On the weekend of 14th -16th September I went to the CWIG conference at Reading. One of the many good ideas I took home was the concept of the collaborative blog. (I am indebted to Susan Price and The History Girls for this.)

‘Goose’ illustration by super-talented CWIG committee member Nicola Smee.

What are the advantages of shared bloggery?

• more variety for the reader
• more frequent posts for the reader
• less taxing for each individual contributor
• more readers will come – the followers of the various contributors

I wonder what you’d hear from this?

What might it involve?

Ideally we would want 28 contributors to do one post a month ( as do the History Girls) – the extra days could be covered by guest posts. We could start with one post a week and review in the New Year – or we could trial one-a-day on a rolling basis and see how that turns out.

Nautical bookshelves thrive in my house.

Who takes charge /  takes the flak?

I am offering myself as curator in the first instance. I read and research voraciously about the sea and I am willing to edit and post on a simple site.

I don’t want to be Gully-no-mates…

MANIFESTO

• all posts will reflect delight in the sea
• all posts will be suitable for fluent readers – no swearing, no talking down
• writing and artwork in the widest variety of forms will be welcomed – poetry, reminiscences, jewellery, photography, folklore, flash fiction, stained glass…
• concise and attractive posts will be preferred
• all images will be licensed, Public Domain or copyright to the poster – Creative Commons are encouraged

Who wouldn’t vote for this?

• follow & use the Twitter hashtag #seamagic
• ask to join the seamagic facebook group
• email me:  kmlockwood AT hotmail.co.uk
• tell anyone you think just might be interested

Pay attention at the back!

Three important points:

• NO commitment yet
• your thoughts are very welcome
• it’s not about direct sales – but contributors can link to their own sites/ books/artwork