Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Beth Kephart

Some artists paint with colors, some with movement some with notes. Beth Kephart paints with words. I virtually met Beth through our mutual friend, Nettie Hartsock, and was immediately captivated by how she uses words. Her recent book, Undercover was written for the youth market; however, this story of a young teenage girl is must read for young and old. For Beth blogging is a treasure hunt for the imagination where she combines heart, soul and insights on a quest to write the illusive perfect post.

Blogger Story Teller: Beth Kephart, Beth Kephart Books

Writing indulges the myth of continuity.  Photographs suggest the significance of the single instant.  Ever since a fourth-grade teacher helped me turn a Quaker Oats container into a pinhole camera, I’ve been chasing photographs, and I fell hard for words (the sound of them, their shape) at about the same time. I’ve been caught in both lures ever since. 

Blogging lets me play with the mix. When I sit down to post, I’m thinking about triggers. I’m thinking about something I might have heard on a train or something the wind might have blown my way or something I’ve been battling with. Then I’m thinking about the iconography—the way a photo might be used to create an amplifying metaphor. Between the story that I write and the photo that accompanies it, there’s tension, and often that tension—the story not spoken, the bridge not built—is the place where the next blog begins, the thing I start battling with.

Blogger Stories: Ruth Daniels

Blogs took Ruth Daniels on an interesting adventure. She went from working in the corporate world to writing about her passion of food and family. Now armed with an understanding of how blogs can help organizations talk to their customers Ruth is heading back to share her learnings with the suits. If they're lucky she might bring a chocolate zucchuini cake along with her.

 

Blogger Story Teller: Ruth Daniels, Once Upon a Feast (general food & travel, fave cookbooks & kitchen toys), Recipes From 4 Every Kitchen (just recipes), AskRuth (answers pesky kitchen questions)

My story: I took a "short" sabbatical from Training & Development Consulting a few years ago to write a family cookbook that grew and grew along the way....and found a new love- food writing!   

 

The blog world is an amazing place.  In fact 35 people from around the world volunteered to be recipe testers (from a single post I wrote) for the book, Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories which I finally self-published as an eBook & CD. It's filled with stories, and recipes that are easy to make.  I thought I'd just be handing these recipes down to my daughters, but so many friends wanted them that the book idea just grew.  I donate $2 for every book sold to Breast Cancer Research. 

 

Now, almost three years and three blogs later, I'm branching out into Corporate Blogging.  I think my own experiences can help organizations  speak with a human voice that can reach their audiences better.  Wish me luck and share any ideas...

 

Blogger Stories: Lisa Nichols

Can a marketing and PR manager find life and happiness after leaving the corporate world? For Lisa Nichols the answer is YES in capital letters. Lisa wanted to challenge herself as a creative writer so after freelancing for awhile she launched a few blogs. Through her blogs about about living in Kentucky she found fun, creativity and local fame. Can fortune be far behind?

Blogger Story Teller: Lisa Nichols, Northern Kentucky News, Kentucky Vintage, Suite 101 Home Page

A couple of years ago, I was indelibly corporate, working as a Marketing and Public Relations Manager for a large insurance and financial services company. I left the company and two years later, I’m freelance writing full time.

I spend a lot of my time writing optimized copy for websites and ghostwriting blogs for other people through my company, ruby honey marketing. I also write copy for press releases, email campaigns, ads and brochures- anything the client needs.

I always want to challenge myself to be a better writer. Last year I accomplished two goals, writing for a newspaper and getting published in a business magazine. And in addition to ghostwriting content for other people’s blogs, in the summer of 2006 I signed on with Suite 101, an online magazine, to write about insurance- shades of my corporate past! But the experience writing for Suite 101 has been a good one, and it’s helped me craft my organic SEO writing techniques. It’s also a place to send potential new clients to see samples of my work, since so much of what I do is “hush-hush”- it’s all very confidential.

This year, I started authoring my own, personal blogs. It’s addictive- I now have four of them! My blogs include: Northern Kentucky News, ruby honey marketing, Kentucky Vintage and of course, my MySpace blog.