Hi Stephie, great to have you here. Tell us a bit about your sites.

I started off writing imcountingufoz.com, a food/parenting/lifestyle blog years and years ago. It was a little bit of everything because I’m a) indecisive, and b) generally a bit all over the place. I had a good run for a few years and then I got distracted with writing my first novel, Getting Over Jesse Franklin. I lost interest in the blog because I had this story that I had to get out instead, and that took priority. imcountingufoz.com is pretty much defunct now, but I do have stephiechapman.co.uk, which is my author site, and focuses on my books. It’s fairly new and I migrated it over from a Tumblr site, but there are some excerpts from the books, and publication information.

What first inspired you to start blogging?

I’ve always just liked writing. It’s really as simple as that. I’ve always written stuff. When I was a young teenager I used to write fan fiction about bands I liked at the time. I would stay up until the wee small hours in the school holidays and at weekends tapping away on the computer after everyone had gone to bed. I used to embellish it with word art like the nineties adolescent I was. It was fancy! I started writing a novel when I was 19, but never finished it because I simply didn’t have the life experience to carry it off. It’s on a USB stick somewhere. Part of me wants to find it and read it, but it’s probably so bad I’d be cringing into the centre of the Earth. So, I suppose the blogging was a way to get writing out there quickly. I’m definitely more comfortable with creative writing than opinion pieces or articles, though.

What have been the highpoints of your blogging journey so far?

I’ve had a couple of lovely holidays out of it. I went on a cruise with Alice Judge-Talbot a few years ago, which was a lot of fun. More than that, though, I’ve made some epic friends through blogging and really love the community feel that there is with it. I was overwhelmed with how supportive and kind people have been about my books, too.

What do you find hard about being a writer?

I found it really hard to write in my own voice. It never really felt like I was writing for me the way that writing Getting Over Jesse Franklin and Jetplanes to Jupiter have done. I felt like I had to censor myself in a way that I never had to writing fiction. I’ve also felt less and less comfortable writing about my children as they are growing up. My daughter is a fairly private kid and only just about copes with pictures of her on Instagram. Put it this way, the transition from blog to novel hasn’t been a difficult one for me, and I’ve enjoyed disappearing off into my own little fictional world in a way I just never did with my blog.

What are you excited about right now?

My new book, Jetplanes to Jupiter, is published on 30th May, although it’s available to pre order now. Arrggh! It’s the sequel to Getting Over Jesse Franklin and is told through a series of flashbacks as well as present day. It’s still unabashed mushy chick lit which is my absolute favourite, and I adore writing about love. It’ll be available on Kindle and, if Amazon ever get around to sending me the proof, paperback. In any case, I really hope people like it. It was a lot of fun writing it. It delves a lot deeper into all my American characters. As I mentioned previously, there are a couple of excerpts on stephiechapman.co.uk, so click on over for a read.

What is your top tip for a new writer?

Ooh wow, that’s a tricky one. I guess, find your voice. That’s really important, and I think where I let myself down with my blog. It will certainly feel more authentic to both the reader and the writer. And I think that can be applied to people wanting to write books, too. But mainly, MAINLY, just go forth and write. The rest will come!

You can buy Stephie’s first book, Getting Over Jesse Franklin, and pre-order the follow up, Jetplanes To Jupiter, on Amazon or check out the excerpts on Stephie’s website. You can also find her on twitter and facebook.

Don’t forget to check out the other great bloggers we’ve had over for a cuppa.

The post A Cuppa With Stephie Chapman appeared first on Parent Blogger News.

Thanks for joining us Emily. While I whip up some brownies why don’t you tell us a bit about your blog?

A Mummy Too is all about food and lifestyle for busy parents. I guess it’s more of a magazine than a blog, in that rather than diary-style entries, I tend to share daily recipes, tips and video guides from a personal perspective. It’s aimed at anyone who believes a shortage of spare time shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy beautiful, delicious things.

What first inspired you to start blogging?

I was already aware of the parent blogging scene through work (I was a digital marketer for 12 years) so while on maternity leave in 2011 awaiting the birth of my second child, I decided to create my own blog.

It wasn’t intended as any kind of big enterprise, just a place to record the things we discovered as a family and to celebrate that as well as being ‘work Emily’ who typically faced the world as a marketing consultant/speaker, I was also a whole person with passions, hobbies, loves and a gorgeous family outside of work. Hence, “a mummy too”!

What have been the highpoints of your blogging journey so far?

Becoming a full time blogger in 2013 was a huge highlight. I’ve always been comfortable as a working mum, but to step out of office life and into a career that began as a hobby was a dream come true.

