Blogging – Head Above Water

Last week Hazel Gaynor (Hot Cross Mum) and I featured in an article in the Irish Independent by Bernice Harrington on Mums and blogging. Here is the Facebook link to the article which was the cover story in the Mothers and Babies supplement (requires a further download) I started blogging in April 2009 and as is mentioned in the article it’s had a tremendous impact on my development as a writer and becoming part of the general blogging, writing, and fiction (fabulous #fridayflash) communities. In November I was asked to blog for the national irish writing site www.writing.ie which has been a great experience. My blog, under Guest Blogs is called Random Acts of Optimism and covers writing, headspace and in particular short stories and flash fiction. Following on from some of my articles on writing.ie I’ve been interviewed on flash fiction as a literary medium for the Irish Times and will let you know when that comes out.

Blogging can be time consuming and it’s necessary to prioritize and schedule blogging activity so that it doesn’t take over. My main priority is to write literary fiction, at the moment that means finishing the first draft of a novel. However blogging has given me wonderful connections and opportunities. Without sounding too calculating (I hope) it can be a great way for writer’s of presenting yourself to the world, both your personality and competency as a writer and your interests and views on literature. It is a lovely way of connecting with and getting know others in your own locality and further afield. I’m preaching to the converted here I am sure but I just wanted to let you know a little bit of what blogging has brought me. What about others who blog, what is the greatest bounty blogging has given you?

In the manner of all things serendipitous, my twitter pal Derek Flynn has written this insightful post with brilliant quotes on What’s the Point of Blogging and on writing.ie the lovely Caren Kennedy gets to the heart of what blogging is with I’m blogging for blogs sake are you?

Just back from a mother and baby conference weekend where the baby speakers had us enthralled and the mummies went ga ga over the plush surroundings. It was a meeting of the hardworking volunteers of the fabulous Cuidiu (caring support) organisation for parents, particularly of babies and small children. If anyone deserves an award it is the volunteers of all kinds the length and breadth of the country who are making life-changing differences to ordinary people through their self-less efforts.

But speaking of awards it would be churlish of me to delay any longer in accepting my first blogging award, presented to me by the lovely Barbara from Serenity Space whose blog is an oasis of peace and all things wholesome. She gave me the award and some very kind words about my blog. It is a condition of the award that I pass it on so I would like to present it to:

Crime writer Sam Blake for the excellent new blog Blood Red Ink. As well as documenting the journey she has made with her crime and romance novels she has some excellent writing tips which are well worth reading and re-reading. The site also looks fabulous.

I would also like to highly recommend the following sites

This itch of writing

Inky Girl

Help I need a publisher

But see my blogroll for other excellent sites.

In accepting the award I need to mention – for reasons set down at the beginning of time and known only to the creator – seven things that I like. These would be:

Finishing a nice hot cup of tea before it starts to cool

Picking raspberries

Galaxy bars

The moment I know I’ve nailed a story

Pink blossom against blue sky

Brown eyes and long eyelashes

Witty banter

Oh my Goodness, I nearly forgot. Can I add dancing?

And stones, really should be top of this list, I have a fascination with stones, the colour, the shape, the type, the feel. If you visit my house there are collections of stones all around the house.

Receiving this award is timely evidence of a groundswell of good feeling towards and awareness of my blogging efforts. Thank you Barbara for recognising these efforts. Thanks also again to Debbie (Inky girl) who almost singlehandedly exploded my blog stats last week when she tweeted a link to my Procrastination post. Have a look at this

Yeah. Awesome. The graph begins to rise when I join twitter and the exponential growth occurs when my Procrastination post was retweeted by more than thirteen people following @inkyelbows recommendation.

All in all I am delighted to be reaching out and connecting with people, receiving and giving comments and I will endeavour to continue to deserve the given accolade and try to provide informative, inspirational and compassionate content.