Latest Articles from The Vandal AKA Derek Haines

US English Is Only A Dialect

The English language is from England, not the USA I am writing this post in exasperation, and out of frustration, after receiving a number of messages, emails and social media comments from US grammar nazis in recent weeks, who through their ignorance, fail to comprehend that I write in British English. US English is a dialect, and as such, has its own set of grammar, spelling and lexical forms, which differ from British English. However, these American grammar nazis seem to believe that US English is gospel. Well, it ain’t! I use Oxford, and not Webster’s altered English. American English, or United States (U.S.) English, is the set of dialects of

Being A Writer

When being a writer was different A very long, long time ago when times were different there existed people who called themselves writers. They were a pleasant bunch of daydreamers, incessant travellers and occasionally, scallywags. Being a writer or even better, an author, meant lazing on desert islands sipping cocktails or being a bar philosopher or perhaps travelling to exotic places on the back of a hefty advance. All with the intention of finding inspiration for a story. Or better still, having a jolly good time before your publisher caught up with you and started ranting about deadlines. These glamorised folk didn’t have to worry too much about accuracy on their

My Mother Tongue

Some of you may know that I’m an Aussie. Albeit dropped head first into living in Switzerland nearly twenty years ago. While life is just bliss, the one thing I miss is speaking (and writing) in my mother language. Ocker! Just in case you get lost once I change my language into Ocker, or Strine as it is better known, here’s a handy Aussie dictionary to help you out if you get lost. Strewth Mate! From the time I took a Captain Cook at Switzerland I thought, ‘You bloody ripper’. Just a quick squizz at The Alps and I was stoked! The tinnies were just as good as back in Oz

How To Increase Blog Traffic

How can you boost blog traffic to your site? There is not a lot of use slaving away on your blog if no one reads it. Every blogger would like to increase blog traffic, but where do you begin? While attracting subscriptions to a blog’s RSS feeds is still considered one of the best ways to keep your readers, times are changing. More and more blog readers are coming from referrals, searches and links. The best resource to use to analyse your blog traffic is Google Analytics. It’s a ‘must have’ tool. A check on my own blog’s traffic sources for the last six months led me to some interesting