I still work long hours, but I adore my work. My family are often able to get involved rather than work being a separate part of my life, and the hours are flexible enough that I spend more quality time with my loved ones than ever before.

What do you find hard about being a blogger?

I’d say the challenges of being a blogger are the same as they are for most creative freelancers: being disciplined about your work schedule, learning to put work down and take a break, working with clients, managing expectations, getting yourself out there and not underestimating your workload. My husband is a designer in the music industry and he sees all the same challenges, so it’s par for the course I think, but well worth it for the freedom (creatively and financially) that comes with working for yourself.

What are you excited about right now?

I think blogging is always exiting because the online work is constantly shifting and evolving. No one could possibly ever know everything there is to know because what works today might not work tomorrow.

We bloggers are all balancing finding the secret sauce that makes our content soar vs maintaining our personal voice and love of blogging that made us start in the first place. I love that – it’s thrilling, and working for yourself means that if you want to, you can be responsive to a new trend so fast it can make your head spin.

What is your top tip for a new blogger?

Find a supportive community. And by that, I don’t mean one that seems full of dos and don’ts, shoulds and shouldn’ts. Find like-minded bloggers who will support you and guide you through but never hinder you as you find your own voice. Find a community built on celebrating each others successes and supporting each other’s growth.

A supportive community will also be able to steer you through legal pitfalls (such as disclosure – a real must if you work with brands!) and help you get your head around the more techy aspects of running a blog.

Find a group like that, and you’ll be friends for life – I met some of my best friends through blogging!

What great advice, thanks Emily. Now can I tempt you with a gooey brownie before you go?

You can find Emily (and a mountain of deliciousness) over at A Mummy Too and don’t forget to check out all her social media channels:

Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / YouTube / Instagram

The post A Cuppa with Emily Leary appeared first on Parent Blogger News.

Hi Molly, why don’t you tell us a bit about your blogs

I blog at Mother’s Always Right and Roost. Mother’s Always Right is about my life as a mum with a strong emphasis on real life stories and opinions, interiors and travel. There’s a bit of everything in there! Roost is a collaborative interiors website and YouTube channel dedicated to stylish family living. It’s my newest baby and launched at the beginning of February. We have big plans for it this year!

What first inspired you to start blogging?

I started my blog when I was on maternity leave with my first daughter five years ago. It was an outlet for me to chat about all the things I was going through as a new mum that I couldn’t necessarily share with many of my friends who weren’t yet parents. I didn’t want to be a baby bore, yet I felt like there was so much I needed to say and get off my chest as I navigated this new role of motherhood. At the time I was on maternity leave from my job as a broadcast journalist for a radio station, so I hoped that the blog may become an online portfolio of sorts that I could use to pitch for writing work which I could do from home. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for though – blogging became about SO much more than the initial things I started it for!

What have been the high points of your blogging journey so far?

The biggest high point for blogging for me has been making some brilliant friends. No matter what the brand collaborations, travel opportunities and life-changing career changes it’s brought me, nothing can compare to the real life friends I now have through blogging. These are people I’ve shared holidays with, trips to the pub, New Year celebrations and much more. They’re people I’d never have known had I not started my little blog just over five years ago.

What do you find hard about being a blogger?

This answer will change depending on when you ask me! At the moment, my biggest challenge is time management. I have two young children, one is at school and the other is still at home with me (she’s 17 months old). Although my littlest goes to a childminder two mornings a week, and I have childcare help from my mum every other Wednesday, I still end up spending long evenings at my laptop. Something many brands (and people who don’t blog) often don’t understand or see is the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of a blog. The hours spent editing photos and videos, replying to emails, plugging posts on social media, replying to comments – not to mention the work that goes into actually creating content. It’s a labour of love, that’s for sure.

The other thing I find hard about being a blogger is that it can actually be a rather lonely existence. When you’re sitting at your laptop working in an office at home you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas with, like you do in an office environment at work. There are also times when it can feel a bit pointless – when you think no one’s reading or there’s just too much noise. In a regular job you’d have a bunch of colleagues to give you a kick up the backside and tell you to get on with it and buck up, but when you’re a blogger working at home in a potentially very competitive area, it can be easy to feel your confidence being sucked.

What are you excited about right now?

I’m REALLY excited about my new project Roost. I had the idea for it in the summer of 2015 and it took a good six months to get off the ground, working with a team of other dedicated bloggers and interiors experts. I’m SO pleased with how it’s been received so far, it makes all the hard work getting it started worth it. As well as a blogger, I’m a journalist specialising in interiors (I write for various lifestyle magazines), so it’s really great to be able to marry my “work hat” with my “blogger hat” in one fun project. We have a YouTube channel (Roost TV) which is proving great fun to work on, a curated shop where people can buy the products we recommend direct from our website, plus some very exciting spin-off projects planned for later in the year.

