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This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
All the way from Brisbane, Australia, I’d like to introduce miss Susan Cooper. That is to say, I am in Australia, not Susan. (Australian blog post soon to follow).
But first, let’s talk about Susan. Her blog, Finding Our Way Now, defines her as a writer, artist, and accidental blogger (a phrase I love). Her blog posts revolve around recipes, daily experiences, and my favorite thing ever (or one of them): wine. She lives by a winery! How awesome is that. And what’s more? She’s formed relationships with a few PR firms to review all sorts of wines on her blog, a gig I think we can all appreciate.
I also love the way she presents her blog posts. They are neat like manicured lawns. In this one, she tells a story about her mom teaching her sister in law how to drive, and she created little digital cartoon-like pictures to illustrate the story. It was like watching a little cartoon, I loved it.
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
I am by nature a storyteller & teacher. My blog now allows me the opportunity to share the stories I use to teach lessons I learned in life and in the workplace. It has rekindled my passion for drawing. I love to cook, so it was natural that I would share all the fun & easy recipes I develop or find. I am lucky enough to live in the wine country. Partnering with multiple marketing and PR firms has allowed me the opportunity to share information about the various wines I find. Last but not least is my ever-popular art page where I demonstrate how I create my drawings.
What makes this all the more interesting is I am dyslexic. So the act of writing for me is a serious challenge. It often takes me four times longer to create an article then it does for others without this disability.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
It has. My goal was to have a successful blog that others would enjoy. Through hard work and much help from various sources I’m getting there.
Because of blogging I have published a book and have others in the works. At the encouragement of my readers, I am now offering my art for sale in various forms. My interest in wine has attracted allot of attention and I now work with a few large PR firms to help support the vintners they represent. My blogging future looks very bright.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
I’m already there. The blog started as a diary and turned into a whole new outlet for me that never would have expected. I now use my camera in ways I never thought possible, I create my art on a weekly basis and I am now developing recipes that are shared by many. I have a wonderful mastermind group that I started over a year ago that has grown into a very powerful work/help group with a waiting list to join. Life is good, but what I have achieved so far has taken lot of learning, hard work, patience and determination. I realize that it will take the same continued education, energy, patience and determination to continue to achieve the success I desire.
I’m extremely grateful to have had such an overwhelming response to this passion series, and sincerely thank Susan for sharing her story with the Novel Quest audience. Cheers!
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
Sari Holtz put it best when she said she always feels better venting with her fingers rather than her voice. I feel the exact same way. Something about putting feelings down through type makes me feel like I’ve just finished an hour long therapy session, and as a mother of five, Sari certainly went about it the right way.
Sari’s blog, Sariously Speaking, was given to her as a birthday present from her husband on her 29th birthday. While it’s a little tough to blog weekly with her love-bundle of children, she’s fairly active on the site, and her posts revolve around her life in Israel, and musings on parenting, loss, and life in general. I find myself getting lost in her posts because her life is so different from what I am used to here in the U.S., and the way she tells stories about her past makes me feel like I’m reading a terrific book. I am so grateful to have connected with a blogger who has such fresh life perspectives to share.
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
I started blogging a bit more than two years ago, when my dear husband surprised me with a blog as a birthday gift. It was my 29th birthday, and I was a bit stressed about the imminent 3-0, albeit a full year early! I was feeling like I hadn’t really developed my own emotional maturity and that I didn’t really know myself well, so he/we thought a blog would be a good outlet for me to publicize some of my issues, concerns and confusions, and to get to know myself, perhaps for the first time.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
I would say that the blog has helped me tremendously in the past few years. I’ve had the opportunities to write about some really intense issues, both painful ones and happy ones, including the surgical repair of my son’s ears so that he could hear properly for the first time in his life, and the death of my beloved grandfather, with whom I shared a relationship so close it was almost hard for me to put into words (and I’m a professional writer!).
