Online Lives: Meet Jane Gilheaney Barry who runs thatcuriousloveofgreen.com

Writer and blogger Jane Gilheaney Barry runs thatcuriousloveofgreen.com and her first gothic novel, Cailleach ~ Witch, is due to be published next month.

Jane shares insights into her life and her writing on her website.

“I share my creative process and inspirations, tips and insights on creativity, and snippets of everyday life,” she said. “I’ll share anything I believe to be beautiful, inspiring, and uplifting to the creative soul.”

She has embraced social media, and she has over 13,000 followers on Facebook.

“I use social media to help me see, create, and re-create the life I want, every day.

“It’s an excellent way to build skills like writing, and photography. If you’re posting regularly, with an open heart, you can only get better. And I love having additional spaces to decorate and make beautiful. The possibilities and opportunities are endless.”

Making blogging a daily habit allowed Jane to develop the skills necessary to write a novel.

“Blogging helped me create a daily writing habit that in turn led me to write a novel, grow an online following, and build a new career, all from my kitchen table.

“Going creative, becoming an extreme creative, has improved every area of my life. Social media has allowed me, in turn, to reach and help thousands of other people do the same through workshops, boot camps, my writing, postings, etc.”

She says blogging changed her life. “All my life I knew I was an artist, a writer, but like many people I had never explored that side of myself. When I started the blog I had just had my third child. And I found myself at home for the first time after years working in arts management and PR.

"I hadn’t written creatively since my school days. Thanks to regular writing for the blog within a year I started writing my novel. I was 39 at the time.”

Jane urges any aspiring writer to take the plunge and write a little every day.

“If writing is your thing you can start today,” she said.

“Write a short post on your personal page or Instagram about literally anything. Get in the habit of writing, that’s the key. Lots of people say they don’t think they’d have anything to write about or that anyone would be interested but it’s simply not true.

“I don’t think you can go wrong if your motivation is true and you take an intuitive approach to it all. Be open, do what feels true for you, but always push it a bit further, be brave with it.”