joy of nine9

Interviewed For Tech Talk?

Who Me?

How ironic is this? I still feel like a computer illiterate but I was interviewed for a column called Tech talk on Catholic Mom in 2013. This post is worth revisiting because it articulates some of the underlying themes of my blog.

Catholic Blogger Melanie Jean Juneau

By

Sarah Reinhard

Sarah: Our Catholic Blogger today, Melanie Jean Juneau, maintains two blogs: Joy of Nine9 and Mother of Nine9. She’s a Catholic wife and mother who lives on a hobby farm and whose computer has lived to tell the tale. When you click through (and you should), you’ll find that Melanie updates each of those blogs regularly with insightful content.

Melanie’s a journalist, so she also writes in about a thousand other places too. Today, we’re going to talk to her about her blogging and, hopefully, inspire you to check them out for yourself!

Tell us about your blogs in five words or less.

Melanie: Humourous and heartwarming, thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Sarah: Why did you start blogging?

Melanie:  At the beginning of 2012, I started writing again after taking a 30-year sabbatical to raise nine children on a hobby farm. I closeted myself in a room to sit down and write and then I froze. Although I considered writing to be a solitary craft, looking at a blank screen or talking into thin air was a sterile exercise in futility for me. I could not translate the same creative energy that I experienced telling a story verbally to the keyboard. My intuitive, imaginative side stayed buried and my logical intellect wrote boring mummy drivel.

Blogging has helped melt my prison of isolation because now I am not writing to a wall, now I am writing to real people who respond, offer encouragement and helpful tips.

A year ago I was a complete computer idiot. My kids had to write down instructions to do anything. Many times I spent hours trying to figure out how to do something because I could not even understand the instructions. I knew, though, that writing, and on the internet, was something that God wanted me to do.

Sarah: Why do you keep blogging? What’s your inspiration to continue?

Melanie: I have a call and a vocation to witness to the joy of mothering. Also, I love writing. I love connecting to the Holy Spirit deep inside my core self and simply allowing words to flow, words that I know come from Him. When I am writing in, with, and through Him, I experience joy.

Sarah: When you think of the New Evangelization as a Catholic blogger, what excites you? What makes you want to continue?

Melanie: In our modern society, the internet is the best way to catch the attention of the unchurched, people questioning their faith, or those looking to grow in their faith. Atheists tend to dominate online discussions because Catholics are reluctant to engage in heated debates online. I don’t have to debate but I can add one more voice to the noisy clamour of secularists on the web. The more sites we cross-post on, the higher our visibility on search engines and the more likely that people who are hungry for God will discover our sites. It is exciting to be part of this New Evangelization.

Sarah: What’s the most rewarding aspect of your blogging?

Melanie: As people comment on my articles and start to interact with me, personal relationships developed. I was surprised to discover that these relationships are strong, vital, and mutually encouraging. I know that God is using the internet to nourish and encourage His people, to reach out to others in turmoil and to spread His gospel.

Sarah: In your spare time, what are we likely to find you doing?

Melanie: I am the Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Stand, so that means I edit and try to manage all the writers on our staff. I also edit my kid’s term papers, garden, crochet and help out with my grandkids. However, writing is my vocation; I do not consider it work but part of my life in Him.

connecting with theology is a verb