Nearly 200
Today’s writing will my 198th blog. I was going to mention it when I reached the 200 milestone, but will do so today in case I get way laid this week. My Squarespace subscription is due for renewal on February 8th, even though the website wasn’t launched until February 22nd, (22.2.22) at 2.22pm, but it seems a good time to reflect on the year’s writings.
The point of the website was a platform to sell my books. I had initial sales after the launch but they have been minimal of late. I really do need to do more marketing.
My friend, who created the website, had me in mind when she chose Squarespace – ‘’easy to use and no coding to put in,’’ she said. Which it has been. Thank heavens, because I am not very computer literate. Anyone who has read all my blogs would be getting a good insight into what makes me tick by now. In many of them I have disclosed my shortcomings, my annoyances and snippets of recall from my past, as well as the things I love and enjoy.
When I wrote both books, I tried to keep them spiritually orientated, sharing much more of the spiritual than anything else, though in the blogs, I am exposing more of my ordinary life – walks along the beach, swims, trips away and the like.
After my website went online, my friend encouraged me to write regular blogs in order to create interest in my books. That was my initial spur in getting started. I still haven’t got much of a following, but I am persevering in the hope that one day I will find a few more readers and as another friend pointed out, it is a library for new people to browse through.
I don’t think there is any rule for a blog. My other reasons for writing them include keeping my hand in the craft, sharing relevant bits of knowledge, having something new for regular viewers of the website to see and because I love writing. I never think of my blog as a chore, rather something I enjoy. Perhaps, if I was writing another book, I might not do blogs so regularly, but without a book on the go, it is a great way for me to keep my hand in the craft I enjoy so much.
I like pulling out a photo to accompany a blog too, though I have been asked why I have a photo of a sunset when I am writing about something entirely different. As I have explained in another blog, I like colour, so it is usually something pretty that I put with the writing. My problem now, is that I can’t remember if I have used a particular photo or not. I need to find some way of cataloguing the one’s used, so that I don’t repeat them. I have another bad habit too, of taking zillions of photos of one sunset, for example, and not deleting the extras, so often it is difficult to decide exactly what photo was used and to a reader they may appear the same even though they are not.
Finding something to write about is sometimes difficult too, but I have learnt to go with the thought that comes into my mind, even if I don’t know where the rest of the story is going, because that thought won’t go away until I write about it. Are the blogs boring? Quite possibly, but this is a world-wide platform. There must be some people out there interested in what life is like living at the top of the North Island of New Zealand, surely.