Meet the Blogger with Hilary Melton-Butcher

March is my Blogoversary month - celebrating 7 years of blogging! What better way to kick off the celebration than with a long time faithful blogging friend -  Hilary Melton-Butcher.

Many of you already know Hilary; she's the smart and creative writer behind Positive Letters...Inspirational Stories. If you don't know her, you need to hop over and see her soon! Her posts are informative and fun, rich with history and details about her residence in Eastbourne, UK and other locales.

Hilary not only shares about history, but about her travels, general musings, and other fabulous and noteworthy topics. She even shares marvelous photos, which in my opinion, are the icing on the cake. I always learn new things when I visit, and feel as though I get to know Hilary a bit more through the sparkling commentary she offers.

Welcome Hilary! When and why did you start blogging? What is your blog about? 

Thanks for having me, Karen! I started this journey on my birthday and we (it and I) are into the 8th year … I started the blog as I wanted to know what was going on in the internet world, but certainly didn’t expect to be writing per se.

From Hilary's archives: in South Africa 

My blog reflects the eclectic nature of my curiosity; I go where I wish to be led – so it covers just about everything, some things more definitively, and some areas where I’m uncertain.

I write on history, geology, food, pubs, places, exhibitions, museums, places I’ve visited, and each post almost always includes a healthy dose of a few subjects – there’s always an interlinking thread.   But you or I will rarely know what I’ll be writing about next – other than I hope you’ll find something interesting and stimulating to read!

When I began, my mother had become terminally ill, as too a while later her brother-in-law, but both could happily talk and discuss aspects of life: so I based my early articles on items they would find interesting and stimulate our conversations.  That hasn’t changed, but I feel more confident now and comfortable with what I’m doing.

It meant my brain was kept occupied with the learning process, and the ‘oh! What am I going to write about next scenario?!’, which I’m sure many of you have experienced. I don’t follow the rules or trends – I do my own thing, but make an effort to provide readers and commenters with the type of posts they expect from me – and thus generate that interaction that really glues bloggers together with the common interest.

I’m exceedingly grateful to be amongst this blogging community – which has been an incredible experience. I don’t mind being a lone wolf, but I do like company!  I do join some blog-hops, but they are always there and people are so creative with the concepts they come up with.

I agree, it is an incredible experience. Not following the rules or trends - I must say, it really works for you. You've carved out your own wonderful niche! What benefits have you gained from blogging? 

Major benefits – are/were the support and understanding of fellow readers; in particular joining in the annual April A-Z Blogging Challenge where I’ve met so many other bloggers from all walks of life and from around different parts of the world. Then the learning curve - that continues via the contacts we have access to through the blogging fraternity.

Fellow readers and bloggers are great indeed. It is such a wonderful community. :) What are you working on now? 

I will be putting my A-Z posts into booklet form and starting that series off, as too extracting other ideas from my blog posts – now 750 plus, that shocks me! As you can imagine toddling across the keyboard has shown that I can write, have a fair degree of knowledge – yet continue to teach myself with each blogpost I write - I do hate not knowing!  

Wow, 750 posts, congratulations! That is quite an accomplishment. What might people be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a fairly open book now – but back a few decades I was very shy.   I am definitely a late developer as far as education is concerned. Blogging has helped the puzzles of history, geography, geology, art, English literature and language, different cultures, music, film etc. gel in my brain, so that grey matter has some bright moments in it.

Blogging has a way of teaching us all sorts of things, doesn't it? What advice would you share with a newbie blogger? 

For any newbie blogger – join in with this group, and learn as you go – keep your mind open, make friends by adding to the comments and visiting regularly and often (to get established), settle on some form of theme for your blog – again keep it open-ended, so you can adjust your posting as you settle into blogging.  You will find blogs and people you relate to, that’s the best way of starting, and having that ‘stash’ of blog posts rarin’ to be posted.

I think the main thing is that blogging is a wonderful world to be a part of – and opens up lots of doors, so just enjoy yourselves.

Excellent advice! You have quite a following and get a lot of nice comments. Has any one comment ever stuck out in your mind? 

So many nice ones, but I do get quite a lot of these kinds of comments, "Honestly, I've learned more through your blog than I did in school." 

After following your blog for many years, I have to say that they are right. Your posts are engaging and I always learn something new. Thanks so much for joining us this week! 

Thank you for inviting me and for all your continued support and interest.

More About Hilary

A lover of life – who after London, spent time in South Africa; an administrator, sports lover, who enjoys cooking and entertaining...who through her mother’s illness found a new passion – writing, in particular blogging; which provides an opportunity for future exploration, by the daughter, who has (in her 3rd age years) found a love of historical education. Curiosity didn’t kill this cat – interaction is the key! 

Visit Hilary at her blog, Positive Letters Inspirational Stories 


In other news, I'm discussing Avoiding Blogger Burnout at the HHP blog. Hop over if you have a minute!

Do you have any questions for Hilary? Do you blog about your travels? What are you working on this week?

Happy writing,

Karen 


Photo credit: Free Images hot chocolate