momlife

Micro Fiction Writing Competition: Round 4 – Cash Prizes!

Jo Caddy

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*UPDATE: Round 5 has begun. Details HERE!*

Our first three Micro Fiction Writing Competitions have been a wonderful success and we were very impressed by the quality of entrants. We are getting very excited about the anthology and the quality of stories that will be featured. The winners and shortlist for round 3 have been published (you can read the results HERE) and now it’s on to round 4.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Competition opens on the 14th of April

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

9780393352351

FLASH: Writing the very short story by John Dufresne

Themes

This Competition is the fourth of 6 Micro-Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

  1. Mother (November/December ’19 COMPLETED)
  2. GrandMother (January ’20 COMPLETED)
  3. Single Mother (February/March ’20 COMPLETED)
  4. Step-Mother (CURRENT)
  5. Great GrandMother
  6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

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Rustic/Farmhouse Serving Tray (Buy it Now)

This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Step-Mother’ (April ’20) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the words ‘Step-Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about, you guessed it…a Step-Mother.

Whilst I’d love to keep the competition free to enter, administration costs have started to take their toll on my bank account and it’s become necessary to charge a very small fee (to cover costs) of just $2 AUD. I do lose a bit of that to Paypal fees so what I’m getting is very minimal and doesn’t even completely cover the prize money that I give away so please don’t put off by the small entry cost as you are helping contribute to your’s or someone else’s success and publication as an author. A noble deed indeed!
Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Step-Mother’ Competition Dates: April 14th 2020 – April 24th 2020 (Extended till 14th May) @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on the 25th of April (Extended till the 15th of May) 2020, with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 8th of May (Extended till the 25th of May) 2020.

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

  1. 500 words or less.
  2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
  3. Must be about a Step-Mother.
  4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
  5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
  6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
  7. The $2 AUD entry fee must be paid via Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com and must clear before the competition end date in order for your entry to qualify. Please also insure you enter the email address you use for PayPal into the section provided on the entry form so we can match your payment to your entry.

Submission:

  1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
  2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
  3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
  4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
  5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

  1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
  2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
  3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
  4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
  5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Good Luck and Have Fun Writing!

413QErUcQ5L

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

Get your FREE Ebook

Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

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Mum Life Fatigue: Causes and Symptoms

Jo Caddy

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An old post for a new audience.

Mum Life Fatigue: What is it?

Let’s face it, everyone gets ‘fatigued’. You had a late night, a physically demanding day, the guy down the street had a party and no respect for your slumber, you didn’t get the z’s you needed to be a fully functioning human being. Every person in the world has at some point in their lives been fatigued!

But there is one type of fatigue that only mums understand, one type of fatigue that makes you want to crawl into a deep, dark crater and observe the world go by. One type of fatigue that makes you lose your care factor concerning just about everything and be enraged enough to commit murder at the same time. One type of fatigue that makes you weep over every tiny little thing and earns you the negative version of the nickname ‘Mumma Bear’.  This type of fatigue is what I call ‘Mum Life Fatigue’.

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thanks 🙂

Photo by Naomi August on Unsplash

Going Short book cover

Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction by Nancy Stohlman

Causes:

Mum Life Fatigue is more than your average ‘fatigue’. It’s what happens when you haven’t slept through a single night in 4 years. When your entire day seems to consist of changing nappies, bed sheets and outfits (your babies and your own. Wait…correction, you don’t get time to change your own). When you’ve rocked, bounced, cuddled and sang to your infant for hours on end and they still resist the slumber. When you’ve multi-tasked to the point of feeding a baby, reading to the toddler and hanging the washing on the line at the same time. When you’ve fed, dressed and bathed the kids, done 2 truckloads of washing, vacuumed the floor 3 times, washed the dishes, cleaned poo and crayon off the walls, picked up all the toys and the house still looks like a frat party hit it. When no matter how much time you spend on your feet, there still seems to be 10 more hours of it just around the corner.  When your afternoons and weekends are full of taxiing kids to various sports, activities, play dates, school disco’s, job interviews, shopping trips, hospital visits to remove various tiny objects from body orifices, etc, etc, etc and when your only “me time” consists of sitting on the toilet for 2 minutes with the door locked and ten little fingers wiggling underneath it.

All these things and then some, are the major cause of ‘Mum Life Fatigue’.

