Sharing the joy, sharing the pain

While we were away in Sydney I got an email from a journalist from The Examiner, saying she was going to be doing a story about blogging and wondered if she could interview me. I'm not sure how she came across me, but while I was sitting on the beach at Terrigal she rang me and we talked for a long time about blogging. 

She asked me about why I started my blog, why I enjoying blogging, why I continue to blog and advice for anyone starting out in blogging.   For me I don't blog to get readers at all, but it's just happened that I now have a lot of readers because of what has happened to us as a family.   It's been a huge blessing to me to have so much support right now, and I know that a lot of it comes from having my blog. 

The story included two other bloggers including my gorgeous friend Leona whose blog I love.

The story isn't online so I will share the text of it because it is hard to read from the photo below. 

THE blogosphere is like a window into the lives of others.
Personal musings, notes on the daily intracacies of family, how-to-tips, and recordings about life.
Hundreds of bloggers and mummy bloggers write everyday, and have created supportive online communities.
Some write blogs as online diaries.
Others have realised the money-spinning potential as marketing companies offer cash for comment, and advertisements on blogs.
Lisa King is a prominent Launceston blogger who receives between 3,000 and 3,500 daily hits at The Kings.
Mrs King said she will stay away from the marketing side of blogging, preferring to keep her blog as a family journal.
She has been blogging since about 2007, and continued to write her blog after the deaths' of her husband Aaron in January this year, and son Noah three months earlier.
``I feel like it is therapy for me,'' Mrs King said.
``It was small to start with, but it started to get 300 to 500 hits a day, and I thought wow, why are these people wanting to read about me and my family, and I started to get a bit nervous,'' Mrs King said.
``Then I thought, I love reading about certain families (and) they are probably doing what I do.''
Mrs King's blog is deeply personal, refreshingly honest, easy to read, and dotted with various family photos.
A lot of what she writes delves into her grief, and the grief of her sons Jalen,13, Harrison, 8, and Kobe, 4.
Mrs King writes, ``I miss my best friend so much.  I still can't believe he is gone and no matter what I am doing or where I am, all I can think about is 'Aaron died'.  I think about Noah too, but it's such a different feeling to when I think about Aaron dying.''
``I still can't get my head around that he is gone. It feels like he is just on a really long holiday.  Oh how I wish he was just on a holiday and would walk back in the front door soon.''
At other times Mrs King writes about family nuances, and the stories that emerge every day.
On her eldest son Jalen's recent birthday, Mrs King writes:
``I'm not sure how I got so old, so fast. Today Jalen turns 13. I'm the mother of a teenager!! How did that happen!?.''
Mrs King said she initially started her blog because of her second son Noah, who was born with brain complications at birth.
She said she knew Noah was not going to live very long, and that it would be a good way to record family moments.
``I wanted to share what it was like to have a child with a disability, but in a good way.  I wanted to say that it is hard, but it is also awesome if you want it to be,'' Mrs King said.
``I get so many emails and comments and pictures from people saying `what you are doing is healing me and what I am going through' _ it may not be the same situation (as us) _ but it is helping them.''
``I guess the feedback I get keeps me blogging.''
Queensland blogger Naomi Ellis, who writes the blog Seven Cherubs, has been an amazing pillar of support for Mrs King and her family after the death of Mr King.
Mrs Ellis was instrumental in raising $45,000 through the online blogging community for The Kings.
``I had read her blog, and she (Mrs Ellis) had read mine.  She jumped on my blog about when Aaron passed away and burst into tears,'' Mrs King said.
``She imagined herself in that situation and thought what can I do...we will be great friends forever.''
Mrs King said the secret to the success of her blog was that she wrote for herself.
``Only blog if you are doing it for yourself.  If you are blogging for other people, then you are not going to be happy,'' Mrs King said.
``If there are 3,000 people (reading), It doesn't matter what they want to hear, it is what I want to say.  Some people I know, because they know they have a certain audience, feel like they have to say a certain thing.''
``Once you are happy with your blog, you will probably get a lot of readers.''