I passed a milestone this week. 10,000 views on my website. That is 10,000 times someone has read my blog. I am so humbled by the thought. I am also so elated by the thought. This week in gratitude to you all I thought I would share with you how it all started.
Even when I was a little girl I loved to write. I have always been a big reader. I would read just about anything but my favorite was true crime novels and Archie Comics. I know kind of a weird combination but I am a little bit of weird combination so when you look at it that way it kind of makes sense. Lol
My Mom used to tell me when I was little and she was baking I would tell her stories while I sat at the kitchen table. I would tell of knights on white horses and dragons flying through the air and saving the world from the bad evil men. As I got older I started to write those stories. I wrote all the time. Stories, then journals, telling the tales of the day or events that I participated in. I was a competative dancer and baton twirler from the age of about 5 until I was 17. I so wish I had all those journals now to look back on. Where we went, what we saw, how I felt, it was all there. The ups, the downs and even the sideways. Lol. My parents were older when I was born and often ill. I really think writing about the fear a watching them hurting or almost die helped me deal with the thoughts of my child mind. My writing saved me few times.
Getting married, having kids, a job, my volunteer work, my writing kind of got put aside. Not that I did not go on adventures. I was one of those Mom’s that when the kids came home from school you never knew where we could endup. If the kids had friends over for the weekend they knew to bring extra clothes, walking shoes and a jacket because they may just end up sleeping in a tent because while I was at work on Friday, I decided it would be a good weekend for a roadtrip. Lol. I would tell my friends of my adventures in a true story tellers fashion and they would love it. Some stories they would make me repeat. Just because I get myself into some ridiculous situations sometimes. Just keep laughing.
Growing up there was never blogs. Heck there was not internet. Yes I am that old and you never mind. Lol. When I discovered blogging I was in my mid 50’s. Now, my job at the time was very technical, but that does not mean I was internet savvy. I knew how to run my programs at work after my wonderful coworkers explained it probably more than they should have. It was actually a person at work one time as I told a story of one of the roadtrips I had taken that told me I should write a blog. A blog??? What is a blog?? He looked at me and shook his head, put his hand on my shoulder and said “Oh Stace, let me show you.” It was then I realized it is like a journal. A story about people’s travels, their lives. Holy, there were blogs about everything, even making blogs. Lol. This is cool. Right then a spark lit. One long extinguished. I can write again.
When I moved into the van I started Chipmunks RV Life. Telling my story of making the move, the adjustment and where my job and my van took me. I was excited.
Building my first website was a learning curve. I started with WIX which is a great site. It is easy to use and since really I was not making it a business, it was just a hobby I was comfortable where it was at. I started sharing it on Facebook with my friends and family and they loved it. They could not wait to read what next adventure I was going to share with them. It was fun to write again and exciting that people loved to read it. I was kind of flabbergasted actually on the response I got. People said I should write a book. I had started one when I first moved into the van and knew I would finish it…. someday.
In August 2020 I retired from the post office. I decided that the very first thing I would do is finish my book. November 2020 I published From Housewife to Vanlife. I was an author. I remember that little girl now. Reading books and magazines and seeing the authors name in print and thinking someday I want that to be my name. That day it was that name. I am so proud of my first book. I designed it, created the cover and self published it. I wanted it to be all my own. That is what it is. Cover to cover…it is me. 🙂
In August of 2021 I wrote to an editor looking for travel pieces on Ontario’s Northern Region. I know that region very well, any excuse whether it was for work or fun I would go North. With some surprise I got a contract for 6 articles in Passion Passport Magazine. Check out one of the articles. 48 Hours in Sudbury. They then asked for a few more. Another milestone seeing my name in print for a magazine. My dream is to write for National Geographic someday. Such a respected travel publication and one, myself and my children have grown up reading. What a thrill that would be.
When I retired I wanted to make writing my new career. After all I am not that old I can do this. I changed my website hosting to wordpress and began to learn how to make money from my writing. I started posting a blog every Sunday morning. My views stated to rise. People were telling me they could not wait to read it with their morning coffee. People I had never met were reading and liking it. Wonderful I love it. Last week I got the news that I had reached 10,000 views on my wordpress site. That is incredible!
I had been revamping my website as it was not as professional as it could be. I added my Freelance Writing Service page, signed up with adscense, and created an Amazon referral link for affiliate sales. Last week I started and finished my Amazon store page. All my favorite RV and Camping items and a few on my wish list. I am also working on new travel book 75 Strange and Interesting Places in Ontario and hope to have it completed and published by late fall.
Check out the new pages on my website and if you see some essential RV or Camping items that I missed please let me know your favorites.
Writing is my passion and I am so elated that I can share that passion with you all!
Thank you so much for coming along on my Chipmunk Adventures with me. The more the merrier.
See you next week in Tweed with my 69 Econoline. Back to packing for a roadtrip. Hahaha! I do not do that often.
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