Symptoms:

Below is a list of 10 symptoms you may experience while suffering ‘Mum Life Fatigue’.

  1. Your brain no longer functions at a low capacity let-alone an average one (i.e. you can’t remember the names of anything anymore, most objects become ‘things’, ‘thingies’ or collectively ‘stuff’ and nobody’s name can be recalled if it has more than one syllable.)
  2. Your always late for everything including your own bedtime, but that’s because you stay up till midnight in the attempt to get just a little bit of time to yourself without having to answer a thousand questions about why apples aren’t called ‘reds’ or ‘greens’ since oranges are called ‘oranges’.
  3. You spend the whole day using every ounce of strength to stay upright and conscious only to finally get into bed and be wide awake for the next three hours thinking about everything you did that day and need to do the next. Not to mention worrying about whether you mummy’d well enough that day.
  4. You constantly misplace your sunglasses, bank cards, and car keys and have to waste hours searching for them only to find them right where they belong in your handbag, purse or hanging by the front door.
  5. You forget what the outdoors look and feel like and the view of your lounge room and or kitchen is permanently burned into the back of your eyelids, so even when you close your eyes it’s like your still there.
  6. Your hair and face take on a permanent greasy appearance and the clothes you wear during the day double as pajamas because let’s be honest, it takes too much damn energy to get changed anyway.
  7. You have repetitive thoughts of killing, maiming and otherwise making suffer (and I’m sure we’ve all been here) your snoring partner in the bed next to you while you’re up for the 28th time that night.
  8. You break down crying in the grocery store because some old guy who smells like he hasn’t had a shower in a month, snatches the last bunch of spring onions out from under your nose, right after you discover they are ‘clean-out’ of your favorite chocolate.
  9. You keep calling your kids the wrong names and eventually give up and just shout ‘hey you’.
  10. You swear if your partner tells you one more time that they are tired, you will sneak off in the middle of the night, hop a plane and spend the next ten years picking fruit at various orchards around the world.

If you are suffering any or all of the above symptoms, you more than likely have ‘Mum Life Fatigue’ and should consider treatment.

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How to get a good nights sleep by Richard Graber

Treatment:

There are various treatments you can consider if you are diagnosed with ‘Mum Life Fatigue’, one of them being sleep (this can be expensive however since you may need to hire a full-time nanny) but the cheapest and most effective option is to wait until your children reach the age of 18 and go off to live their own lives.

‘Mum Life Fatigue’ is a temporary condition that can vary in length (depending on how many children you are foolish enough or brave enough to have) and eventually goes away on its own. It is however hereditary (if you have any female children), and it can return later in life under the redefined condition known as ‘Grandparent Fatigue’.

  Related articles:

Mum Life Burnout: 5 ways it can affect you and your family

Mum Life Burnout: 10 ways to cool down

How To Find Balance: Is it even possible?

Thanks

Thank you for reading this blog. If you’d like to keep up to date with all the latest stories, news and promos, including giveaways and writing competitions, then please sign up to our mailing list below. You’ll also receive a FREE Ebook exclusive to our email subscribers. 

Get your FREE Ebook

Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

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Written In Gold – A Micro Story

Jo Caddy

Written in Gold - pinterest cover

We’d like to thank Susi J Smith of Scotland for her micro story ‘Written in Gold’, based on true events. A relatable tale about the value of motherhood.

Susi J Smith is a frustrated writer, and mother of one. She lives in Scotland and longs for a writing room of her own. Susi has previously been published in 101Words.org, Zeroflash, and McStorrytellers. For more information, check out her website:https://mairi187.wixsite.com/susi-j-smith or Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SusiJSmith/

Susi is also a member of a local writing group; West Lothian Writers.

If you’d like to submit a story to be considered for publishing, please visit our submissions page.

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thanks. 

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Brevity – A Flash Fiction Handbook by David Galef

WRITTEN IN GOLD

A blank page sits ready and waiting on my laptop while I run back and forth from the kitchen, answering your demands for ‘Peter butter’, ‘Poco cops’, and ‘I-beana’; anything for five minutes peace. But no. The cereal makes you thirsty, your drink stains the rug, and don’t even ask me where you’ve managed to hide the peanut butter. Thank goodness your father isn’t allergic to nuts. Oh wait, he is!

