Category Archives: Blogging

~ 1 Comment

‘It doesn’t seem like blogs have as much “power” as they used to’

I have to admit I've been a bad little blogger lately: that is, I've barely read any blogs.

I can trace this back to when I moved from Blogger to WordPress.

See, Blogger has this nifty in-built blog reader thing where you can add blogs to your reader and in a scroll box all the new posts appear.

So I subscribed to roughly one hundred bookish websites, including my own, and every time I'd log into Blogger (on average this was hourly) I'd scroll down the list until I hit my own post recent post: I knew then that I'd read all below that.

This was the perfect way to keep up-to-date with everything and I loved it.

Fast-forward to WordPress which has no such reader.

So everything sort of dropped off the radar.

I'd only read posts that I saw on Facebook or Twitter - few ...

~ 0 Comment

… Without evidence of this nature, defendant is not “media”

So I found this article about a blogger in America who is in court with investment firm Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder Kevin Padrick after she 'went out of her way' to bad-mouth them on various sites.

It's really interesting to read, and I particularly like the below definition of a journalist, and it demonstrates how the blogger doesn't fit that mould and thus isn't given the same protection/allowances as journalists are:

'Defendant fails to bring forth any evidence suggestive of her status as a journalist. For example, there is no evidence of (1) any education in journalism; (2) any credentials or proof of any affiliation with any recognized news entity; (3) proof of adherence to journalistic standards such as editing, fact-checking, or disclosures of conflicts of interest; (4) keeping notes of conversations and interviews conducted; (5) mutual understanding or agreement ...

~ 4 Comments

Blogging as Graffiti

I saw Contagion on the weekend. Jude Law's character, a journalist, is chasing Laurence Fishburne's character for information about what's happening.

Fishburne's character spits at him, "Blogging is not writing: it's graffiti with punctuation."

I smirked and, much to the dismay of those sitting around me, pulled out my phone to jot down the quote.

Of course, I started to think of defenses in my head but when I really thought about it, it's true.

But then again, that can be said of any print or online writing. As I mentioned in the interview that was posted over the weekend (you all enjoyed that, right?!) this can been seen as simply my soap box for anything I want to say. 

And, you know, people say that about certain journalists with columns in papers *cough*.

And then you could say that about authors pushing their own agenda's in ...

~ 2 Comments

Part Two of the Interview with Me!

Part one is here, written by Rani McDonald.

There are a number of perks that come with successful Blogging. Talk us through those.

Yes there are perks but they don’t come for free… well technically they do come for free but it’s a lot of work. I get tonnes of review books, even more emails from people wanting to send me books, which I’ve been forced to decline. So yeah I get a lot of free books, I get a lot of event invites, I guess I’m also privy to a lot of information. I guess another major perk is networking. I mean… I would like to think I’m a pretty good networker!

There are a lot of people out there that are in it just for the perks, how do the publishers distinguish them from the genuine literary lovers?

Totally. Word of mouth. ...

~ 5 Comments

Me interviewed! (So more of me rambling, essentially :P)

Hey kids! Something a bit different and special today: part one of a two-part interview with me by a lovely girl from uni, Rani McDonald. Read more for insights into blogging, writing, reading, books and everything related! Part two will be up tomorrow.

 

The Girl Most Likely

 In a world where the internet is fast becoming the nerve-centre of society and blogging is the new darling of the media, I sat down to talk with rising star Megan Burke about her blog, the Melbourne literary scene and her new manuscript.

It’s 11:04am on a brisk spring morning in Melbourne and I’m running late. I rummage in my bag as I walk, locate my phone and shoot off a quick text explaining. Before long there is a bleep! bleep! and a reply comes back, ‘That’s ok! ...

~ 4 Comments

A Thousand Words Festival – Tomorrow!!

GUESS WHAT!

That time of year is upon us again, where we rejoice and go to A Thousand Words Festival!

Here's the media spin by (the fantastic and awesome) festival organiser Bec Kavanagh:

Not long now until the annual celebration of books that is A
Thousand Words Festival! In 2011 we’re bigger than ever with the biggest book swap, the festival gala, interactive performance panels and books, so many books!

If you’re on holidays and are a reader, wannabe writer, emerging editor, book fiend or sucker for a story come to the festival this year. On Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th of September you’ll be able to come down to the Northcote Town Hall and join other writers and book lovers to talk all things bookish. YA authors Tim Pegler, Leanne Hall, Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood join many more to present a ...

~ 14 Comments

Melbourne Writers Festival: UNblogger

YOU GUYS! YOU GUYS!

I have very exciting news. GUESS WHAT!!

If your guess was that I'm one of five UNbloggers for the 2011 Melbourne Writers Festival then you'd be right!!!

If your guess wasn't that, well, then you're wrong :P

Let me explain:

I saw an advertisement in the Victorian Writers Centre newsletter:

MWF seeks bloggers

Melbourne Writers Festival is looking for avid bloggers to post on their own blogs about MWF as 'UNbloggers'. Winners will get a festival pass and their writing promoted through the Festival's networks. For more information visit website.
Closing date: 22 July

I, of course, applied straight away. (And by straight away I mean after I drafted and drafted and edited and edited my application!)

You had to write a repsonse to their theme, which is Stories Unbound.

Here is my response: 

Stories Unbound:

Unbound stories are limitless. They are imaginative, inventive, interesting. ...

~ 3 Comments

Blogging The Uni Way

This week is my non-fiction class was blogging week.

I was nervous and curious at once to discover what would be said.

While my friend next to me took mad notes in the lecture my notebook stayed blank.

In the tute, we had to get into groups and discuss whether blogging was really free speech for all or not.

My group elected me the speaker (this may or may not have more to do with the fact that I am a loud-mouth than my knowledge on blogging :p) and speak I did!

I was particularly interested in other's opinions on blogging and the facts the lecturer pulled out.

As the lecturer said in the lecture she'd simply googled blogging prior to writing the lecture. That much was obvious (to me anyway). Thus why I didn't take any notes: it was pretty stock-standard stuff.

I think we all ...

~ 4 Comments

I’m Back!!!

Hell-o! Boy it’s been a long time. I’ve missed you all.

But rest assured that I’ve been working hard on making a brand new site for you all!

Well, I should be honest: my designers have done the hard work!

Here’s how it came about...

I’ve been thinking about upgrading for a while actually.

Firstly, moving away from the free hosting site that hosted my website (the meganburke domain one) and also moving away from Blogger and the generic designs (although saying that, I did love the last Blogger design I had!).

I originally got the idea to hire an off-shore VA (virtual assistant) from the book ‘The Four-Hour Work Week’ by Timothy Ferriss. It talks about reducing working hours and one of the suggestions is to hire a VA.

Even me, poor old student me, can afford $10/hour!

I put that book/idea in the back of my mind ...

~ 2 Comments

Why My Reviews Are Basically Always Positive (Also: Updates & FORGOTTEN Comp Winner Announced)


So I was talking to my friend Amy last night.

Me: I'm reading the best book at the moment! It's so fantastic! And I just finished another one this morning, which was brilliant - the review for that will be up later tonight
Amy: All your reviews say the book is good!
Me: Shut up! No they don't
Amy: Yes they do
Me: I got the one I'm reading now in the mail today with another book that also looks excellent
Amy: All your reviews are extremely positive
Me: Shut up! No they're not

And so on, until ...