julie-maloney-2

Hey Julie.  I know this is your first column in a while so I wanted to leave you a few notes before we publish it.  I will email you to let you know I added them and we will put it on the site after revisions.  Great to have you aboard! – Acadia

Some of you asked for this and most of you don’t know me outside of social media but I’m going to take a second to welcome myself onto the Superficial Gallery staff.  My primary role is social engagement but I will also be posting from time to time. Better be a lot – A

Let me tell you what I’ve done. Ooooh, a confession!  I like it!  – A

About seven years ago I wrote an article for a parenting magazine about how I couldn’t live without the Wii Fit because it had helped me lose a tremendous amount of weight.  I had previous writing experience when I was younger as a member of the writing staff for the Syracuse Herald Journal‘s weekly magazine.  Upon reading the article I was approached by a media representative and asked if I had ever considered starting a blog.  That’s how The Cool Mom Guide was born. Nothing makes something cooler than putting the word “cool” in the title! – A

Due to that apparently causing copyright infringement on a more popular website I was forced to change my name and overnight struggled to find something unique and creative that would stand out.  I ended up calling myself Momspective.   I hated it from the start and still don’t like it today.  You are a smart woman.  That is a terrible name – A

My blog immediately took off.  I was on news shows, magazines and featured in articles across the web.  I started another site called the Wii Mommies and ended up with a radio show.  I was on fire. Witness! – A

I also had success writing about football and I had some press about my “No Pants Sunday” superstition as well as press from my series about teaching women fantasy football to strengthen marital relations. That press got me a paid trip to the Pro Bowl where I hobnobbed with NFL players and had the time of my life.  Eventually I landed myself a national commercial for Best Buy. Well we got free thumb drives once – A

Then my husband asked me to stop.  We had just gotten back together after being separated for two years and he could see the stress I had from the pressure of having to come up with new content daily and we agreed that with “stardom” comes a lack of privacy and I had dealt with some harassment from weirdo stalkers (even got my first restraining order, that was exciting) and we felt like if I continued writing we would get robbed.  Not super rational but that’s the direction we went. Full disclosure, and I should have probably mentioned this before you came on board, but I was totally going to rob you.

With that, I burned my blog to the ground.  I suddenly hated it.  I hated writing.  I wanted nothing to do with social media outside of Facebook.  I deleted all my pages and I don’t even think I said goodbye to my readers.  I got warning of domain expiration’s from GoDaddy and I let them go with spite.  I regret that now not because I want to write for my blog again, but because some awful spam website bought it and now if anyone tries to visit it they get nailed with spam.  I looked to see how much it would cost to bring it back and it’s about $300 and even if I got it back, I wouldn’t have a host to put with it and I have no plans on reopening it so I’m just going to live with that regret and carry on. – But you have the Gallery now! – A

On September 7th of this year I hit my five year sobriety anniversary and suddenly felt irrelevant.  I used to be somebody.  I used to inspire.  I let it all go.  During a conversation with this website’s owner, Acadia, we decided I should take on the role of social media specialist and contributing writer.  I’m not the typical kind of writer for this site, I’m pretty much all about me and my own opinion but I think I can contribute some worthwhile material for your viewing pleasure. There is no doubt in my mind, but you should maybe make me sound cooler – A

I hope to connect with all of you via social media and I look forward to getting to know all of you who comment on my posts and those of you whose blogs I have started visiting through our networking systems.  You can find me on Twitter at Julieannefiu, where I would be happy to engage in witty banter and you can see about one million posts about my dog, who consumes me.  I also sometimes talk about my two kids, but they’re just not as amusing as my dog.  Seriously, you’ll see.  He’s a star on Facebook.  He should have his own page. – I think you just said your dog ate you? – A

So that’s my tale.  I hope I don’t disappoint my fellow contributors on this site as well as you fine readers.  I’m excited to be writing again and really enjoy connecting with all of you on all our social media channels.  And the communication and support I have gotten, particularly with Acadia making sure he checks everything before publishing and keeping me in the loop, have me excited to be a part of it.  Thank you and wish me luck! You don’t need luck. You have talent and ambition and spell check.  I would have accepted two of the three! Welcome aboard. – A

PS – Like I said I will definitely email you to tell you to review these notes before final edit.  I definitely won’t forget and just publish it.  Thanks again!  – Acadia

Filed under: Gallery Business, opinion, staff