BACK WITH WORDPRESS

I’m delighted to be back blogging with WordPress after a couple of years break.  I look forward to contributing to the blogging world and reading the contributions of others, especially in those fields in which I have a special interest – writing, gardening, photography, history, natural history, music, birdwatching and a few others besides.

After a lifetime of writing for print publications I now write gardening e-books which are sold on the Amazon platform.  I also write articles for on-line publications.  I love the comparative freedom of on-line publication and despite my lifelong love affair with books I also now love my e-reader!  One must move on and not cling to the technologies of the past!

As suggested, I read the Daily Post for a first-blog suggestion and as it concerns procrastination I definitely feel I can contribute to this idea!  I am writing a biography of the early naturalist/photographer Hilda Geissmann-Curtis and the amount of research required, in difficult-to-access archives in several libraries, has almost brought me to a standstill.  I KNOW I must get out there and look for the letters and other material that will being Hilda “alive” to the reader but have been very lazy about seeking anything that isn’t accessible on-line.  That’s what the internet does to you!  My previous book, A Garden in Africa, was about colonial-era Kenya and one of the pioneer women who created a great garden which attracted rich and famous visitors from all over the world – Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Ernest Hemingway and many others.  For this book, most of the source materials were already in my possession and I didn’t have to go far afield to find others.  The book is up there on Amazon and you can read about it on my website at  www.wix.com/jrlakemedia/ezibooks   This “Hilda” book is proving much harder to research and write and after completing this post I am GOING TO GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT AND MAKE PLANS TO VISIT ONE OF THE LIBRARIES WHERE AN ARCHIVED COLLECTION OF LETTERS SHOULD YIELD ME SOME TREASURES – THIS COMING WEEK!  I hope others who have read the Daily Post will have made similar resolutions!

I’ve been doing this writing business all my life; as a journalist and author of several books.  It’s often frustrating, certainly lonely, physically unhealthy (unless one drags oneself away from the desk to excercise regularly) and rarely very rewarding financially in comparison with other ways of earning a living.  But I wouldn’t change it for the world!  If you’re a born writer then you just have to write!

Many of my posts on this blog will be to do with gardening advice.  However, I also plan to discuss other topics and issues, and comment on posts by others with whom I’m in contact through bloggin with WordPress, and my website.

Happy gardening – and everything else!

Julie