Skirting Round My Life 2021 My Year On The Blog

As I look back on the events of 2021 I have to say that it wasn’t the year I or anyone hoped or expected it would be. These past 12 months have been a difficult year for us all and this continues to be reflected in Skirting Round My Life as it has in every blog, journal , magazine or other news outlets.

On looking at the statistics, this year has seen Skirting Round My Life on a bit of downward trajectory which I think was to be expected given the circumstances. Hopefully this will change in the next 12 months. Though that will, to a certain extent at least, depend on things opening up a bit post Covid and providing me with more opportunities to enjoy myself and post about my exciting experiences.

The first thing to say that Skirtingroundmylife gained 2, 507 views in 2020. This represented an drop of 16% from it’s 2020 total of 3,018. Though disappointed with the drop I am not in the least bit surprised as continued uncertainty from Covid19 played havoc with our lives and restrictions on what we could and couldn’t do meant opportunities for growth were very severely limited.

This lack of opportunity resulted in a very dramatic drop in the number of posts in the last twelve months as they fell by almost half from 98 to 50. It can also be said that the number of both visitors to the site and comments on posts are both down with the later dropping from 28 to 16 and likes falling by more than 60% from 83 to 36

Topics covered in the last twelve months included Acceptance, Age, Bisexuality, Childhood, Christmas, Coming Out, Ceilidhs, Concerts, Covid19, Crossdressers, Dancing , Dating, Death, Discrimination, Equality, Faith, Fashion,  Friendship, Grandparents, Holidays, Lockdown, Love, Memories, Mental Health, Poetry, Relationships, Secrets, Sensuality, Sex, Sexism,  Sexuality, Stereotypes,  Transition, Transphobia, Visibility, Women,

2021 again saw a slight dip in my global reach as visiting nations were slightly down from 31 in 2020 to 27 last year. The top five countries were UK , USA, Ireland, Germany and Finland, with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Guernsey, and Sweden. making up the top ten. There were also readers from countries including France, Croatia The Philippines, Denmark, Colombia, Peru, Norway, India, and Poland amongst other nations who paid this a visit

As all the statistics have now properly evaluated it is time to bring this review to its conclusion but before I do so I just want thank all my readers. Whether you subscribe to the site or read the posts on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter it doesn’t really matter, the main thing is that you read them and find them entertaining, enjoyable , thought provoking and maybe in some cases challenging. I really hope you’ll continue to do so as that’s what makes blogging so enjoyable for those us who put our opinions out there on the blogosphere for you to read. So all that remains is for me to wish you A Happy, Successful, and Peaceful New Year and I hope you’ll keep skirting round my life throughout 2022 and beyond .

Till next time

Gayle X

Women From Different Geographies Have Different Stories To Share

If there’s one thing I will say about lockdown it’s the fact that it has concentrated the mind of a certain wayward poet in to making more time for my writing and it’s good to see that the efforts are beginning to reap some rewards.

Since the start of lockdown in March last year I have submitted more of my work for publication than ever before and have been more published more often as a result of it.

My two most recent successes are perhaps my greatest achievements so far. This is especially true as both are all women collections. This collection entitled Lucent edited by Jo Chumas and published by Dunfermline based 8d press. 22 poets give our take to Nan Sheppard’ s Work The Living Mountain and believe me I think it’s a work we can be justifiably proud of . I am particularly pleased that my poems in this excellent anthology The Crossing which relates the tale of my awakening on realising I had to walk my own path in spite of what others may have thought and The Haunting which shows that you can’t be truly free of your demons until you acknowledge their presence and by doing so reduce their power fitted so well on the theme of sensuality. With poems by friends such as Chris Tait, Finola Scott, Leela Soma, Natalie Clark. and my Words And Music co-host and bestie Jen Hughes this is a collection well worth reading and not only reading but savoring as 22 very different writers take you on a whole range of interesting journies

For the second of my two collections I move from The East Coast of Scotland to the southern United States and as I find myself published in a global collection of 34 writers in a range of styles from esssyists , poets , and storytellers from countries as close Scotland , England, and Ireland to writers on the other side of the world such as the USA and New Zealand in a fabulous collection of women’s words entitled We Are Not Shadows which was edited and published by the amazing Hannah Fields.

In this collection my poems Little Girl Pink, and Accidental Girl focus on growing up as a trans girl in the late 60’s and 70’s before I even knew the term was out there. Apart from my own work there are many other writers who challenge you to change your perception on how you see the world on issues such as disability and race and every day struggles of women across the world.

Needless to say I am extremely proud to be included in both anthologies and would encourage you to read them if you ever get the chance as both collections focus on the power of women’s words and why those words matter as women from different geographies have different stories to share and every single of them is a story well worth reading.

Till Next Time

Gayle. X