Abundant, Bold, Confident, Determined, Empathetic, Forthright, Grumpy, Healthier, Individual, Just me, Kind, Literate, Mellifluous, Natural, Optimistic, imPatient, Quirky, Real-world, Single-minded, unTreatable, Unwound, Verbal, Wilful, eXtraordinary, Young and old, Zero-tolerance.
A marketing professional and copywriter with ambitions to be a novelist. Crazy or what? But I’ve made a start. My first novel, Singled Out, published in 2015, is available from Amazon. Find out more here.
In September 2015, aged 55 and hauling an uncomfortable 270lbs around, I embarked on a long-overdue lifestyle overhaul; healthier habits in the food and exercise departments, a steady but ambitious weight-loss goal, and most significantly, a big shift in mindset.
Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to healthy lifestyle, weight-loss and the way society handles the subject of obesity. I thought I’d blog about this for a while, see if it strikes a chord with anyone.
December 2015
Hi Julie! I really enjoy your blog and hearing about your journey as a writer (you have some great writing tips, too). I’ve nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award. I hope you’ll accept! http://rjwalkermiller.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/one-lovely-blog-award/
Hi Rob – I’m so glad you’re enjoying my blog and thanks for the nomination for the One Lovely Blog Award, which I’m very happy to accept 🙂 I shall work on my post and onward nominations in the next day or so, so look out for it before or over the weekend.
Hi Julie
As you are an experienced blogger perhaps you’d be able to advise me how to increase readership of a blog I’ve just started! I want to post mainly creative writing – is this not exciting enough for a bog?!
Hi erikleo. I’m not sure I qualify as an ‘experienced blogger’ and like you, I’ve certainly struggled with finding a topic and then an audience. I got lucky a few months ago when WordPress selected one of my posts for their ‘Freshly Pressed’ bulletin. That brought me a significant increase in subscribers, and numbers have continued to increase steadily since then. In the post they selected, ‘Freshly Pressed’ thought I made some good points in a humorous way. The piece was about editing my writing and you can see it here: https://awritersnotepad.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/one-word-at-a-time/. I see you’re into poetry so you might be interested to know that, prior to being Freshly Pressed, the post which had generated most interest was one about poetry, and my failure to comprehend what makes a poem, a poem (https://awritersnotepad.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/yes-but-is-is-poetry/). As far as my blog goes, posts which seem to gain the greatest response are either humorous or they make points which other readers identify with. If your creative writing has overarching topics or is genre specific, this should draw an audience too – for example, whenever I write about Turkey or aspects of being single (my book is set on a singles holiday in Turkey) this draws people with specific interests. Being contentious is also a winner! Apart from that, your way to an audience should involve posting regularly – I’d say at least weekly – following and commenting on other people’s blogs and responding to those who comment on your own – that’s all about being active and engaged, and it’s what makes blogging fun. That’s about all I can offer you from my limited and non-expert perspective. I hope it helps, and good luck with yours!
Thanks Julie for your helpful response. I’m new to this so am learning on the job! I posted 10 tips for writing poetry as I read about something called ‘pillar posts’ – these are posts which don’t go out of date, so I get the point! Ive had a few responses to other posts. I think I’m focussing on creative writing with a nature-content but not sure as Ive also written about films and travel ( I worked in Turkey as an esol tutor for a while!)
I’ll read your stuff soon.
Thanks again.
oooh always glad to meet another Julie. I too am aspiring to write about my life and the things I’ve been through in my short 21 years. VERY new to blogging, checking out other profiles and other people… Nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too, Julie. Good luck with your writing – I wish I’d started when I was 21, not 50!
Good to meet you too, Julie, and well done for embarking on your writing so early. I wish I’d started at 21 instead of 50!
LOVE your “about” page and beautiful smile! I can’t wait to see/read the story you’ve given life to. I’m a beginner blogger (though, seasoned-with-age mama) with an entirely separate day job. Writing is my passion and am so happy to stumble across talented folks like you to inspire me.
Thank you so much! Your visit to my blog has prompted my own visit to yours – and I shall enjoy reading future posts. But especially, I shall enjoy your spectacular photography! Keep up with the blogging too… it does take a while for things to get going, but I think you’re already doing well.
Thank you so much, Julie! I’m a complete fan of the WP community because of the genuine support we give each other.
Hugs and Happy Writing!
Michelle
Wishing you all the success in the world with finding an agent. I’ve been there and it’s a challenging expedition taking us far from our cosy little writing caves. The strong and hardy hunter will prevail. I feel like this should be said in Sir David Attenborough’s voice 🙂
Thanks for your encouragement! I’m well aware of the supply vs demand situation as regards agents and debut novelists, but if I don’t try, I’ll never know. I’m not sure about the ‘strong and hardy hunter’ in me, but I’m pretty resilient.
Thanks so much for the blog visit and follow. You’ve got a great site here. I look forward to reading more. Good luck with the agent shopping!
Thank you! I came across your blog via Dylan Hearn’s review of your book on Suffolk Scribblings. Sounds like a great read and one I’ve added to my list.
Thank you! I just saw his post. So thoughtful of him. And thank you for the Twitter follow-back, too. 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
I tried. Got a few articles published in decent magazines, three childrens’ books, a few cartoons, a minor prize in a contest … but when my ‘real’ works reached ninety rejections I decided I couldn’t write. (Dammit, I’m a Leo and rejection sticks in the craw—we prima donnas need endless adulation, not blasted slips.)
But now the gatekeepers are down—it’s self-publishing for free on the web. Tally ho and let the market decide. If the Great Unwashed like you enough to buy, they will, and that’s capitalism at its very best. All one has to do is master the jargon (geek speak) and promote the work(s) sufficiently.
I might even post about this on my own blog. It was a challenge but finally one at least of my babies is out there testing the waters as it were. Not a single ‘sale’ so far. Twitch twitch.
Novice authors need real persistence and a thick skin when attempting to go the mainstream publishing route. It’s great that there other options today – self-publishing, e-publishing – but they carry a bigger responsibility for marketing. Nobody said it would be easy though, did they? 🙂
Ouch. A valid point … now I just write for me. A small audience and one never satisfied. That’s show business, I guess.
Thanks so much for this nomination, Dylan. As I commented on your own blog, I will happily participate in the Blog Hop. Give me a few days and I’ll be back at y’all.
Hi Julie. Found your blog via Sacha Black – The Bloggers Bash. Looking forward to meeting everyone this weekend, should be interesting!
It’s setting up to be a great day, although let’s hope autumn decides to retreat again and give us a summer weekend!
Hey, BillP! It’s great to hear from you, and I’m so glad to see you’re on the mend after your nasty BigC scare. I noticed you hadn’t blogged for a while and I must admit, I wondered if this might have been down to the illness. But you always had such wonderful support around you – it’s great to know you’ve pulled it out the bag!
Ah… that permanent blogger’s challenge… getting people to like and comment! I have no answers, I’m afraid, as I too look enviously upon the massed follower clans of other bloggers. I guess we all want ‘more’, wherever we are! The only thing to do is keep writing content that people can connect with. That way, at least, is the ‘authentic’ way. Truth is, we are all writing for ourselves – writing for our own reasons, exorcising our ghosts, chasing our dreams, seeking to inspire or be inspired by others, or simply for the pleasure of the written word.
Thanks for such lovely comments on the ‘new me’… 70 pounds down makes a big difference and fortunately I didn’t have to get ill to achieve it.