Last year I joined a fabulous group of women for a global writing challenge—Gail from Is This Mutton (UK) Deb from Deb’sWorld (Australia), Jill from Grown Up Glamour, Mary Katherine from MK’s Adventures in Style (USA), Penny from Frugal Fashion Shopper (UK), Australian blogger Sue Loncaric from Women Living Well After 50, Leslie Clingan from Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After and Marsha from Marsha In The Middle. On the third Thursday of every month we’ll respond to the prompt “Tell Us About XXX” which could cover any subject matter. It could be a blog post with opinions or memories; a poem, photos, anything at all. Last month, the challenge was BEAUTY and was prompted by Marsha. This month, Deb chose the brilliant prompt of… BLOGGING.
I first dipped my toes into the blogging world back in the early 2000s with a blog called Iberian Bird because, well, I’m a woman and I was blogging from Iberia! However, that blog didn’t hold my interest for long. I then created a blog simply called Suzy Turner (suzyturner.blogspot.com—I think it’s still floating around the internet somewhere). After a few years, I got a bit more serious about my online presence and actually paid for the domain name suzyturner.com. This new blog was mostly about my life in Portugal, my writing journey, and the self-publishing process. I also delved into creating book trailers because I’d made a few and thoroughly enjoyed the creative process.
Blogging Galore
During the indie author boom, book trailers were all the rage. Everyone wanted to stand out to book-obsessed readers. So, I started a few new blogs—one for Chick Lit Book Trailers and another for Young Adult book trailers. As you can imagine, all this blogging was quite time-consuming, but I loved every minute of it. It was the beginning of my journey into learning so much about the internet, design, and digital creativity.
Around the same time, I launched another book blog called Fiction Dreams. I even bought the domain name (I must have spent a small fortune on domain names, lol). Interviewing authors and sharing their stories was something I truly enjoyed. I was often sent books to review and even had the pleasure of interviewing the likes of Joanne Harris, the author of Chocolat—though it was via email rather than in person. Eventually, the workload from multiple blogs became overwhelming, so I let the book trailer blogs go and later stopped updating Fiction Dreams as well. Those blogs are still out there in the digital ether: www.chicklittrailerpark.blogspot.com, www.yatrailerpark.blogspot.com, and Fiction Dreams is actually at https://suzyturnerchicklit.blogspot.com/
Friends
As I approached 40, I felt the need for a change and was inspired by over-40 style bloggers like Catherine Summers of Not Dressed as Lamb and Lizzy from What Lizzy Loves. I ventured into style blogging on suzyturner.com, and later, I started a separate blog for my style adventures called www.thegreybrunette.com. It was a fabulous journey, but more recently, I decided to consolidate everything back onto www.suzyturner.com to simplify my life.
Throughout my blogging journey, I’ve connected with so many amazing women over 40. Despite never meeting most of them in real life, I feel like I’ve joined an incredible club of friends. I did meet Laurie from Vanity and Me (fellow blogger but who is now doing brilliantly over on YouTube) a few years ago in the UK, and we hit it off immediately. I’m looking forward to her visit to Portugal later this year, and hopefully, we’ll get to spend some quality time together, if she makes it over. I would love to meet all the other fabulous bloggers I call friends, but there are just too many to list! But you all know who you are lol!
“Brekshit”
Up until Brexit, I received a plethora of gifted items—from handbags and shoes to jewellery, books, beauty products, and clothing. Post-Brexit (or Brexshit, as many of us call it), the flow of gifted items has slowed significantly. I still receive the occasional product to review, which I enjoy, and I’ve had a few paid gigs over the years, but nothing major. More recently, I’ve been doing collaborative posts where I get paid a small amount to include a link in my posts, which helps cover a few of the blogging bills.
Although my passion has shifted towards my YouTube channel (which I absolutely freaking LOVE, LOL!), I don’t think I’ll ever stop blogging. It’s my little corner of the internet, and I shall continue to cherish it. Blogging is therapeutic for me, a way to express myself and connect with others. Whether it’s in fashion or not, it’s something I’ll always love.
Let’s see how the other gals interpreted this month’s blogging theme…
How do bloggers decide what to write about? Are there certain topics off limits to you? Debbie discusses these issues, and blogging in general, in her Tell Us About post. https://debs-world.com/2023/10/25/how-do-bloggers-decide-what-to-write-about
Gail from Is This Mutton has been blogging since 2006 and reckons she’ll still be at it in her 90s, probably wearing purple. Read the post: https://www.isthismutton.com
Leslie from Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After began blogging 10 years ago as an outlet for her writing. In this month’s edition of Tell Us About, she talks about her fair-weather friendship with blogging and her various take aways from her half-hearted efforts. https://onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com
Marsha is probably the newest blogger in the group. She recently celebrated her third blogoversary on July 8th. Her goal was to learn something new. Did she? https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Mary Katherine looks back on how she got started in blogging, and who her influences were then and now. https://mksadventure.com
Penny has been blogging for over 11 years now. She takes you back to those early years and some of her clunky photographs! She also tells you why she has two blogs on the go at the same time. Find out more on her blog at https://frugalfashionshopper.co.uk
Jill is looking back over my last ten years of blogging and wondering what the future of the blog will be. Grown Up Glamour