By recording my thoughts on my blog, I’ve been able to take a critical look at the stressors in my life, many of which are real, and many of which are manufactured entirely by myself, and deserve to be revisited in a healthier way. Oftentimes, simply expressing my nervousness publicly makes me realize how much I have to be grateful for, and how sweating the small stuff is harming myself and my family.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
As the full-time working mother of 5 young children, I’ve long felt that I don’t have any hobbies that are ‘my own’. I don’t have time for regular yoga classes or women’s karaoke nights. I don’t do scrapbooking or needlepoint, and I don’t prepare elaborate recipes for fun. I can barely find time to make dinner on a regular day. But blogging has changed this, and has helped me to understand that it’s ok to make time for myself – that I’m not just a wife and mother, but also my own person.
In fact, following this realization, I’ve recently taken on my first ‘hobby’, which is building a new business, PearlClasp.com, an independent project that gives me creative freedom far beyond what my day job allows. Sure, that may not be the leisure pursuit that most people would choose, but it works for me, and has given me the chance to work on an interesting idea because I want to, not because I have to. Most importantly, blogging has become my creative outlet, my way to express myself and to understand myself in new and interesting ways, and I’ve found that I always feel better when I can share life’s joys and God’s gifts with a wide audience, or to vent with my fingers instead of my voice.
Feel free to browse some of Sari’s posts if you have some free time this week. She’d be more than happy to have you.
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
Marcie Kenny has created quite the artistic world for herself in her corner of the blogosphere. In fact the title of her blog is Marcie’s Nook, which implies that she’s created a place where she can display whatever creative inkling she has at any given moment. This, my friends, is what I truly love about blogging–the ability to create without permission.
What initially drew me to her blog was her gorgeous pictures of flowers and landscape, and how much fun she seemed to have experimenting with different art. There’s a strange and comforting peace in her art too, like there’s no need to impress anyone or to create anything that doesn’t fit with what she’s feeling. I love how she says “Now that my thoughts and pictures are out there I can’t stop!”
I think most bloggers feel the same way. It’s addicting, and gives you a hell of a direction. Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Yes, blogging for me has been a three year journey introducing myself, my love for the arts, and my use of paint, photography and words. It was a way for me to show my work. Painting started out in an art class I took using water colors. I then started using the blog as a way of letting people into my world of the arts. The water colors got some rave reviews from my blogging friends that I picked up along the way, so from there I worked with acrylic paints in a kit called Paint Your Own Master piece.
The photography started as a hobby, but then I started putting them on the blog. Blogging with photos brought more challenges, but with each picture I put on my blog, it showed how I had grown in talent, from using a hand held camera called a snappy camcorder to an upgrade to the Nikon Cool pix L310.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
The goals for my blog have been achieved through my weekly blogging. It has been kind of like my own personal museum of my creative mind. I have met many blogging friends along the way who encourage me to keep going.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
My blogging has brought out my passion for the arts! Now that my thoughts and pictures are out there I can’t stop. I keep moving forward with each blog I share. My latest paint project will be done on canvas. Stop by anytime and check out my work as I am also planning on working on new projects. It’s my world and welcome to it!
To see what Marcie has been up to, check out her little nook and leave her a comment if you see something you like. She’s been so sweet to participate in this series, I can’t thank her enough for opening up her creative space to the Novel Quest community. Till next time peeps!
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
A lot of times we don’t do something we want to do because we feel like we can’t, or we don’t believe it’s within our power to do it. I watched a terrific talk today by Seth Godin, and I realized (for the bazillionth time), that being afraid to fail is crap. Yeah, not everyone is going to like your product, or ‘get’ the story you’re trying to tell. But we weren’t meant to please everyone. And as Seth Godin says, most of the people doing brilliant work are not popular, and there isn’t a single product out there that everyone likes.
This brings me to Leah Carey, a woman doing extraordinary work on her blog The Miracle Journal by documenting small miracles every day, and encouraging others to see the miracles in their daily lives. Throughout her interview below, she talks about how a simple 8 days of unexpected awesome in her life completely revamped the way she thought about her entire world. She went from being in debt and at a job she didn’t like, to facilitating a healthy relationship with money, and building a business coaching people to think about what’s right in their lives, versus what’s wrong. I truly admire her outlook on life, and the beauty/positivity that she is bringing to the world.
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
I’ve struggled with varying degrees of depression throughout my life. When I started The Miracle Journal blog in January 2011, it was at a moment when I was feeling really down. I was drowning in debt, had recently left an unhappy relationship but also wasn’t happy being single, and I was in a job as a website designer that I didn’t like with no opportunity for advancement.
