To what extent is your blog a place for your self-expression and creativity versus a site designed to attract readers? How do you balance that? If sticking to certain topics and types of posts meant your readership would triple, would you do it? 

I started my blog in August, 2010 for two reasons- I wanted to share my stories and poetry with my family and friends, and I felt that having a blog that was easy to work with would motivate me to write more. I had blogs in the past, but they were either too basic or didn’t offer me the platform I wanted, so when WordPress came along, I decided to check them out. The ease of use and the ability to customize my site sold me and I decided to name my blog Jen’s Rambling Thoughts. Over the past eight years, this site has grown in ways I never expected. What was once a disorganized attempt to catalog myself as a fiction writer has become a brain dump of sorts–I run the gamut from (sporadic) poetry to flash fiction, nonfiction and photo essays. Long story short, I was never into this “blogging thing” to earn readers, fans, whatever you want to call them. I attached my page to my Facebook page so my friends and family would know I had one, and when I broke down and got a Twitter account, I linked to that too; I suppose like all other creative types throughout human history, I am chasing immortality with my writing, but my blog doesn’t feed my ego. I’m immensely thankful for the over 200 subscribers I have in my corner of the interwebz, but even if I only had seven or eight, I’d still put my thoughts out into the ether. I would love to know if there are topics my readers would like me to explore, but as for a focus on one particular theme or style, it would ruin the spontaneity of my blog, so no, I’ll continue to ramble on about anything and everything. It’s my way.