Tag: 2012 posts

WordPress Wonders

writeanne9 Comments
English: WordPress Logo
 WordPress Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I want to say many,many thanks to WordPress – the hosting platform  for this blog. It’s high time I did.

I’ve been blogging for three years now and have put up 180 posts. I started blogging as a way of publicising my book but it rapidly became more than that. It has now become a sort of journal with posts about my writing life and real life, about art, nature, and any other stuff that interests me, winds me up, amazes me or just makes me stop and think.

'Write Enough' production centre
‘Write Enough’ production centre

I really enjoy writing for the blog and WordPress certainly make it a painless process. It doesn’t cost anything and it’s well supported. The Help Forums are tremendous if you do get stuck and are staffed by both WordPress techies and volunteer bloggers with expertise – something for which, as a bit of a technical numpty, I’m mightily grateful. There are loads of ‘looks’ to choose from for one’s blog and it’s very straightforward to get one set up. And the bods at WordPress are forever improving the tools and applications that are available.

WordPress recently sent me my 2012 report. This was so useful – letting me see such things as – which posts were the most popular – ‘Language as a Barrier to Communication’ was in the number 1 spot; which posts got most comments and who commented the most. Thanks to Anne Mackle – a twitter friend of mine – for the highest number of comments. You can visit Anne’s own very entertaining blog on (whisper it) Blogspot at http://cassam-isanyonethere.blogspot.co.uk

I follow several other WordPress blogs. One that I’m really taken with is written by another twitter friend and writer, Alison Wells. Alison’s blog is always interesting but is even more so just now. She is doing a series of posts on mental health with particular reference to writers. I can highly recommend it. See it at http://alisonwells.wordpress.com

Another blog I’ve just started to follow was flagged up by the folks at WordPress in their  look back at 2012’s successful blogs. I was taken by one called ‘Dar’s 52 Mondays project’ – where Dar aimed to brighten up Mondays with a weekly post. She has a lovely, bright, fascinating blog about ‘nature, creativity, art and more – hmm, sounds familiar 🙂 – and it can be found at http://darhosta.wordpress.com

So THANKS WordPress and here’s to another year of enjoyable, informative and well supported blogging.

AND THANKS to everyone who bothers to read ‘Write Enough’

P.S. a wee trailer for the 2013’s posts – there will be book, TV, cinema and art reviews, guest posts, posts about writing, about island life, social networking and other preoccupations of this subversive old bat.

Slainte Mhath/Cheers – to all who facilitate and who read this blog. I appreciate you.

New Year, New Look and a Brief Glance Back

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“Another year over and what have I done?” – to sort-of-quote John Lennon? Don’t worry I’m not about to give a detailed round-up of my exciting life in 2011. Apart from anything else a lot of it’s been documented here on the blog already. Suffice to say we moved house several times, we coped with illness, hospitalisation and a redundancy, as well as enjoying a lovely spring time holiday in North Berwick, attending our daughter’s wedding in September and rejoicing in the birth of our first grandchild in December. 2012 will see us move into our long-term new home and we’ve already got another spring time holiday planned.

This is my first blog post of the new year (apart from the January stones that I’m putting up each day of course) and I’ve been having a think how I’m going to develop ‘Write Enough’ this year. And in the best tradition of New Year resolutions, I’m going to give it a bit of a makeover. A new up-to-date avatar of me is the most obvious change (should be showing soon). Also, as I work fulltime and have several other writing projects on the go – two novels to redraft and rewrite and get ready for editing, my bi-monthly column for the writers’ magazine ‘Words with Jam’, a couple of competitions to prepare for, and my already published book to promote – besides the blog, I want to give my posts a tighter structure and to do a bit of forward planning.

So what can readers expect? Well, first of all, I’m going to stick, as far as possible, to Tuesday postings. The first Tuesday of the month (from next month) I’m going to post pieces on island life – to give readers a flavour of what life is like on a Hebridean island. On the second Tuesday each month I’m going to do a Rant and a Rave – i.e. I’ll do my grumpy old woman/subversive old bat thing on an issue that’s bothering me (the Rant) as well as finding something to  praise, such as a blog  or read-of-the-month, (the Rave). Third Tuesday will be a book review and final Tuesday will take the form of a monthly gossip on ‘reading, writing and other news’. In a five Tuesday month, the fourth one will be a repost of a popular blog item from 2010 0r 2011.

But before I say a final farewell to 2011, I’d just like to name three favourite literary items from last year.

Fiction book of the year: ‘Kimi’s Secret’ by John Hudspith – I blogged here about this amazing book for readers 10-100 who enjoy a rattling good fantasy tale.

Non-fiction book of the year: ‘The Warmth of the Heart prevents your Body from Rusting’ by Marie de Hennezel – a wonderful and uplifting take on ageing.

Blog of the Year: Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover http://randomjottings.typepad.com Elaine Simpson-Long’s excellent, exemplary and entertaining blog.

Now bring on 2012!