How to Keep the Momentum Going?

I had a fantastic run with my Christmas stories on Suite101. I'd really only just figured out the SEO 'stuff' and it sure made a difference! Now that Christmas is over, page views have bottomed out. I'm not worried because I believe that's an established pattern but I do feel a bit flat and wondering how to keep the momentum going. The last few stories I wrote before Christmas were very intense as I tried to hone the keywords.

As a feature writer, I'm committed to posting a story a week in my topic which is NZ travel. A lovely visit to Paradise Valley Springs made a recent story. I went with my daughter and grandsons for their Parents-as-First-Teachers end-of-year Christmas picnic. I love all animals but the big cats are especially wonderful. The lion enclosure at Paradise Valley lets you get quite close to these fabulous creatures - we 'oooh' and 'aaah' but they are splendidly indifferent to us!

Another recent story is about the Ngongotaha Trout Hatchery - an interesting place to visit. There's no entry fee to the grounds of the trout hatchery, so for families on holiday it's a great place to stretch the legs, have a picnic and learn something about hatching and releasing trout which is the core business of the hatchery.

CV Writing and Job Searching

Over the past 18 years or so I must have prepared 100s of CVs. The CV (or resume) and cover letter are the tools that will secure an interview. It's a waste of time sending away anything that looks sloppy - but it's amazing how lightly many people take these so-important documents.

As a general rule I think it's useful to get the CV prepared by someone who has experience in CV writing - you need someone who understands what information needs to be collected and recorded in order to best match the job description. People often want to include everything when what recruitment specialists are looking for is brevity and relevance. Although I'm mostly transitioning away from CV writing, here are a couple of links to Suite101 articles about CV preparation and job searching.

This is a fun card I made for my son's birthday. Made a collage first (hours spent searching through old magazines and cutting out scraps) then had it photocopied onto card. I love the original so much I'm having it framed. Adam loved it too. He's been away living on the other side of the world now for 10 years - such a long time with only a few visits in between. I made his crown with a scrap of wallpaper from his grandmother's bathroom. The fantail was photocopied from one of my own paintings to remind him of home.

All the images are copyright so this is just for my own amusement - not in any way for sale. Acknowledging NZ Resene Habitat magazine, Australian Home & Garden, NZ Home & Garden, Australian Country Looks, Air New Zealand Kia Ora magazine, NZ Her Magazine.

Busily writing for Suite 101

I started writing for Suite101 online magazine a year ago. Through the year I only managed to do the minimum number of articles required (10-12 over three months) but with a bit more time in October and November I posted a few more stories and learnt a lot about search engine optimisation. The Suite101 work has a lot of potential to build a tidy passive income over the next few years.

With Christmas coming, I've posted a few Christmas-related stories and they're doing well. I like the idea of donating a goat to a charity for Christmas. It's easy to get sucked into the Christmas-marketing whirlpool at this time of year, charging off to to buy mass-produced articles because the advertising's been imprinted on our psyche. But buying unique one-off gifts of original art is a cool and special thing to do for someone.

Sustainable Christmas Gifts - Paper, Cards, Junk Mail, Old Books

Over the weekend I had lots of fun using up old Christmas papers and cards to make gift wrap, cards and gift tags. I cut out shapes from old Christmas cards, junk mail and magazines to make a Christmas collage, stuck it all onto a piece of cardboard and had it photocopied in colour and black and white.

I started an altered book called 'Flowers from my Mother's Garden' - so far only one page done but it's a start! My mother's a beautiful person and she's always had a gorgeous garden. Some of those business cards that accumulate were used up to make Christmas gift tags - covered up the business details and stuck pics on the reverse side.

I was in my natural environment being up to my neck in bits of paper and glue and wrote an article about Sustainable Papercraft Christmas Gifts for Suite101.

Romance Writers and Psycho-Drama

On Saturday I made the two-hour trip to Piopio for the October meeting of our romance writers group (pic is Lake Whakamaru where I made a quick stop to take some photos). We met at a cafe called the Fat Pigeon for lunch then moved on to Jenny's home for a most enlightening afternoon. Our guest speaker was a psycho-drama specialist, Ana Namu. Ana demonstrated how we could use psycho-dramatic techniques to explore characterisation. It was a fascinating session. Actually putting oneself physically in the place of your characters, speaking aloud to them and responding likewise seemed to bring those elusive beings out of hiding. A marvellous way to challenge both writer and character to dig a little deeper and find solutions that might not be apparent when quietly thinking in front of the laptop.

The drive to Piopio along State Highway 30 was lovely. Late spring, the countryside glowingly green, old fruit trees with tangled branches growing by the roadside, spectacular views at the top of steep inclines, dips into quiet little valleys. Made me appreciate again how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful country.

Farewell Sir Howard Morrison

While we share the same home town, I never met Sir Howard Morrison, nor any members of his family. Sadly, I have no ear for music, but I certainly feel very sad that Sir Howard has died. I wonder if it's simply to do with getting older oneself, looking backwards along the trail of years.
I don't remember a time in my life when Sir Howard wasn't in it - 'My Old Man's An Allblack' emanating from the white bakelite radio that sat on the kitchen bench in our home in an isolated forestry village; smiling handsomely from the black and white TV set when our family moved into the suburbs; his rendition of 'How Great Thou Art' at a Royal Command Performance (colour TV this time and I can remember exactly where I was at the time); live performances at Rotorua Lakeside and Stadium concerts.
It could be that it's my own aging I grieve for, as much or more than, Sir Howard's death.