Welcome!
Who am I?
My name is Gaines, and I live in southeastern Australia, in the Blue Mountains. I love the wilderness, spicy food, interesting music, and good conversation.
Besides blogging here at Otherspect, I write science fiction, fantasy, and other stuff.
Nice to meet you!
So, what exactly is this thing called “Otherspect”?
It’s a place for stories, thoughts, and images.
It’s a blog, a storytelling and discussion forum, a publishing imprint, and more.
I decided to call it “Otherspect” (a combination of the words “other” and “perspective”) because there are so many ways to observe the universe other than through the lenses of our own individual experiences and innate sets of senses. Each person on Earth has a uniquely wonderful and ever-changing window on the world; despite myriad similarities, we all differ in terms of exactly how and what we perceive, experience, think, feel, and so on. That’s exciting, as it means each of us has something interesting and valuable — some other “spect”, if you will — to add to this ongoing conversation called existence.
I draw inspiration from all that immense variety. My blog posts might wander from topic to topic, and many may seem to be about my own experiences, but they all do have that theme in common: They are born of a celebration and, fundamentally, an awe of the sheer diversity of the human experience (and non-human ones, as well, for we humans are but a small part of the whole).
It is my hope, therefore, that you’ll join me on this journey, so that together we can discover and explore some new ways of viewing this wonderful universe we live in. Why? Well, for the fun of it, first of all; and second of all, because the more we understand, the more empathy we develop, and the less likely we then are to blow each other up.
If you would like to add to the conversation, there are “comment/discuss” buttons under each blog post; or, you can head over to the Otherspect Storytelling and Discussion Forum directly by clicking here.
I also welcome you to send me an experience, thought, or image of your own that you’d like me to write about here on this blog, as long as it is brief. However, please bear in mind that I reserve the right to say “no thank you” or to reword things in whatever way I deem appropriate to this website. By sending me your idea or story, you are giving me express permission to change it or reword it however I choose. I promise, however, to do my best to keep to the spirit of what you have written, and only make changes I feel are absolutely necessary.
Send via email to: info At otherspect D ot com , with instructions as to whether you would like the source of your idea or story (you) to remain anonymous or not. (Unless otherwise instructed, I’ll credit you with the idea, but will keep any personal or identifying info out of it, either by abbreviating your name to a single letter of the alphabet or referring to you as "someone I know" or "a friend" etc; also, as a matter of policy, I will keep any other person or persons you mention anonymous no matter what, out of respect for their privacy.)