Introducing a Hubber to Hubpages...

Last year I started writing my own hubbed conversations or interviews with other Hubbers.

Similar to what Hub-pages Weekly Newslettersand or do in their newsletters.. I thought it would be a great way for me personally to get to know a few of my favourite hubbers and also my audience to do so at the same time. This is the fourth I have posted so far the first time was with CatherineR and the second time with.Luciendasky. The third time posted last weekend called' Not Just another Hubber ' was with Lawyer and mother anjalichugh

This week i have a Hubber to introduce to you her pen name is Gramarye You will find her hub front page here

You have been a member of Hubpages for a short while now. What drew you to join and what do you think now, compared to when you started out?

On 23^rdJanuary 2010 I was drawn into Hubpages when I clicked on something, and ended up at hubpages. I cannot even remember what I was looking for at the time. For the past eight years, I had been working on my PhD thesis in Applied Linguistics and had avoided any internet play other than quick glances at face book, or a game of FreeCell while dreaming up what to write next.

When I started reading about how people were making money from hubpages by writing, I joined straight away, and the addiction was immediate. At the time, I was on holidays and had about one week left before returning to work, and produced quite a few hubs to get started. I think at first, I didn’t really know much about the concept of “social networking” and that was my first challenge to adopt a less of a “me” approach and be more outgoing in meeting people. I quickly became aware that my IT skills had become very outdated during the thesis period of my life, and have quickly picked up quite a bit of knowledge about keywords, SEO and such forth... Therefore, it has been a steep learning curve, but one that I’m enjoying. I’d say that I probably know about 20% of what I need to know at this stage.

What sort of things are you writing about? What would you like to write about?

Early in my time on Hubpages, I read that it is best to start out from a broad base and see what works, so I tested out a variety of topics and some of my short stories they don’t seem to work well – I think that is because it is difficult to work in keywords. What I have been writing is book reviews for ESL (English as a Second Language) books, and they seem to work very well with over half the hits coming from Google, notably international Googles from non-English countries. This indicates that I’ve got my target happening but I’m not getting Amazon payoffs, so have been changing my slant to try to make them a mixture of review and sales. There is a small contradiction with this, in that to write for ESL readers, my writing needs to be easy to read and understand, but I need quality writing for hubs. Not unexpectedly, intermediate level books have a better hit rate than elementary books as people with that level of English wouldn’t be able to read the hub. I’m still pondering this contradiction.

I think I’m writing what I like to write, but I do have an idea for a second hub that would be extremely different, but I’m not ready to give that one away just yet.

What about you’re family and other pastimes? Where are you from?

Family – I live with my husband in Adelaide Australia who is an amateur radio buff and works from home when he isn’t travelling to his clients in USA and Finland. He is very happy with his lot, but very high maintenance as he likes to have everything done for him.

My adult daughter lives close by and my 3 year old grand daughter goes to the child care centre a few houses away from where I live, so I get to see her quite often. She is a real sweetheart and I can honestly say that being a grandmother is much better than being a mother.

I have a few hobbies such as decoupage and collecting gramophones and records for them. I also have a fairly good collection tins, beginning with gramophone needle tins, but I do have a fetish for tins decorated with liquorice all sorts. Once a week I attend a Pilate’s class and this is such a magical way to exercise that it should be compulsory for all adults!

You said that Pilates should be compulsory for Adults would you tell me what the benefits that Pilates has given you ?

Pilates - I was starting to "feel my age" a little bit. By that I mean feeling aches and pains. Then I developed bursitis down one side of my body which made all my joints very painful. The quack gave me tablets that fixed all but my shoulder, and he wanted me to have quartazone (not sure of that spelling) injections into my shoulder and that really frightened me. I decided there had to be a better way. One day I took my father to his doctor and while there picked up a brochure about pilates lessons that really interested me. I looked around my local area and found a physio practice that has lessons with a physiotherapist.

After the second lesson, I had no more pain in the shoulder. In addition, other little bits and pieces of pain vanished, my fitness, strength, posture, balance and general outlook on life improved. It really made me feel well for the first time in quite a while. By the fourth lesson, people started commenting on how good I was looking, so it really showed on the outside as well.

Everyone I know that does Pilate's also tell similar stories. It is amazing how much benefit it brings with such simple and gentle exercise. No raising a sweat!

What are you doing during the day these days?

Four days a week I teach ESL to migrants and refugees, which is a really good job. Because we work school terms, I have a lot of holidays, about 12 weeks a year, and during the last term, found myself hanging out for the holidays so I’d have more time to write hubs! I’m back to work next week, and will really miss my days writing. At the moment at work, we may lose our funding for next year, so I’m just waiting to see if I will have to find another job or be a full time Huber in the near future.

If there is somewhere you really want to visit?

I’m quite lucky in that I’ve travelled quite a lot. I have been to Finland in all 4 seasons, and love it. I’ve been to several parts of the USA and all over Great Britain and Scotland as well as some European countries.

Earlier this year I applied for a scholarship to go and study Italian in Italy for 10 weeks later this year, and I missed out, so I’m kind of hankering to go to Italy at the moment.

Is there something you really want to accomplish before you die?

I wanted to get my PhD before I die, and it is being examined at the moment. That really put my life on hold for the past 8 years, so I’m presently mulling over my future. Hubpages has filled that writing gap, but maybe it is that elusive best-selling novel that needs to be written before I die...