’s not just you, it’s me; of all the blogs I used to follow, I now follow maybe three.

To make a long blog post short, I’ve popped by here to tell you I’m over there.

Last fall, I changed my writing habit – up in the morning, grab my coffee and write. It doesn’t matter what. Sometimes it’s nothing, sometimes it turns into something. And sometimes I’ve done something with those somethings.

One of those somethings is setting up an account over at Medium. Like a change in habit, a change of scenery can do you good. I’ve published pieces there under my own name and with Slackjaw Humor (my latest: What’s Inside Your Baby) It’s paywalled; I’m sorry/not sorry. I’ve been at this a long time and have decided that if I can get 53 cents for publishing a piece, I’d like my 53 cents, please. (Seriously, Medium membership is not expensive, and there’s some good content over there.)

I’ve also had acceptances at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. I had a long, dispiriting run of rejections from them in 2022 and 2023, but since the fall have placed five pieces. I think that has a lot to do with my improved writing habits and personal head space (a post for another time, perhaps), so it’s all very gratifying. Here are my most recent pieces:

• In Retrospect, Hiring Macbeth as Our Tinned Soup Ambassador Was a Bad Idea
• God Leaves a Voice Message for Jesus on Holy Saturday
• Dashiell Hammett’s Saint Patrick and the Case of the Emerald Asp
• I Am the Balance on Your Gift Card, Unknowable, Eternal

I’ve also had some comedy posted at Points in Case this year:

• Our Committee Welcomes Fresh Ideas, as Long as They Don’t Conflict with Windowpane Smashing Festival
• My Resolution to Quit Eating Children Is Holding Up!

What else have I been up to? My novel Smileyville has more or less run its course. It never got the traction I hoped for but it was well received and got some kind reviews. Makes great summer reading, he said shillingly.

I also completed a script for a new comedy that I hope to produce in 2025. It’s set in a campground with two couples, and the wife discovers that the person on the adjacent site is her ex. It’s called Two Tents. 

So that’s the news. I’m still loving being a grandfather, navigating later-middle-age, thinking about the future and trying not to dwell too much on the past.

Here’s Angie McMahon on that theme to play us out. Take care, friends. I’ll pop back soon.