For anyone who’s not sick and tired of me yet, I’ve added a page of links to essays, posts, and assorted other stuff I’ve published elsewhere on the web. You’ll find a damn good recipe for carrot-pineapple cake, an article on uplifting music and TV shows about breakups (hey, I’ll do damn near anything to promote The Divorce Diet), and all sorts of other weird stuff.
Notes from the U.K.
Exploring the spidery corners of a culture and the weird stuff that tourist brochures ignore.
Notes from the U.K. 
I can never get tired of your stuff. Educational and great fun. More please !!
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Okay, that’s gone straight to my head. I feel a bit dizzy.
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Why is it that Americans do not find self promotion embarassing and a lot of English people do? I recognise that these are huge generalisations, that I do not know how you or anybody else feels when they hit the publish button. I admire you for many reasons, one of which is your bravery in advertising your own work. I do not see either as morally superior, just cuturally different so though you might, one day want to blog about it.
I once went to an event in Cambridge at which seve stood up an Nobel prize winners and explained that they had made their discoveries entirely by mistake and were really complete fools. They did not exactly believe that, but it was an occasion at which ‘boasting’ or ‘showing off’ would have been almost indecent. I do not think it would have been like that at Harvard. It is also a generation thing, they were celebrating a discovery made in the 1930s, todays academics are probably different..
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Interesting comment, and good suggestion for a blog topic. My sense is that you’re partly right–maybe largely right–but not entirely. I’ve been part of an writers’ online discussion group lately, and many of the writers on it (mostly American) do a kind of self-promotion that makes me uncomfortable. But others have written about how difficult they find the process.
I find I’m okay with promoting my writing if I can make fun of myself a bit. Or I’m almost okay with it. In my mind, there’s a line between promoting myself (which makes my skin crawl) and promoting my writing. I do, regularly, wonder if I’ve crossed the line. But publishing has pushed me to get more comfortable with promotion in general, because if you want a book (or a blog) to make it’s way into the world, you almost have to push it. Otherwise you have to rely on pure luck.
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Hi Ellen, I enjoy reading your blogs. I’m a Finn living near Truro. Love Cornwall.
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Hi Aila, and welcome. Cornwall’s got to be a lot warmer than Finland right now.
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I discovered your essays on your website just last night. The one on the Britishness-test was quite thought provoking. Glad to know there are more writings out there.
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Thanks for that.
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