I write about whatever is taking up space in my head at the time - life, running, crochet, music, social media, family, things I have opinions about, and occasionally something I probably should have kept to myself.
I'm still very much an old-school blogger at heart. I like longer thoughts, proper conversations and writing things that make someone else think, “yes - that's exactly it.”
The Longer Version
TYPECAST is written by me, Nickie O'Hara - wife, mum, nana, blogger, podcaster, crafter, slow runner and someone who has never been especially good at keeping her thoughts to herself.
I live in Lancashire in the North West of England and work full time as a Customer Service Manager. Away from work, I write, crochet, run, podcast and generally find new ways of filling any spare time I accidentally create.
About TYPECAST
TYPECAST has been live since July 2009, although I was writing online long before that through forums, newsgroups and the earlier social corners of the internet.
This blog has never really fitted neatly into one niche. Over the years I've written about parenting, family life, cancer, running, music, blogging, social media, work, technology, crochet, ageing, opinions and whatever else happened to be occupying my head at the time.
That's still what TYPECAST is now.
I started blogging here in my 30s. I'm now in my 50s. Naturally, the things I write about have changed because my life has changed, but the blog itself hasn't suddenly become something else. It is still a personal blog: long-form thoughts, stories, opinions and the occasional overshare.
I want TYPECAST to feel more like the old internet again - somewhere to actually write, rather than somewhere built around campaigns, SEO or whatever an algorithm currently wants.
Things I've Done Along The Way
Over the years I've presented and produced radio shows and podcasts, written for other websites and publications, spoken at blogging conferences and worked on a number of online projects.
I've written for outlets including the Metro and Huffington Post, contributed to parenting and lifestyle sites and magazines, and spoken at blogging events including BlogOn and BritMums.
I've also created or been involved in projects including Soundtrack To My Life, Cancer : Your Story, Blognonymous, radio and podcast projects, running communities and various things that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Some of those projects are still active. Some belong firmly to another era of the internet. I'm keeping them here because they're part of the history of TYPECAST.
Cancer : Your Story
I created the guest-post series Cancer : Your Story to give people somewhere to write openly about their experiences of cancer and to help break some of the taboos around talking about it.
Neuroblastoma also has a deeply personal place in the history of this blog and will continue to have a place here.
Soundtrack To My Life
Music has always been a big part of TYPECAST. What started as one post about the soundtrack to my own life grew into a long-running series featuring other people's stories and the music attached to them.
You can still browse the Soundtrack To My Life archive and find out how to take part.
The Commercial Bit
TYPECAST is now primarily a personal, non-commercial blog.
I do occasionally consider collaborations, reviews or projects where they genuinely fit the things I already write about, but I'm no longer interested in publishing generic sponsored articles or unrelated paid links simply for the sake of filling space.
Any commercial relationship will be clearly disclosed. You'll find collaboration and disclosure information in the sidebar.
And Now?
Mostly, I'm trying to get back to why I started blogging in the first place.
Writing because I have something to say.
Writing because someone else might recognise themselves in it.
Writing because sometimes a thought needs more than an Instagram caption.
And occasionally digging something out of the TYPECAST archive and wondering what on earth I was thinking.