Blog interviewer dot com

At the moment, you can just see this blog making the odd appearance over the horizon of April's top rated blogs at Blog Interviewer. I got a comment out of the blue from someone named Mike, sending me along to a very interesting interview about my blog, which you can read here.

Thank you very much to whoever recommended Alice in Galaxyland, I don't know who you are but I am most flattered!

The questions certainly made me think a great deal: what prompted me to start writing, and who would be interested? I had no idea when I started out. I think I wrote my first story aged 5, and was writing constantly - usually at the expense of my homework - until I was 19, at which point I suddenly fell ill for many years and lost all my confidence. But my ability to write did gradually come back; and Chris and Pat, who I respect very much, urged me to start this blog. That's muddly and accidental enough, but gaining readers has been even more so. I get the impression that many writers feel their writing and readers seem to creep up on them from elsewhere. I couldn't give a more coherent answer than, "Oh, well, they seem to like it so here they are."

Being a curious and cynical-when-it-comes-to-economic-matters type, I'd be interested in knowing how Blog Interviewer is funded - remind me to write and ask! The prizes are given by sponsors. Actually, I can't say I really want any of the prizes that I currently see on offer (in ads on the right-hand column). But the Tips On Getting More Votes page talks about winnings as if they're money. In fact, after my very nice blog questionnaire, I was led on to another set of questions which purported to be about "claiming a free prize". After a few pages it slowly became clear that this was more like an "enter for a remotely possible prize, which you will have to pile through several mountains of bureaucracy to get at". And then it started asking me questions about my income and if I have any children. Was this really necessary? I started to get annoyed and quit the page. I then wondered if that would invalidate my interview. Fortunately, it didn't, and I seem to have quit in time to avoid three thousand tons of junk mail from them. In retrospect I'm not sure that page had anything to do with the actual blog interview prizes at all. So what was all that about? Anyone know?

Anyway, if you'd like to, please do vote for this blog as often as you like (you can vote every day); or tell them of your other favourites who should also be there. If I win something, not sure what I'll do with it, depends what it is! If it's some fancy program I don't want, I'll donate it to a good cause. If I do want it, I'll keep it.

Being nominated for things like this is an immense compliment. But I think the very best thing is when somebody is inspired to check out some science, or when people post their very interesting stories such as in the comments after my post on Jourdemayne's lecture.

I love the Internet - it lets us share so many things!