Bloggle and Rochester litfest

Yesterday I went to the Rochester Lit fest's blogger forum. I had to battle to get the day off work and make some devil's bargains but I sincerely hoped and thought it would be worth it and fascinating; it was.

Firstly I had the privilege of meeting Alan Collins and John Ward, Goliath's of the Medway political scene and all around nice guys and also the fabulous Jaye Nolan.

It is easy to sit in your room, or on the train, or at work (on your lunch break) and see people as avatars, or tweeters, or blogs and not see them as actual people and as someone who really doesn't get out that much it was nice to finally put names to faces and in all sincerity it was good to meet you all.

I'm not a great talker in groups of people I don't really know and so didn't say much - that and I was really enjoying sitting in Ed's chair, it was really comfortable! But I listened to what was being said and found it really interesting, not just because there was a whole world of Medway bloggers out there I hadn't discovered (mainly because I'm holed up in this Political world) but also the various reasons for why we write and what we do.

I did write an intro a while ago so will just save repetition and drop a link here.

But why do I write this stuff and how did I get into it?

It started as a complaint about how awful Southeastern trains were really and then I kinda just dropped into writing my opinions on various things that were happening locally and nationally before trying to offer an opinion on topical events like City Status, London/Medway riots, Rail travel etc...

I am a Liberal Democrat, sorry, and I am very proud of our record in Government (mostly - I still don't like talking about Tuition fees) but there have been times where I have disagreed with the establishment and written it here as this is in all honesty my personal opinion.

I have, from time to time, published press releases from the local or National party on subjects as mainly I want them to filter down to local level and they are things I personally agree with though this isn't the purpose of why I write here - I'm not a mindless party drone sent to convert you all or barrage you with Party spin or made up or doctored facts willing to sell my soul to get elected. I'm not after power or influence - I joined the wrong party for that - just a forum to through out my opinion and to rubbish any of the obvious bilge.

I have very long commutes, about 4 hours a day and now with the blogger app on my phone, I can write as I go where as before I used to hand write and type up later and it was to fill the void that I started writing voraciously.

Politics and its related subtopics aren't my first love though and I have started writing a history blog as well. It hasn't really got off the ground yet but it is about subjects in history that I find interesting and the first few posts are directly related to the Medway towns such as the U-boat out on the marshes and the U-boat that sailed up the Medway as HMS Graph. There will also be the posts about the Luftwaffe in Africa from a presentation I had to do at the Imperial War Museum History group (sounds more impressive than it is) but I'm hoping to write about other events in history too including about the Royal Navy ship that was recently discovered in Chatham Dockyards under the floor!!!!

I also write fiction here. It is something I've dabbled with since I was a teenager but about two years ago, when I had a lot more free time, I started writing a sci-fi series. The over all arc was to go over three books but it is very much work in progress. It is about three students fresh out of the military academy and how they deal with the reality of the genocidal war that they are plunged into and how they grow up, love, lose, fight etc. Its a human story. I started publishing it online just to get feedback from real people as my friends who have seen it always say its good, but then they kinda have to, and I'm far too critical. Any who, its there.

So this is me and why I do what I do...