This has been a pretty tough year, especially when it comes to blogging. I have been all over the place with this blog with stretches of posting and even longer stretches of not posting. At various times in my blogging life, I have been super focused with fully planned editorial calendars and most of my content written and scheduled weeks or months in advance. At other times, I fly by the seat of my pants.

My mental health has been the primary reason for the craziness and inconsistency this year. I mean, I’m still not working, so it’s definitely not a time issue. But between some extreme depressive episodes and a very erratic sleep schedule, I have not been at my best. And it has had a major impact on this space.

A few months ago, I decided that I needed to remove the pressure of posting. I stripped things back to just reviews and blog tour spotlights, plus two wrap up style posts each month. And this helped a lot. I focused more on reading and getting through some of the backlog of eARCs. I’ve finally feel like I’m starting to make some progress on my Net Galley shelf. And I feel like I’m ready to start posting a little bit more.

In addition to the reviews, spotlights, and wrap-ups; I have 6 additional posts planned for November (including this one). I also have 6 planned for December and 2 (so far) for January. The temptation is strong to fill in all of the dates on the calendar with posts again, but I’m resisting that. At least for now.

As of this writing, I have 18 days in November with no posts scheduled. Many of these will fill in with reviews as I complete more eARCs (I have 19 currently in progress). The rest will remain post-free unless something important comes up that I feel the need to post. I may decide I need to post more in 2025, or maybe less, we’ll see how things go.

I’m also putting in a little more effort. I’ve created some new post headers and am working on a new blog header as well. I’ve got a lot of behind the scenes stuff to clean up. I obviously can’t pay for professional stuff at the moment, so I’m doing the best I can with the skills I have. I want this to be a beautiful, bookish place where everyone feels safe and welcome.