The Miracle Journal happened very organically – I had no intention of becoming a blogger! On the first day of January, an extraordinary “coincidence” happened and I put up a message on Facebook. Then every day for 8 days, something equally extraordinary occurred and I chronicled those things for my friends on Facebook. After 8 days, I realized that something quite extraordinary was going on and I should document it more carefully. That became The Miracle Journal, and from the moment I started it, it fundamentally changed my life and how I view the world.
To be specific, I had been walking around fixated on the idea that there was something wrong with me that needed to be fixed. I was always trying to find the piece of the puzzle that I couldn’t quite see that would magically make my life okay. When these things started happening in my life that I couldn’t possibly have created or controlled if I’d tried, it was like getting hit over the head by a two-by-four. Suddenly I was going through each day wondering, “When will the next extraordinary thing happen? What will I get to write about tonight?” In simple terms, I went from always asking, “What’s wrong?” to consistently asking, “What’s right?”
It didn’t change the fact that I had things in my life that I wasn’t happy about, but it helped me to start seeing other possibilities. I wasn’t as helpless to my circumstances as I had previously thought. And seeing that opened up space for more extraordinary things to happen!
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
In the 2.5 years since I started The Miracle Journal, EVERYTHING has changed! I now work in a job that I LOVE as a journalist. I am challenged to grow each day, I get to do a lot of fun and interesting things and then write about them, my co-workers demonstrate their respect and appreciation for me all the time, and I get paid to be a writer!
My relationship with money has changed drastically. My whole life I had thought I was irresponsible with money, a belief that was underscored by getting into such deep debt. Opening up to the possibility that there might be another option, I reached beyond my own fear and judgment that I was a bad person for being in debt, and asked someone who was good with money to help me. We created a plan and now I have a sense of controlling my money rather than letting it control me. I have been in debt-payment mode for 18 months and I’ve paid off approximately $20,000 – I never would have thought that was possible! The very act of making the payments each month is showing me that I am much more responsible than I gave myself credit for.
I’ve fallen deeply in love and then discovered that I am capable of surviving deep heartbreak. I trust myself more because I have shown myself through this process that I am worthy of my own respect. Now people come to ME for coaching – a far cry from the girl who thought she was a total screw up and would never have anything work out for her!
Every one of those changes has happened because I started viewing the world through the prism of The Miracle Journal – what’s going right and how can I amplify it? – rather than focusing on what was wrong and feeling helpless. And it has all played out on the pages of The Miracle Journal, which has been amazing; I now have a community of people who reach out to support me in my journey and to ask for support in theirs.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Absolutely. For quite a while I was blogging five days a week – it was my touchstone and it helped me to maintain this new mindset. Now I blog two to three times a week because I’ve gotten so busy reaching out to share the miracles with others. But those early days proved to me that I was able to start something and maintain it. That’s something I hadn’t thought I could do. Hitting the one year mark and realizing that I was still as excited to be writing The Miracle Journal as I was the first month was a HUGE victory for me. Then I started to believe that I could take on other projects that require focus, energy, and passion – I could write a book, I could have a relationship, I could build a business as a coach. All of these things are a result of the commitment I made to myself and my blog!
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please email me with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
I met Crystal through a fairly new social network called Kumbuya. She responded to my request to feature bloggers in this series, and is just like me in too many ways to ignore. Her specialties include writing, blogging, social media, photography and design, as well as video editing. Her blog, That Girl Crystal, is a colorful combination of her portfolio, resume, social media case studies, and just day-to-day awesomeness.
While her and I have a lot of creative hobbies in common, there are a lot of things she’s done that I aspire to do in the future, like public SPEAKING. Because of her theater background (did I mention she has a theater background), she is very comfortable speaking in front of large groups of people (enviably so). She’s also held actual writing jobs for popular web communities like Ning and Wet Paint (enviably so). And aside from all of the awesome, she’s funny. Just listen to the way she talks about her husband.
People say that watching TV all the time won’t get you anywhere, but my TV obsessions got me a husband (indirectly) and a job with Wetpaint in 2006 that became a new career.
And about her functionality.
I function in binary. Example: if you ask me for advice, I’ll either never get around to it or send you a five page manifesto with links and spreadsheets within 24 hours. There is no in between.
