Writing blog posts for writers – OR readers

The question has to be asked, “Who is my blog readership? What topics are best to include?”

It has been interesting to check out the statistics on my blog posts. It never ceases to amaze me that viewers from so many countries around the world have come to my blog. Many have returned and some of course only been the once.

The most number of  reviews of my posts have been when the word “Writer” is in the title or there is of course a book giveaway offered.  I am wondering if other writers also find this happening. Is this just because writers mainly read other writers’ blogs?

“Ray on Monday” posts are devotional meditations by my husband. A few times when life for me has been too hectic – like the last few weeks helping to coordinate the Romance Writers of Australia Tasmanian Roadshow – Ray has also helped out with my Thursday posts also. His page views have also increased if they are obviously about writing.

I tend to write about what has been happening during the week in my life, whether that be primarily family or about writing and books.  The question remains, what are readers of posts on the blog of Mary Hawkins, Australian Author, interested in the most?

Okay, confession time! Being a writer, I primarily read blogs by other writers, agents and editors. However like all writers, I am an avid reader also but these days there are just so many blogs by other authors to choose from. So how do I decide which ones to follow? How do you choose?

Would love to have some comments from readers whether here or by email to mary@mary-hawkins.com.

Which blog subjects interest you the most and why?

What do you prefer to read on my blog?

What has made you want the most to be a “follower” of any blog?

Do you have any suggestions of topics you would like me to tackle here?

Ray on Monday - Jesus was a Fundamentalist

Whoa! Hold on. Don’t jump to unfounded conclusions. He wasn’t a terrorist but He was and remains a fundamentalist.

The unfortunate fact in society is the corruption of language. Someone apparently aligned the word terrorist with fundamentalist by stating how one leads to another. To lock every political theory and religious belief into such a link is unfair and unfounded.

Fundamental simply means foundational, essential. What did Jesus consider foundational for His ministry? The Jewish scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. ‘It is written’ was His conviction. People and events considered as fictitious by some critics Jesus endorsed as real. Such critics make excuses for Jesus’ conviction as simply being a man of his time. Any attempt to squeeze Jesus into a mould of conforming to the age actually undermines His total credibility. Where would you stop?

By faith based upon biblical knowledge and historical certainty, Christians believe Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. Therefore we hold what He believed and said as well as what He did as fundamental to our understanding and appreciation of Him.

To be a Christian fundamentalist is to live according to the teaching of Christ. How can you link Him to terrorism when He said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…’ Matthew 5:44-45. He practiced this when He was unjustly crucified. Remember His prayer, ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do!’

There are groups whose fundamental beliefs allow for and encourage death, deceit and destruction. Such are terrorists. No fair-minded person would place Jesus and His teachings anywhere near such perverted ideologies.

Jesus the fundamentalist offers abundant life, not death. He gives power to leave the kingdom of evil and join in His kingdom of grace and love. He promises to be with His disciple, unseen yes but nonetheless real, as the disciple walks in the light of Christ’s words. Such fundamentalism is good for time and eternity. I guess that makes me a fundamentalist.

Ray (a disciple of Christ) Hawkins.

RWA TASMANIAN ROADSHOW

Last Saturday, Sarah Brabazon and I are privileged to be with three outstanding writers and speakers, Fiona Lowe, Melanie Milburne and Ebony McKenna.

Fiona Lowe presented workshops on "Maintaining Tension" and "Writing From the Male Point of View".

Read about Fiona, a finalist in this year's RITA contest, on

http://www.fionalowe.com/

Ebony McKenna shared workshops on "The Staircase Of Turning Points" and "Writing Young Adult Romantic Fiction".

Read about Ebony on her website:

http://www.ebonymckenna.com/

Melanie Milburne is well known in Tasmania. We are very proud of her wonderful achievements and so grateful she was able to share some of her insights this day with us.  http://www.melaniemilburne.com.au/

Do check out all three websites.

And then it was over. Melanie had returned to southern Tasmania and I had driven our other two wonderful and generous Victorian guest speakers to the Launceston airport for their flight back home.

