How To Use Twitter As A Motivational Tool

Twitter: Motivator, Not Time Waster I’ve been motivated, inspired, and just given a good old kick up the bum, by an established writer I follow on Twitter, John Birmingham. If You Haven’t Already Heard of John Birmingham The book that turbo-charged John Birmingham’s writing career, He Died With a Falafel In His Hand, is a [...]

If I Were A Geek, Just For a Day

Frustration and Computers During the 13 years I’ve been working on computers, designing websites, and studying online marketing, there have been times of frustration. Moments when I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve, but couldn’t quite work out how to do it. Fortunately, the frustrations of computers and the Internet are balanced out when [...]

Self-Motivation and Co-Motivation

Motivation and Other People I’ve been interested in the power of other people to motivate you for a while. I’ve discovered that things like stopping smoking are much easier when you have a friend to give up with. When you’re finding it hard, you can call on your friend and they’ll help you pull through. [...]

Blogging Away With Growing Success

Writing a blog’s an up and down thing. One day I love it, then the next day I wonder why I bother at all. Especially when my dear husband sends me cruel little jokes about bloggers like that one, where bloggers are compared unfavorably to monks. I hardly found it funny at all, so I [...]

Writer’s Rite of Passage: Rejection Slips

In March I sent a story idea, and an example of my writing, to the editor of a local newspaper, and received my first rejection as a writer. The full story on my first attempt to kick start my writing career is here. Come June, I was overdue for a second attempt. Becoming a Travel [...]

Maintain Motivation: Celebrate Your Successes

Recognise Your Achievements Last week was my oldest child’s 11th birthday, a true milestone for both of us. Taking a rare moment out of mothering and work, I had time to realise that it’s a real privilege to watch someone evolve from birth to puberty. Previously a helpless baby, he’s now reached the the cusp [...]

Search Engine Terms for Blogging

The Fine Art of Search Engine Optimisation Some people have found this site by typing totally ludicrous and, in some cases, inappropriate phrases into the search engines. It all goes to show how hard it is to find the information you’re really looking for on the Internet because I’m pretty sure that the people who [...]

How To Break the Blogging Rules

Inspiration, Information and Idiosyncrasies for Living Your Dream Despite 12 years of online marketing experience and a good understanding of the rules of blogging and social networking, I’m breaking all the rules and doing my own thing here. I know I’m supposed to be targeting a specific audience and focusing all my articles on one [...]

Reading List for Writers, Travelers and Parents

Ever-Growing Reading List Of course this book list isn’t comprehensive, I’m just trying to get the ball rolling and I’ll be adding to this as I read more and rack my brain for those old favourites. If there’s anything I’ve missed, or that I need to read, please tell me. I spend so much time [...]

The Joy of Text

For the Love of Reading As well as writing, reading is essential for any writer. I’ve always loved reading and I’ve managed to instill that love of books into my three children. Not that I really tried, it’s more a case of when in doubt, we read a book. If kids are tired, bored, sad, [...]