I can dust, do the washing, load the dishwasher, weed the garden, but I can’t sit. I’m not allowed to sit. As soon as my bum hits that couch you snatch my pen and run away laughing. You scribble over my pristine, cherished, and favourite notebooks. You need your ‘packpack’ put on your ‘backback’ then and there because you’re going to the shops for more ‘weeties’.

You absorb my time and creativity and demand it as your own. I take you to soft play; help you find friends, but you’re back every two minutes asking why I’m not ankle-deep in the ball pit like that other mum. Does she have a book to write? Or deadlines that pass without a word hitting the page?

On the calendar, I mark off the days until you start school, the days until I can become more than just ‘Mummy’, ‘the wife of that guy whose clothes are never ironed’, and ‘that part-time employee with the uncombed hair’.

Then, out of nowhere, you give me a card. Handmade. Your name scribbled inside in yellow felt tip. It’s got two extra ‘a’s and a ‘2’ I don’t remember giving it, but it’s there, clear to a mother’s eye. The first proper word you’ve written. And I realize, it’s better than anything I will ever write. The best thing I could ever create sits staring at me from the rug, your eyes the colour of mine, your energy boundless, and all you want is my time, my love, and my whole being.

It’s worth every second I have just to see you grow.



 

Thanks

Thanks for reading this blog. If you’d like to keep up to date with all our latest stories, news and promos (including giveaways and writing competitions) please sign up to our email list HERE or fill in the form below. You’ll also receive a FREE Ebook, exclusive to our email subscribers.

If your a writer, don’t forget to enter our writing competition to win cash prizes and publication.

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Get your FREE Ebook

Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

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Micro Fiction Writing Competition: Round 3 – Cash Prizes!

Jo Caddy

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*PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMPETITION HAS ENDED AND WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED. CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON OUR NEXT ROUND STARTING SOON*

 

Our first two Micro Fiction Writing Competitions have been a wonderful success and we were very impressed by the quality of entrants. We are getting very excited about the anthology and the quality of stories that will be featured. The winners and shortlist for round 2 have been published (you can read the results HERE) and now it’s on to round 3.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Competition opens on the 24th of February

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

9780393352351

FLASH: Writing the very short story by John Dufresne

Themes

This Competition is the second of 6 Micro-Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

  1. Mother (November/December ’19 COMPLETED)
  2. GrandMother (January ’20 COMPLETED)
  3. Single Mother (February/March ’20 CURRENT)
  4. Step Mother
  5. Great GrandMother
  6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

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Kids Personalised Easter Basket

This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Single Mother’ (February ’20) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the words ‘Single Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about, you guessed it…a Single Mother (biological, adoptive or otherwise).

We managed to keep the last two months of submissions free to enter, but administration costs have started to take their toll on our founder’s bank account and it’s become necessary to charge a very small fee (to cover costs) of just $2 AUD.

Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Single Mother’ Competition Dates: February 24th 2020 – March 2nd (extended to 23rd March), 2020 @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on the 3rd of March (extended to the 24th of March), with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 4th of April.

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

  1. 500 words or less.
  2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
  3. Must be about a Single Mother (biological or adoptive).
  4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
  5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
  6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
  7. The $2 AUD entry fee must be paid via Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com and must clear before the competition end date in order for your entry to qualify. Please also insure you enter the email address you use for PayPal into the section provided on the entry form so we can match your payment to your entry.

Submission:

  1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
  2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
  3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
  4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
  5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

  1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
  2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
  3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
  4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
  5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Good Luck and Have Fun Writing!

413QErUcQ5L

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

Get your FREE Ebook

Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

ebook button

25 MumLife Quotes

Jo Caddy

An oldy but a goodie! I’m reposting this post, to remind everyone how awesome mothers and motherhood truly is!

There are so many things to be said about Mums and Motherhood, so many stories and fun anecdotes about the highs and lows of life with and as Mothers. Words alone could not express the depth of Love Mothers have for their children and vice versa but there are many who have tried to do just that. We thought it would be fun to gather 25 quotes on Mothers and Motherhood to share with you, so we can all appreciate together, the fantastic contribution that these women make in all our lives.

