Gwendolyn Alley

H. D. Thoreau: “In Wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Stories infuse meaning and turn a “space” on the planet into a special place in someone’s imagination, a place to bring a family, to explore, to preserve. 

Gwendolyn Alley is a successful blogger, marketer, journalist, and college writing teacher based in  Southern California. Her academic background includes BAs in Environmental Studies and Literature/Creative Writing, a graduate certificate in Education, a Masters in English and a PhD in progress in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Community, Liberation, and Ecopsychology.

Gwendolyn writes, blogs, facebooks and tweets about wine, travel, family, and green practices. As an Art Predator, Wine Predator, Bikergogal, and Compassionate Rebel, she “prowls” the world for the aesthetic (that which engages the whole soul according to Coleridge) to publish exciting wine, food, and travel adventures to inspire readers and subscribers to leave the sidelines to become involved participants in all the wonderful challenges and experiences life offers. Her blogs combined average 15,000 page views a month.

As an experienced writer, she knows how to engage and build an audience. Her embrace of social media shows in her Klout influence score in the mid-50s since midyear 2011; this puts her in the top 5% of social media users worldwide. See http://klout.com/#/ArtPredator.

A participant at three American and one European Wine Bloggers Conferences, she intends to attend the 2012 Wine Bloggers conference in Portland and the Wine Tourism Conference in Croatia 2013. Through these conferences and her online presence, she knows many of the key bloggers and influencers in the wine and beverage industry.

–In 2010, 2011, and 2012 Gwendolyn was named an influential Wine Blogger by Jo Diaz; Jo also chose Gwendolyn to join her on an all expenses paid  press trip to Portugal. In 2012, Gwendolyn was also listed by Michael Wangbickler.

–In 2010, Gwendolyn’s  blog posts about Washington wine led to her selection for an all-expense paid tour of Washington with 10 other bloggers.

–In 2011, Gwendolyn was on a panel about wine blogging at the International Food Bloggers Conference.

Gwendolyn is active and influential on several social media platforms. A WordPress aficionado, Gwendolyn has attended and live-blogged four WordPress conferences (2008, 2009, and 2011 in SF and in 2009 in LA). She has grown her online readership steadily by developing blogs on specific topics which attract subscribers to their areas of interest.  On Facebook, she currently admins two pages and two facebook groups and has nearly 1200 friends. As @ArtPredator, her twitter followers number over 2100.

As a writing and blogging coach, a graduate of Women’s Economic Ventures program in Ventura, and as a member of No More Nylons, Gwendolyn frequently advises others on social media questions and teaches them how to build traffic, followers, and readers using Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress.

The granddaughter of a Calavo grower and the great granddaughter of Anna Paquette who ran Shepherd’s Gardens in Ventura for Theodosia Burr Shepherd and wrote about gardening for the LA Times, Gwendolyn comes from a family who has long cared for the land.

In terms of projects, Gwendolyn enjoys bringing her talents and her social media “Klout” to tell stories about the land to connect the public with place through inspiring images, quotes, recipes, and educational posts about organics, sustainability, ecology, agricultural heritage, ecosystems, as well as traditional and indigenous mythology.  

In addition to this blog, Gwendolyn authors the following:
http://artpredator

http://winepredator.wordpress.com

http://bikergogal.wordpress.com

http://compassionaterebel.wordpress.com/

http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com

Gwendolyn co-authors:
http://theorchidroom.wordpress.com
(an experiment in poetic collaboration)
http://artcityventura.wordpress.com
(to promote a non-profit arts space)
http://redrex.wordpress.com
(her son’s blog—he’s now 8)

Additional links:

http://www.youtube.com/theartpredator
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=35554582&trk=tab_pro (244 connections)

https://foursquare.com/artpredator

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artpredator/

A few sample blog posts:

Poetry & Portugal

http://artpredator.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/poetry-lines-bicycle-pedestrian-paths-in-portugal-

lisboa-loves-literature/

Review of dinner & wines, International Food Bloggers Conference

http://winepredator.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/international-food-bloggers-conference-2011-highlights-from-santa-monica/#more-3159

Red Wines for the White Wine Lover (review)

http://winepredator.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/wine-blogging-weds-67-some-red-wines-for-the-

white-wine-lover/

Facebook Pages and Groups

https://www.facebook.com/The.Write.Alley

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Middle-of-the-Night-Poems-From-Daughter-to-Mother-Mother-to-Son/246201558758190

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bikergogal/