An hour or so later my understanding husband quickly helped me unload the car. I was exhausted but after a cuppa still yielded to temptation and checked the Feedback Forms from the thirty writers who had attended that day seminar,  our first Romance Writers of Australia sponsored event in Tasmania.

Had writers been helped on their journey to being published? Had it been as successful a day as I thought it had been?

Very soon, my weary eyes were moist. Page after page, comment after comment. Each one thrilled me, made all the many, many hours of preparation over the months, the weeks and especially those last two exhausting days with my fellow coordinator worthwhile.

Now Sarah Brabazon and I have recovered somewhat, it is time to finalise reports for the Romance Writers of Australia’s Event Coordinator to take to the RWA executive. There is still some tidying up to do, including the list of writers who have indicated interest in forming a RWA Hub group here on our Island state.

And last night there was that email from a writer who had this brief, one day “taste” of what can be expected at our annual RWA Conferences. She is fired up! Encouraged in her writing efforts, she went home and registered to be at the Gold Coast RWA Conference this year. It will be so good to see her there, as well as so many other romance writer friends I’ve made through being a member of RWA for nearly twenty-one years. 

There is still much information and inspiration for me to personally sort through from those workshops last Saturday – as there always is after every RWA event I’ve been to. Now, just how do I improve the way I show my hero’s male point of view, put into practice those other “light bulb” moments in this current manuscript of mine?

Ray on Monday - The Case of the Lost Community Compass

A fantastic day last Saturday at the Romance Writers of Australia Roadshow - but more of that next Thursday. However, writers also need - a Compass!

A faulty compass is a silent killer or guide to an undesirable end. Many in society have accepted a faulty moral compass with distressing results. Proverbs 16:25:’There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.’

As people live by their faulty direction finder, how loud is their condemnation when things go wrong; how self righteously they throw stones at a person who is revealed as a scoundrel, thief, sexual deviant. But, in fairness to those enduring unpleasant consequences, they are the result of their compass.

Manufacturers of the faulty moral compass have worked hard and long to replace the time tested, correct directional finder for personal happiness and community well being. Such a compass was set to the Ten Commandment as absolutes to guide through life and relationships. It was there to make us appreciate our need for the Saviour and His help to live the way the compass pointed. Once rejected and replaced, men and women set their own course without having a sense of direction or an unchangeable standard of behaviour. Is it any wonder the young are exploited, the old are disillusioned and life is lawless!

God’s compass for life hasn’t been destroyed. It has been replaced. The answer to personal integrity, nobility of character, persistence in faithfulness is to reclaim the compass of the Absolute. To accept its direction will reveal personal inadequacies and at the same time point to the One who can provide forgiveness, newness and hope. As the Lord says in His word, “Why will you die?” – especially when He offers life, abundant life, with a compass pointing to truth, righteousness and justice!

Now is a good time to have a serious look at your life’s directional code. Is it leading you to disillusionment with moral and eternal destruction? You have the choice to change and reclaim God’s absolutes for a fulfilled and purposeful life. Pick up a Bible and start reading, it is absolutely great!

Ray (with the Absolute compass) Hawkins.

IS WRITING A WASTE OF TIME?

Thanks again to Ray's writing!

I'm busy with the last couple of days preparing for the Romance Writers of Australia Tassie Roadshow and will bring a report to you next week.

Hmm, these thoughts do make me wonder what he has had to put up with from me over the years though. And now we are both writing?

                                 IS WRITING A WASTE OF TIME?

The writer’s immediate response is “No!”

The reader’s considered response is “Depends.”

The non reader’s reaction would be “Yes!”

Let’s consider…

Is writing a waste of time,

Locking us in an office

Shut away from all sunshine?

Household chores in limbo.

Keyboards clatter night, day.

Spouse, children do pray,

“Lord, grant the writer success

Or cure such an illness.

Please relieve our distress

For so much wasted time.”

Is writing a waste of time,

A poor use of artistry?

Waste bins paper filled.

