Women who blog: Julie Delvaux
Linda Jones continues our look at the diversity of women bloggers with the lowdown on a Russian poet inolved in the Manchester blogging scene.
Name: Julie Delvaux
Blog: Notebooks
Blogging since: August 2006
Why did you start to blog?
I have seen many blogs between, say, 2003 and 2006, but virtually all of them struck me as following too narrow a path or pursuing one single subject. I was a writer, historian, journalist, and also had many interests, so I didn’t really want to restrict myself.
Then two things happened. I was doing a programme on the local web radio, for which I had a homepage. And on that homepage I began to put up different quotes or news items that I found interesting.
Sometimes there was too much to post, and I had to be selective, which meant that I was restricting not only myself, but also the site’s visitors. Then in July 2006 I went to Futuresonic Festival, which was all about new technology and creativity, and I met and spoke to some really great people there.
Ultimately, it made me realize that I could no longer be too cautious with either my creative pursuits, nor with my own life, and that I needed to reach out to people as soon as possible.
I called the blog ‘Los Cuadernos de Julia’, thus paraphrasing the title of the novel by one of my favourite authors, Mario Vargas Llosa, Los Cuadernos de Don Rigoberto (The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto)
How has your blog helped you develop personally and professionally?
My native language is Russian, and I write in English, so the ability to switch from one language to another has certainly risen.
The main professional outcome is that I stopped being afraid of all things virtual. I have no longer got this fear of pressing the wrong button or inserting a code incorrectly. Just knowing your post attracts readers is already rewarding. When the readers do leave a comment or email you and say that they found your content interesting, it feels wonderful.
Have you made friends through your blog?
I have found a few old friends through my Russian sister-blog, and because I allow anonymous comments on both English and Russian blogs, some unknown people engage in conversation and share their memories or opinions.
What’s your favourite post and why?
I’d choose two, both about the late Kurt Vonnegut. For me Vonnegut was an author who reaches out to you so that you begin to think of him as being always present in your life, as someone immortal, which unfortunately is not the case. When I saw his obituary in the news, I felt numb, and I couldn’t believe it, although I knew he was old. So I wrote about ‘my’ Vonnegut in Notebooks. I wrote the post after work, in Starbucks near the Central Library in Manchester, on paper, and later typed it in to my blog. It is not a critical essay; it is the gratitude and sorrow of a young dreamer. Read Julia’s favourite posts here and here.
What’s your best blogging experience?
When I left a comment on the BBC Manchester Blog in November 2006, simply expressing an opinion on one of the posts there. Almost immediately Richard Fair was in touch by email, asking if I was available for an interview. It was probably then that it became very clear to me that the “thing” that I was pouring myself into in the past few months was worth every minute I had spent on it.
For me to hear people commenting on the poems is most uplifting, and those comments also let me see how many people actually know Russian.
Why should people read your blog?
My blog is, essentially, a book. Moreover, it’s a travel book. There is always something to discover.
Linda Jones blogs at You’ve Got Your Hands Full and Freelancewritingtips.com. She’s also Shiny’s newest contributor to Twitterati.
Hi Linda,
Many thanks for the interview! I wrote about it in Notebooks - http://loscuadernosdejulia.blogspot.com/2007/04/dollymix-interview_23.html
Julie Delvaux x
Posted by: Julia | April 23, 2007 9:23 PM