Meet Victorious Blogger Valerie Grace Hallinan

"If you believe books can help us survive adversity, heal, live more fully, and change in ways we never thought we could - or if you simply can't live without books - this blog is for you" says Valerie Grace Hallinan of 'Books Can Save a Life'.

Valerie's blog appealed to the reader in me but when I realized she had written some insightful posts about mental health, I had to include her in my interviews with 'Victorious Sufferers'.


1. What inspired you to start blogging about mental illness?

My mother had paranoid schizophrenia (undiagnosed until she’d been ill for more than a decade), and she had no insight into her illness. Growing up in our family, in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s in Cleveland, Ohio, was difficult. I’d been working on a memoir and decided to begin building a platform in anticipation of publishing my book. I was interested in blogging, and so 'Books Can Save A Life' became the first component of my platform.


2. What were your original goals?

I intended to have a general interest blog about books, with the idea that books saved my life growing up. They were a necessary and wonderful retreat and escape from a difficult family life. Books continued to be a huge part of my life as an adult when I became a book editor and later a librarian.

On 'Books Can Save a Life', I wanted to write about books from a personal point of view, rather than doing traditional, critical reviews. How might a book enhance, change, even save my life, and my readers’ lives? How might a particular book do the same for the world at large, as well?

So you won’t see books I don’t like or wouldn’t recommend on my blog, only those books I feel have something important to say. I recommend books that are well written, with a distinctive voice - high quality fiction and nonfiction.

3. Has the blog accomplished those goals?

This has proved to be a rich, rich topic for a blog. Four years later, I’m still blogging, and I feel I’ll never run out of things to say and share, because the good books keep coming. I have a small, faithful, and growing audience, and I enjoy hearing from readers when they decide to follow up on my book recommendations.

I only wish I had more time to cultivate a larger audience. I try to spread the word on social media, but I could stand to learn more about how to increase my reach.

4. Have your goals changed?

I found myself writing often about my own experiences with my mentally ill mother, weaving those in whenever I found an excellent mental health related book of fiction or nonfiction to recommend to my readers. I’ve found quite a few such books to feature, and so while Books Can Save a Life isn’t exclusively a mental health blog, I have a mental health category in the header so readers can quickly access my posts related to mental illness.

These posts about mental illness are among my most popular. They are evergreen and continue to attract readers, even though some of them are a few years old.

Some of these are:
Children of Mental Illness, Part I
and
Children of Mental Illness Part II
Why I Write Memoir

5. Has your current content changed a lot from your original content?

Well, in addition to adding a mental illness category and intentionally cultivating that, I also began an 'Excavating a Life' thread about the memoir writing process and creativity in general. I love books about creativity, and I want to share them with my readers.

Writing about one’s life can be healing, too, in an emotional, spiritual, and even physical way, so the topic dovetails nicely with books saving lives and mental illness/mental health.

6. What do you think your strengths are as a mental health journalist?

I don’t consider myself a mental health journalist per se, but in terms of my strengths, one is certainly passion. I’ve been a family member and the daughter of a mother with a serious mental illness, and I’m committed to reaching (through my memoir and the blog) adult children and young adults who have a mentally ill family member-- as well as those who do not but want to read about this experience. I was lonely and isolated growing up, and others with a mentally ill family member are, too.

I want to ease that sense of isolation if I can.

Coming at this from another direction, I don’t have a serious mental illness, but I have experienced depression. So my emphasis on books that inspire and heal comes from direct experience-- I’m passionate about sharing the books that have helped me with others who might benefit from them.

7. What makes your blog unique from other blogs of the same kind?

As far as book blogs go, I haven’t seen one with a strong personal, autobiographical thread that highlights what books can mean to us personally.

I tend to bring readers along with me on my reading journey. Whatever book or topic possesses me at the moment, that’s what I write about, rather than focusing on the summer’s best reads, or award-winning fiction of 2016, or other types of book lists. Whatever obsesses me at the moment, I try to share it in a way that will be meaningful to readers of my blog, emphasizing aspects I thing might resonate with them.

8. Do you have some favourite mental health blogs/websites that you frequent and/or admire?

I’ve seen several mental health blogs that I like, though I’d prefer not to single one out. They all have something to offer, and I wish there were more bloggers writing about mental health and mental illness.

One site I visit often is the NAMI site (National Alliance on Mental Illness): I'm a long-time member of NAMI, and the organization has had a tremendous impact on my life. Their site is carefully curated with rich, varied content that is trustworthy and accurate.

9. How do you know that people benefit from your writing?

Sometimes I have to go on faith that my work will find readers who might benefit. That said, I often hear from readers via comments on the blog, or they contact me directly to tell me about their experiences with mental illness or to thank me for writing about it and recommending relevant books.

10. Do you have any formal training as a writer? If yes, what kind and where?

I was an English/journalism major at Marietta College in Ohio, and I have a graduate degree in broadcast communications from The Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

In terms of my own creative and nonfiction writing, I’m always taking classes online and occasionally in person. I read lots of books about writing, too.

11. Have you ever worked as a full-time journalist aside from your blog? If yes, where?

Not as a journalist. I worked for several years as a marketing communications and public relations specialist in health care and business, which involved lots of writing.

12. If you were to advise someone who is thinking of starting a blog about mental illness, what would you say?

I would say go for it, because there aren’t enough of them. Mental illness is still shrouded in too much silence. People with mental illness and their families suffer even more, needlessly, because of this.

Don’t worry if you have no formal writing experience. Blogs come in all shapes and sizes and it’s a very forgiving and elastic form. Make it your own. The discipline of posting regularly will help you mature as a writer, too.

13. How have you benefited personally from your own blog writing experience?

I’ve met some great bloggers from all over the world.That is so exciting and gratifying.

After four years of blogging, I have a lot of content. I’ve gotten to know myself better, and the topics, issues and writers that really matter to me. I now have a rich body of material I can draw on to write essays, articles, podcasts, and, possibly, a book or two.

Thanks, Wendy, for inviting me to your blog. I’m honored!

And thanks Valerie for this heartfelt interview. Keep on reviewing those meaningful books and keep enjoying that writing experience. You are making a contribution while doing something you enjoy!

That is the last of my interviews with 'Victorious Bloggers' for now. There are so many out there, I am sure I will have to do this again. If you would like to recommend someone, even yourself, I am interested.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? Do you read a lot like Valerie? Do you read for enjoyment, information, inspiration? How about writing? Ever considered writing about your own mental health journey?

Don't give up! There is hope for depression.