One thing I have always used semi-colons for is to avoid writing in short, choppy sentences. I never cared for the blunt phrasing of Hemingway.

Semi-colons are not so final and brutal as periods. Of course, periods are used for the purpose of ending a thought; semi-colons are the stream of consciousness in our writing that does not stop abruptly like a period or waver uncertainly like a comma.

Semi-colons hang in a sentence like the scent of jasmine you inhale before you walk on to another part of the garden. They let you linger for a moment, and then you move to another flower--but still in the same garden.

I will NEVER abandon the semi-colon.