Someone I'd Like You To Meet: DeeDee from It Coulda' Been Worse

My guest judge for the Write-Away Contest this month was DeeDee from It Coulda Been Worse. Just when she thought her work here was finished I grabbed some more of her time by putting a few questions to her. I was curious to speak with a woman who's co-starred in an "unnamed" movie, impersonated Cinderella and played poker with Brad Pitt.

Her introduction to blogging was similar to mine, her husband (who appears to be the techie of the family) told her about it in July of 2006 and was kind enough to set up her Wordpress blog's layout and design. She happens to have a very nice layout and design so now we know who to thank for that. Before blogging she knew enough to "check her email, enter things in Quicken and play Mah Jong" but has since expanded her knowledge to linking to other sites and knowing what an avatar is. Next stop? CSS, Java and PHP. Husbands are so useful in so many ways.

Like other bloggers I know, blogging isn't her day job. Mother, nurse, teacher and chauffeur to three children--Emme, Cailey and Jensen--when I asked her about time spent at the keyboard DeeDee said she either writes early in the morning or late at night (sound familiar?)

"I wish I had more time for blogging . . . however, I have to make sure everyone in the house is cleaned, fed, educated, and not bleeding. That’s a full time job. So, I blog either very very early in the morning, or after the kids are asleep at night, usually between 8 and 9pm" she said. Early mornings, after a great deal of coffee, seem to be her most productive times. My own motto is "If it's not done before the kids are up it's not going to get done." (Oops! I hear them brushing teeth in the bathroom now, I'd better finish this post).

When I asked if she pays attention to her stats--so many bloggers don't like admitting that they do, I think it's because no one likes to admit that they care whether anyone is listening--DeeDee said that in the beginning she was rather obsessive about checking her statistics but that that has now tapered off to moderate interest. I've heard this from other bloggers as well--it's interesting that when a blog is small stats can feel so important, but when there are a steady stream of readers it's as if the validation calms the nerves and the stats suddenly don't seem as important.

I asked if she had advice for beginning bloggers. "Always write your posts in a program like Appleworks or Word, and save, copy and paste it onto your blog so that you don’t lose them when trying to post." Top that off with a good dictionary and posts that come from the heart and you're set. You too can be a blogger.

DeeDee says she's planning on keeping up her blog "until her fingers fall off or her family stops providing her with material" so I think there are plenty of posts to come.

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I'll be announcing April's Write-Away Contest and introducing my new guest judge on Monday April 2nd. Think spring.

Technorati tags: interviews, Alaska, DeeDee, mommybloggers, Write-Away Contest