Please welcome Diana from the “Part-Time Monster” blog. Diana is Just Gene’O ‘s sister and is also a major contributor to “The Sourcererblog”. I would like to thank Diana for taking the time to all my questions and really hope you enjoy getting to know a little more about her.

 

LaChouett: When did you decide to create The Part Time Monster blog and did it start as a multi-contributor platform right away?

I decided to create Part-Time Monster in oh, probably September, or perhaps even in August, of 2013, though the site wasn’t up and publishing until November. My brother and I had been talking with a group of friends about a multi-contributor blog for a while, but the timing just hadn’t been quite right. We were all in the middle of a grueling academic semester, trying to leap toward the end.

Somewhere I saw that November was National Blog Posting Month. I decided that there probably wasn’t a better time to just start writing than that, and the Monster started publishing. The initial focus was on both personal and collaborative blogging.

LaChouett: I have been all over your blog to look for “The Monster” and cannot find it in the traditional meaning of the term. So what is the Monster defined as in relation to your blog?

Generally, when I refer to the Monster, I’m referring to the blog itself. But in some ways, the monster is me, and I suppose that in some ways it’s all of us. Really, we’re all little bit monstrous, and the blog’s title is meant to embrace that.

LaChouett: During your blogging experience either by creating posts or by visiting other blogs, have you had any “a-ha” moments and would you share one?

Oh gosh, I think I have “a-ha!” moments regularly! I’m always learning new things, and I love that about blogging and the blogosphere in general.

But I think my biggest “a-ha” moment was when I read posts about blog-planning that suggest writing a backlog of posts before beginning to publish. I didn’t do that with the Monster, but I would encourage any really new blogger to do that–write 50 to 100 posts and/or get 50 to 100 photos ready before publishing anything. There will be times when writing and publishing are difficult, and a log of post-drafts to choose from is really handy to have.

LaChouett: What is the Part Time Monster feature/category you are most proud of and why?

I think I’m proudest of our Girls and Women category. I established the blog, albeit accidentally, as a girl-centric blog, and we’ve remained that way. Most of our contributors are women, and we often write about girls and women. For example, last year during the April A to Z Challenge, I blogged my way through A to Z of girls in children’s literature. This year, I’m blogging my way through A to Z of Lady Monsters. We also host Feminist Friday discussions when Gene’O or I write the post, and one of our contributors has a multi-part series on Tough Ladies in Comics.

I’m also happy about our growing pop culture section and our weekly features, especially weekend coffee share. Some months ago, I started writing “if we were having coffee” posts after seeing a similar one at another blog. People seemed to really enjoy stopping by and talking, and the posts were a different style than most of the posts on the Monster, more personal. And then people began writing their own. Around the first of the year, I decided there might be enough of us to try a link-up. Weekend Coffee Share started running on January 10. Every Saturday, I post a “if we were having coffee” post with a link-up that is open for about 48 hours. There are generally 25-35 blogs on the link-up, and a real community has developed. It’s been a lot of fun to see this project grow, and I’m excited about where it’s headed.

LaChouett: I know you don’t get the time to re-read any books, but if you could, which one would you choose and why? (And you can only choose one :)!)

Oh, this is difficult! I don’t re-read books that often, because I always feel as though I’m missing a new one, but there are some that I just can’t resist. I’m going to choose one that I haven’t re-read, though I’d really like to.

“American Gods” by Neil Gaiman.

I remember loving this book when I first read it, but that was several years ago. I’ve forgotten a lot of what I loved about it, and that’s a bit of a tragedy.

 

Thank you for sharing Diana

LaChouett

“The Part-Time Monster” blog will feature on Chouett to the end of the week