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
When I started blogging, it was back in the days of OpenDiary and it was very much a substitute for old school diaries. It was cringe-worthy, but I feel like we should all have those pre-teen, teenage, and twenty something feelings written down for posterity somewhere. Looking back on it now, I can draw a clear line between the person I was then and who I am now… what experiences shaped my personality, what life lessons particularly schooled me, and what mistakes I knew I wouldn’t repeat. In a creative way, I’ve always been a writer; you can ask my elementary and middle school teachers. At first, I thought that switching to journaling and then blogging was a shift away from the creative stories I used to write when I was younger, but then I realized that it was just a primer for writing about the life experiences I hadn’t had yet.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
My weekly columns are so unloved right now (thanks to a couple of job developments and the resulting time crunch), but setting those weekly writing slots for myself was a goal achievement in itself. Giving myself a reason to write…to collect my thoughts and get them in the computer every week is something I’m not so good at left to my own devices. Setting a deadline makes it happen more reliably.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Not only the motivation, but it helps me process my passions, as well. I got thrown into the community management and social media world around seven years ago, but it’s only in the past year or so that I’ve really started talking about my experiences… blogging, attending meetups, networking with other community managers. Often, I’ll blog about an event after I attend it, and during that process, I revisit the information learned, sometimes taking new things out of the same material. Always having that incoming flow of knowledge just makes me want to get out there and learn more.
To find out more about this awesomely creative gal, visit her blog. Give it a peek. She’s sweet and ya might learn something. Also, she was cool enough to link to A Novel Quest in her side bar! Probably the second blog or so that has ever linked to me. Excuse me while I get cracking on my reciprocation. 
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
“It is amazing what undercover talents and abilities we have we when believe in ourselves.”
This quote comes from Christine Tolhurst, on her blog Saved by Grace. It reminds me of that age-old Ghandi quote,
Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”
Blogging helped Christine believe in herself. I chose to feature her tonight because I am sucker for people whose lives have improved through blogging (as you can tell). It touches my heart.
In her interview, she talks about how blogging gave her the confidence to get back into the workforce, and overcome mental illness. Mental illness! That’s amazing. And looking at her blog, you can tell she loves it. She’s got everything neat and organized, and a classy design to boot. Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Blogging has been an amazing journey of self discovery for me. I suffer from mental illness and I am on disability. Up until I started blogging, I had always believed I was a failure and would stay that way. I never believed in myself or my talents and abilities. I don’t remember the exact reason I started blogging, but I do remember how great it felt to get my words out there, and start a journey to being productive. I have now been blogging for almost a year and a half. Pretty good for someone who seemed to always fail and give up on herself!
Not only has blogging made me realize I am a good writer, but it has also helped me focus, make goals, stick to goals, and push through, even when it gets hard. In fact, I hadn’t held a job in over 5 years until 3 months ago (outside of blogging of course!) and blogging gave me the confidence to jump back into working part time. I knew that if I could stick with my writing, I could and was capable of so much more. It may seem silly, but blogging really opened me up as a person, writer, and even a friend. I learned I am capable, I am, not as useless as I once thought and I am worth it!
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
Blogging daily has helped me feel like I have a reason to get out of bed. I have a purpose and a skill to share with the world! It has helped create structure in my life as well as gain confidence in my abilities and skills. For someone like me, who suffers from mental illness, it creates the structure I need to succeed. It has been an amazing journey and I am so alive now that I have found a passion and purpose. In fact, the structure I have gained from blogging not only forces me to push on, but forces me to learn about myself and the world around me in a whole new way I never thought possible.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Daily blogging has made me finally do what I love and get started on those projects we all want to do, but never seem to have time for. I have learned that there is time, and all I have to do is make it.
I love featuring passionate bloggers like Christine. Every Wednesday I am able to step in someone else’s shoes, hear a new story, and learn how the sheer act of writing daily has given bloggers all over the country something to look forward to, and be passionate about.
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
All the single ladies! (All the single ladies). This week I am featuring writer and single lady Courtney Nicole from Table For One, a blog she started to maneuver through the ups and downs of singledom.