Envelopes full of bills.

Rejects, rewrites, reworks

Decorate the room.

Creating images,

They cast a sense of gloom

As to whether it’s worth

Just so much wasted time.

Is writing a waste of time,

A thief of one’s vitality,

A threat to compatibility?

Changed lives redirected,

Lost people reconnected,

Ignorance corrected

Form a queue for you.

In prosperity or penury,

To affirm the writing cause

Is not a waste of time!

                                    ©Raymond N. Hawkins. May 9^th 2012.

Ray on Monday - When God Sings

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Those who hold the Bible as God’s Word telling of promised events, some fulfilled, others still to take place, they are aware of a great tragedy foretold. Everyday rumblings of this coming event can be heard, a nightmare in the making. The fact of it being detailed is to prepare God’s people to face it with the confidence of His victory. Following what various prophets and the Lord Jesus spoke about concerning the nightmare to come, Zephaniah presents a most tender finale. What he wrote about the Eternal God and Jerusalem surely can find a similar experience in your life, my life, when the nightmares of existence come to terrorize.
The Lord is with you. Unseen, often unfelt yet He made a promise to be with those who have called upon His Name. We overlook such verses as Isaiah 63:9 “In all their distress he too was distressed.” When Saul was persecuting the Church Jesus confronted him with these words, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Every time a disciple was afflicted it cut into the heart of Jesus.
He will take great delight in you. It’s as though when you enter His presence through the furnace of oppression the Lord desires to make it up by enjoying your company in a special way. The picture to the heart is one of the Lord with the individual sitting together looking at a sunrise and the Lord listening to the person’s story.
He will quiet you with His love. The turmoil, tears, tragedy which haunted and harmed body, soul and mind begin to subside in the Lord’s presence and compassionate understanding. It has a renewing effect in the goodness and grace of the Eternal God. Isaiah looked down the tunnel of history to make this observation: “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” (32:17). The reality of Christ’s imputed righteousness is the basis for future, as well as present day peace and confidence in the sovereignty of God and His companionship.

He will rejoice over you with singing. What an amazing promise waits to be experienced! The Bible is filled with the redeemed singing praises to the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Zephaniah is the only place where God sings. What does He sing? It is untitled but it is a song of joy and victory, of pleasure and love. Can you imagine what a glorious solo this will be on behalf of His people? This is specifically promised to Jerusalem and the redeemed of Israel. Surely it also embraces all who find salvation and security in Christ Jesus. The voice of the Lord will be heard from one end of the universe to the other and will begin a festival of celebration. What a fabulous victory concert is in store. We may live through sorrow, grief and pain but with Christ as our lord and His word as our guide, we look forward to hearing the Lord God burst into song.

(Ray (Lover of God’s music) Hawkins.

Mothers - Some Children do Have ‘em!



Ray with parents
and sister Lois

                                                                                

Our daughter points the finger
at her mother!



                They 

                really

                 do!    

                                                                                              
                

                                                                                  

Some Children do Have ‘em!

Some children do ‘ave ‘em,

Mothers that is.

Well,

All have mothers, but

Some have mothers that are

            ‘Top of the morning’

And

‘Pick of the crop’…

And all that!

Some children do ‘ave ‘em,

Fathers that are

Glad that God gave them

Treasures in soiled nappies

            To nourish with love

Through

      Growing years …

And all that!

Some children do ‘ave ‘em

Mothers with an

Understanding of their

Youthful needs and fear

            Wiping their tears

With

       Tenderness …

            And all that!

Some children do ‘ave ‘em

Mothers who show

Pleasure to their offspring’s

Gifts and abilities

            Creating esteem

And

                Shaping dreams …

            And all that!

Some children do ‘ave ‘em

Parents who can

Value faithfulness

Esteem truthfulness

            Create stability

  by

                   Personal nobility …

            And all that! 

Raymond N. Hawkins 2012 (revised)

Mary the baby-who did have a
wonderful mother.  







Wearing the white flower for 
Mother's Day
But Mother took the photo!