 

“But there’s a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begins.” ~ Mitch Albom (For one more day)

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” ~ Theodore Hesburgh

“The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.” ~ Jessica Lange

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” ~ Honore de Balzac

“The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.” ~ Billy Graham

“No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.” ~ Godfrey Winn

“The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly – indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.” ~ Arianna Huffington

“To be a mother you must be strong. Even if you don’t feel it, you have to pretend.” ~ Sade Adu

“When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the Pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.” ~ Pablo Picasso

“A mother is a woman who shows you the light when you just see the dark.” ~ Grimaldos Robin

“Mothers never retire, no matter how old her children are she is always a Mom, always willing to encourage and help her children in any way she can!” ~ Catherine Pulsifer

“Mother-love is the great, surging, divine current that plays forever through humanity.” ~ Elbert Hubbard 

 

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Home Sweet Home Sign (Buy it Now)

“Many of us who are mothers already know that being a mother is the toughest job there is. In a single day you can travel from the depths of frustration to the pinnacle of elation!” ~ June Cotner

“Giving grace to yourself is never more important than when you become a mother.” ~ Whitney Meade, The Balance Beam

“The truth is that no matter how old we are, as long as our mothers are alive, we want our mother. And it’s a very powerful relationship if it’s healthy.” ~ Goldie Hawn

“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” ~ Rudyard Kipling

“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.” ~ N.K. Jemisin

“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” ~ Washington Irving

“Behind every famous and influential person there is a driving force and in many cases this driving force is the unfailing love and support of their mothers.” ~ Lisa Valentine 

“The truth is, every son raised by a single mom is pretty much born married. I don’t know, but until your mom dies it seems like all the other women in your life can never be more than just your mistress.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit—Will Travel

 “Mother’s love is bliss, is peace, it need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. If it is there, it is like a blessing; if it is not there it is as if all the beauty had gone out of life.” ~ Erich Fromm

“He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark.” 
~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

 “Because I feel that, in the Heavens above / The angels, whispering to one another, / Can find, among their burning terms of love / None so devotional as that of ‘Mother’” ~ Edgar Allan Poe

 

This page contains an affiliate link which may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

Get your FREE Ebook

Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

ebook button

Is Blogging Dead?

Jo Caddy

Someone told me yesterday that blogging is basically dead, that no one has time (especially mothers) to sit down and read anymore. That vlogging, Youtube, IGTV and FB/Insta stories were where it’s at nowadays. Could this be true? or is it merely a trend that will bloom today and wither tomorrow?

It crossed my mind that perhaps they were right, perhaps I should change my direction if I want to ever be successful and benefit financially from what I pour my heart and soul into, but then I thought about what would happen if we all started giving into this mentality that blogging is dead and we stopped writing, in order to chase success through product layouts, endorsement videos and previews of our morning routine. If we stopped writing/blogging, then would we be enabling the steady decline of book reading, story writing and other literary pursuits? Would we be showing the world that literacy has changed form, being defined now as status updates and memes?

Why I won’t quit!

If I turn my back on blogging, there will be many women who won’t have the opportunity to share their stories, inspiration will not find its way into hungry hearts the way it has when women have shared their success stories or their fiction pieces. Writers will miss their chance to be published without the anthology I promised to have published at the end of this year and instead of doing what I love (writing) I’ll find myself awkwardly stepping in front of the camera (I prefer, behind it), doing what I don’t really love, in order to increase my chances of becoming financially successful. In short, I’d be selling out. So I will not open the gates of self-doubt, drowning in the deluge of defeat and give-up just when I’m starting to get somewhere, just because someone else is finding success in the new wave of Mummy marketing schemes, known as social media influencing. The words “Avon calling” keeps coming to mind. Blogging is hard, heck writing is hard but it makes an impact. I’d rather make the odd dollar here and there through affiliate marketing, touching people’s hearts through relatable experiences and motivating reflections along the way, than to make a career out of encouraging their tendencies for impulse shopping and appealing to their insatiable need to have whatever is currently ‘trending’.I’m not saying there is anything inherently wrong with that, but I don’t believe it is for me. I want to be open and honest, raw and relatable, not following a formula that’s proven to make people ‘spend big’ which I can only liken to the illusive ‘subliminal advertising’ (now outlawed in most places). So in short, blogging is only dead if bloggers are only blogging for the opportunity to make some coin. If you love blogging and/or writing then blogging will never be dead. You might just have to work that little bit harder to make a living at it.

If you’d like to start a blog, WordPress is an amazing platform and this is my personal opinion, because I love it! 🙂 

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Accomplish more IN a fraction of the time

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

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