But Table For One is more than just about being single. Being single sucks (the majority of the time, and I can certainly attest to that), but Courtney’s blog isn’t just a bunch of posts about how she mopes around depressed, or about how the world is out to get her, or that all the good men are snatched up. No, what I like about Courtney’s blog is that it’s about a journey–a journey of self discovery along the way to finding someone to love. Sure she has some painful downs, and some terrific ups, but she takes them as they come–one at a time, like monster-sized vitamins–knowing that life is not solely about finding one thing, or one person, but experiencing a whirlwind of terrifically bad and terrifically good that eventually sets you down in a pink kiddie pool of content.
And even when it doesn’t set you down in a pink kiddie pool of content for very long, you can at least have a margarita before you go.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Blogging has drastically helped me both emotionally and creatively. After being abruptly thrown into “The Single Life” I needed a new start. I needed to figure out the best way to heal from the pain I felt after my breakup, so I started to write. At first it was just for me, but as I began to heal, I wanted to share my “therapy” with other women. Table 4 One (T4O) has turned into more than stories about my single life; it’s become a written documentary of my journey.
I am so grateful for my words. As my audience grows, I have been challenged to go further with my posts, to dig deeper, because at this point it’s about more than just me. I have to think on a broader scale and not so selfishly. It has definitely challenged and sharpened my writing skills. I am grateful for what “Table 4One” has evolved into…It’s become so much more than stories about “The Single Life”… It’s encouraging, empowering, and thought provoking…
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
Absolutely! T4O has made me more responsible, more accountable as a writer. I know that I am obligated to have the posts available for my readers. Procrastination is NOT an option for a weekly blogger! Because I have several tabs on my site I have to stay on a schedule so that I can keep every portion of the site current. It is definitely a commitment, but all worthwhile!
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
My answer to this question may be a little different from the average blogger: I write about my single life and the ups and downs of it all. It motivates me to stay hopeful; it motivates me to become my best self so that I will be ready when the right person enters my life. Right now, I am very happy with my life and how Table for One has evolved. And although I would love for Table 4 One to expand and develop into much more, if it never becomes any more successful than it is right now I am still grateful for its success. The fact that it has allowed me to “write” myself into a joyful life will FOREVER be enough!
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
Today’s Passion Series interview is with Christine Saah, a student at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland. I decided to feature her today, because I am completely moved by the personal battles she overcomes on a daily basis. Not only has her faith brought her towards the path of recovery from a longtime eating disorder, but blogging has been incredibly cathartic for her, as she faces the uphill battle of recovery.
Her blog, Strong and Weak Paradox, which she seems to post to daily, is filled not just with daily inspiration, but real life problems that her faith and ‘chin-up’ attitude have helped her overcome. She really drives home the fact that while life is beautiful, it sho’ ain’t pretty. (Also the working title of my short story compilation, I’ve just decided).
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Blogging has been the gateway to getting in touch with my emotions. I can actually see my emotional development and maturity increase as I compare recent blog posts to posts from over a year ago. I can literally see how I’ve grown as a person. Blogging has been a way for me to unleash my voice and stop being silent. I am finally saying all the things I’ve wanted to say. I know who I am as a person, and use blogging as a way to really own what I say. Once you blog something, you cannot really undo the thought so I am no longer afraid of who I am.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
One goal I’ve really achieved is overcoming my eating disorder. I’ve been public about my whole journey. Posting blogs made all my thoughts more real and I couldn’t deny what was going on in my life. My vulnerability has been such a grace for me and for others reading my blogs. I find myself in a position to help others and not just myself.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Like I’ve said before I figured out who I really am as a person through my blogging. I figured out what I was passionate about. I found that I can and do help others through blogging and sharing my struggles. I put more and more thought into each blog post to consider what people need to hear. I think about what I can do to bring them closer to Christ, to help them find healing from a struggle or what I can do to just show someone that I care about them. My passion to help was sparked through blogging and now I find myself wanting to achieve higher goals such as going to graduate school to become a counselor.
This wasn’t asked but I was inspired to start a blog because of a non-profit called Made in His Image. I’ve never been the same since I got involved for it and write posts regularly for it!
It was so cool to hear from a blogger so radically different from the ones I’ve featured so far. It brings a ton of diversity to this blog, and the opportunity for bloggers to share their distinctive passions to a broader audience. Don’tcha think?
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>