The Future of Novel Novice

Well hello there, strangers. Long time, no see …

You’ve probably noticed that it’s been pretty quiet around here for a few months now. I have no big news to reveal as to the reason for that.

I simply … burned out.

If you’re a regular here, you know I’ve been feeling this for a couple years now, but have also been struggling with whether to continue this blog or not. The last year has certainly helped clarify things for me.

In May, my twins turned a year old. They are 18 months now, and fully entering toddler mode. My family moved away, so I lost that local support network. I’ve been adjusting into a manageable work-life balance, juggling full time work from home and full time motherhood (with a part-time nanny to help me manage).

But there are only so many hours in the day, so I’ve had to get pickier about how I spend the little bit of free time I’ve managed to carve out for myself. And you know what?

I don’t want to spend that time blogging. I don’t even want to spend it reading review books. I want to read what I WANT to read, or doing non-book related activities.

I’m still getting some enjoyment out of bookstagram (although I’m working on tweaking the way I engage on that platform to make sure it remains a fun, creative outlet & doesn’t become a “chore”) — but this blog? I’m kind of done with it.

At least for now.

I’m going to work on trying to export this site back to the free hosted version of WordPress, so that it remains online and accessible. I have over a decade’s worth of reviews and other content on here, after all, and I hate the idea of seeing that disappear. Honestly, I think that’s a large part of the reason I’ve dragged my feet so much on “retiring” from the blog. The blog won’t look quite the same when I migrate back to the free version of WP — I’ll lose my lovely indexed archives, and the formatting will change — but the content will still be available to you. And I’ll do my best to make sure it still looks pretty.

I’m definitely approaching this with a “never say never” attitude, by which I mean, I might still come back to blogging one day. Which is another reason I wanted the site to remain accessible and online … if the mood strikes, I want to be able to hop on and make a post whenever I feel like it. But who’s to say when (or even if) that day will come. But I like having the option, at least.

Anyway, these days you CAN still find me over on bookstagram — and that’s the best place to connect and see what I’m reading, catch any reviews, giveaways, etc. And if you remain subscribed to new posts here — you’ll be sure to know if/when I ever pop back onto the blog.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking around — and thanks for being part of my little corner of the internet.