Hazel Gaynor Back in February, Hazel Gaynor attended the ‘Webwise: Writing for the Web’ workshop with Beth Morrissey - and has been writing ever since. Hazel says "At the time, I had just been made redundant from my job with a Dublin law firm, so was exploring new avenues for a family-friendly career. As someone who has always loved writing, and swears there is a best-seller lurking within (!), this workshop came along at the perfect time.

I came away from the workshop buzzing with information and ideas. There was so much more to this than I had imagined. The main – and absolute best - piece of advice I came away with was to start a blog and get connected on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I hadn’t got into any of this at all up to that point, so this was a real step into the unknown for me.
 
I started my blog www.hotcrossmum.blogspot.com straight away – writing about my new life as a stay at home mum. I found that my posts quickly generated plenty of interest and gave me lots of ideas for articles on parenting. I started to contact parenting websites and magazines to enquire about submitting articles and blogging opportunities. Through this, I met with a representative from www.eumom.ie
and shortly afterwards, I started blogging for them. I also contacted the local community magazine and a couple of local newspapers with ideas for articles. All were very responsive and liked my ideas. I had my first piece published in the Leinster Leader in March which was quickly followed by a feature in Modern Mum magazine.
 
I then, through a fellow Inkwellian, I became aware of an opportunity for bloggers for Hello magazine which I followed up. I was accepted to start blogging for them in April. Through my Twitter ‘tweets’, I was then discovered by www.mummymaps.com and was approached to write reviews and articles for their site. The next stage was for me to start actively visiting other parenting blogger sites and connect into them and leave comments. This was a very effective way of generating traffic back to my site. Twitter has also proved to be a fantastic was of connecting with like-minded people and driving traffic to my blog posts. I have also discovered blogging networks ‘British Mummy Bloggers’ and ‘Irish Mum Blogs’ which are also fantastic resources.
 
I now have 62 blog followers, 176 Twitter followers and have been listed on the Top 100 UK Parenting Bloggers index.
 
Most recently, having had several articles published, I was asked to write a weekly column for the Leinster Leader. The editor also gave me some great contacts in the national press, through which I have recently had my first paid piece in the Irish Examiner, with two more scheduled for the coming month. Finally, my blog recently attracted the attention of a Dublin-based PR agency who approached me to attend the launch of the Pampers/UNICEF ‘1 pack = 1 vaccine’ campaign at an exclusive bloggers lunch in London, where I met actress Natascha McElhone. In October 09, my blog was listed in a feature by the UK Independent Newspaper as one of the top 50 Best Blogs.
 
Having received such positive feedback on my writing, I have gained a new found confidence and am now 20,000+ words into my first novel. I have submitted the first 1,000 words to novelicious.com (which Vanessa highlighted in a newsletter a few months back) and this is due to go up on their site soon. I also posted an extract from my novel on my blog as part of a flash fiction group I discovered – again through Vanessa! - and got great feedback from that too. So, from very small and humble beginnings back in March, here I am as a published freelance writer and novelist in waiting. I love being a Stay At Home Mum and am delighted to have found a new career which I can – just about – fit in around the children.   

www.hotcrossmum.blogspot.com 

www.twitter.com/hotcrossmum 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelgaynor