Blogging… It was always one of those super-fancy things to me that fashionistas do. Or trendsetters. Or political activists. Or supercool people who had enough money for shopping every week so they could post ‘hauls’.

But as I’m growing my author name (which, in marketing terms equals a brand), more and more people kept telling me: you need a blog. You need to market yourself, not just your stories.

All right, I thought, how hard can it be? And then I learned you should never ask that question. ;) Pick a topic that interests you, someone said. Something that’s dear to you and that you can consistently write about every week. 

Um, okay. Writing?

No, never write about writing. Nobody’s interested except authors, and you want to address readers. You must have some hobby besides writing.

Um, yeah, I do. I love drawing, and Photoshop. I love messing with my website and coding new stuff. I love gaming, and I love everything about Japan and Japanese culture. And I love watching random documentaries about physics/science or history. In general, I love learning.

No, that’s too much. You have to pick one topic and stay with that. Look at the successful bloggers, they all write about one key topic: fashion, or beauty, or sports, or food/recipes or DIY.

Well, I can’t just pick one topic, because I don’t consistently do them all–nor do I want to start a blog on either of them just talking about that.

Well, then find a topic you can write about once a week. Something that’s you and that represents you.

…

And from that point on the conversation just started moving in circles. I spent days and nights wondering about what I could probably blog about: something that’s me, but it has to be consistently one topic; it has to be related to me, but can’t bore the readers; what could I possibly have to offer?

Some of the things that popped into my mind was:

  • maybe I could write about American literature. Or write cultural commentaries. After all that’s what I studied for seven years. But then again, that’s not really personal and more fitting for a journal like “The Paris Review”.
  • maybe I should do something along the lines of fashion? After all I used to work for one of Germany’s most popular fashion blog for over 4 years. But then again, that doesn’t really interest me, and besides, I don’t wanna spend the money on brand clothes.
  • maybe I should just write something like a public diary? But then again, who’d be interested in reading about my life. It’s rather boring really, and besides, I don’t wanna step into the public light so much.

And then finally I realized that the diversity of topics is an essential part of me. I’m not 100% passionate about a particular thing (except writing), but I’m passionate about a lot of things. I love learning new things, I love doing things I’ve never done, or sometimes re-doing things I last did as a child. And I decide what to do on the go.

My tastes in everything, hobbies, music, movies–even books–have always been largely ‘inconsistent’ (measure by mainstream standards). You can’t fit them into a drawer. And I realized that this is what makes me me. I crave learning, and I do what I want. Whenever I come across something interesting, I become a sponge sucking up even the last drop of information–and I remember it later.

This is me.

So a blog representing me can, per se, not be anything else but diverse. Thus, I came up with “Over The Rainbow”, because I want this blog to be as beautifully chaotic, as naively excitable, as widely diverse as I am.

So welcome to my crazy little world, look around and be inspired, annoyed, amused, or entertained. Whatever you prefer. :)

At the end of the day, maybe you’ll like it enough to follow me on Twitter, Facebook or other social media channels. Or maybe even give one of my stories a try.