I've been not writing that much here for quite some time, an the odd review or feature couldn't really make up for the fact that the platform, and my adherence to it, were both running out of steam.
So on the cusp of a new decade I think its time to blog off. Its a long time since people regularly commented on this blog, or any blogs for that matter - the two way conversation having gone over to Facebook a long time ago - there it was easier, in their walled garden, to cultivate an audience, to follow a person or a group, whilst hear on the open internet, what once was easily found was now swallowed up by all the noise going on elsewhere.
I'd thought I might try and re-invent the blog as something else, perhaps focussing on the esoteric or small press publications. A couple of years ago I did move over to a podcast, but that took a hell of a lot of work. Video would be even worse, and I'm not sure what or who my audience would be - unless I started an unboxing video series.
Over the years I've used this place as somewhere to road test ideas or thoughts around the creative process or cultural stuff that's going on; to highlight good things happening in Manchester or elsewhere; to review books when I've finished them; and to talk a little about music and art as well as literature.
I hope its been an interesting read. It will stay here, at least for as long as Google keeps the platform going. Years back it was part of a series of "Brit Lit Blogs" some of which are no doubt still thriving, and even, for a while was being archived by the British Library. /That stopped at some point - maybe I'd got less interesting or less zeitgeisty or maybe they'd stopped bothering. The cultural moment had clearly gone.
And I'm not saying that the end is the end is the end. It's occasionally useful to have a place to just put stuff. Maybe, next Friday after the general election, I'll find the need to write a coda to this piece - who knows?
My own writing can still be read about at www.adrianslatcher.com and the poetry magazine and press I've recently started with Steve Hanson can be found at someroastpoetry.wordpress.com
But for now, with my 1221st post, this is me blogging off.