What is your top tip for a new blogger?

Do what you love – your passion will shine through and help you have an authentic online space you can be proud of. Write about what you’re passionate about – it’s far easier than faking enthusiasm you don’t really have! Work hard and don’t expect the rewards to come overnight. Jump in and engage with other bloggers – don’t be shy. Remain true to your own voice – it’s the one thing you have that no one else has. (Sorry, I know that’s more than one tip but I couldn’t help myself!)

Thanks for joining us Molly. Now quick, let’s finish off the biscuits before the kids see them!

Molly Forbes is a lifestyle journalist and blogger, living in South Devon with her husband and two young daughters. Molly’s been blogging for over five years at her family lifestyle blog Mother’s Always Right and has recently launched the collaborative interiors site and YouTube channel, Roost. As well as writing about interiors for various magazines, Molly also blogs for the UK’s largest parenting site BabyCentre. Molly loves hot cups of tea, cold glasses of wine and a bowl of posh salt and vinegar crisps.

You can find Molly on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook or chatting about family interiors as @roostblog on Twitter and Instagram.

[If you missed last month’s cuppa with Becky Goddard-Hill where we chatted about her 5 (yes, five!) blogs and her new shop then you can find it here.]

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If there’s one thing bloggers are great at it’s a good old natter over a cup of tea and a hobnob. Everyone has a different story of how they got started and what they have planned and we all love to share so we thought we’d make it a regular feature. Pull up a chair for a cuppa with…

Becky Goddard-Hill

Hi Becky Goddard-Hill, thanks for joining us. Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about your blogs?

I have 5 main blogs. Baby Budgeting and Family Budgeting cover budgeting, parenting and family life, Thrifty Home and A Beautiful Space cover interiors and Emotionally Healthy kids is a new venture for me getting back to my social work/psychotherapy roots supporting children with their emotional well being.

What first inspired you to start blogging?

In 2009 I had a book published by Random House  How to afford time off with your baby, part of the publishing deal was that I would begin a blog in order to raise my profile and support the book. I soon realised how much I loved blogging and that actually this could be an alternative career for me that fitted beautifully around maximising my time with my children. I have never looked back.

What have been the high points of your blogging journey so far?

I had my eyesight permanently fixed thanks to a blogging opportunity and we have had some amazing holidays including a lovely holiday in Portugal last year.

I won an award for best thrifty blog at the MADS in 2013 after 5 years of being a finalist and my best blogging buddy Chris Mosler presented it. That was a pretty fabulous moment.

I think the work I have done as an ambassador for SightSavers is what I am most proud of though. Supporting their campaigns through my blog makes me so happy.

My bloggy pals rock and have been an important highlight of my blogging journey.

What do you find hard about being a blogger?

Sometimes I find sitting in my kitchen writing on my own all day quite lonely, thank goodness for facebook groups! I also find it quite tricky not knowing what I am going to be earning form month to month which can make me a little anxious.

What are you excited about doing with your blog right now?

I have just opened an online shop on my A Beautiful Space blog selling stationery, books and homeware. I am so excited about it!

I have also just put on a new theme on all my blogs as they were looking a bit dated and it has helped me fall back in love with them. My plan over the next few months is to really focus on all those old posts that I never SEO-d properly (there are 100’s!) and they need sorting out. I finally feel I know what I am doing (well..most of the time).

I am also wondering about embracing youtube and making more vlogs. I feel I should but it all rather terrifies me. I am not very technical!

What is your top tip for a new blogger?

Ooh, can I give 3?

1)      Find a group of lovely supportive bloggers, whether through Tots100 or Britmums, facebook groups or via twitter. It can hugely help to have a virtual community to give you advice, feedback, listen and share opportunities with you. As well as making useful workmates blogging friendships are a wonderful thing. Some of my best friends are other bloggers – not many people in the ‘real world’ quite get what I do.

2)      Be the kind of blogger YOU want to be – If you want to make money or bare your soul, be informative or share your latest outfit, it really is okay. Your blog is your business don’t feel you have to fit in or follow the crowd or bow to popular opinion. Be you. This is your space.

3)      Be proactive –  Opportunities come to those who seek them. Ask questions, make connections, join linkies, make enquiries. You’ve got this and I wish you the best of luck with your blogging journey!

Thanks for taking part Becky, grab yourself a custard cream.

If you’d like to follow Becky Goddard-Hill, as well as her blogs you can also find her on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers we’ve had over for a quick cuppa.

The post A Cuppa With Becky Goddard-Hill appeared first on Parent Blogger News.