'Neath the pumpkin patch

Greetings,

This was a post that a couple of months ago I never thought I would be making. I thought that I was done, and that I would let blogging and the blog slip away into the night. Then there was a conversation where it was apparent that in that moment I wasn’t considered a blogger, so I did it, I hit delete, I retreated and thought that was it.

Only it didn’t bring relief, instead I missed it.

But, there was no point just jumping back into the same mess. So I took a week’s holiday, and sat down to actually work out what and where the issues were, and what I wanted to do. There were lists, doodles and a good amount of chocolate.

And ultimately I realised that blogging wasn’t so much the problem as the casualty. The downside to having a day job that is very closely associated with your hobby (I manage a bookshop), especially when events and changes have left me incredibly unhappy at work, to the point where it has felt that I have been losing pieces of myself nearly every day (I am looking for a new job but that is a work in progress). But the books were never the issue. If my job was just books there would be no problem. But, that unhappiness and feeling of losing myself had bled through to blogging and other hobbies.

There were other reasons too. Some health issues that are ongoing, and the summer months are always difficult for me (although my joints will argue that winter is worse).

And of course the constant noise of social media, and the feeling of fomo and the realisation that I am never going to keep up with the popular trends and books, and ultimately that’s not what I want.

So, that has led here.

To ‘Neath the Pumpkin Patch. New blog. New Graphics. And I very much hope a new lease on my blogging days.

So why ‘Neath the pumpkin patch? Because, I love spooky things, autumn and Halloween and I have stuff up year round for it, I have the pumpkin mugs, my spirit city set up has been halloween ever since I got it. So, I decided why not make this place very much me? I loved Beneath A Thousand Skies, but that was a name and a theme from years ago, and we no longer worked together (although as you will see on the about pages, I am keeping the email address for ease).

I have also shifted my approach to posts. I currently have the majority of Septembers reviews written, and I am already mapping out Octobers. And I have half a dozen drafted posts to plug any gaps. My intention is to always to be a month ahead so when stuff hits the fan at work, I am not scrambling, and I intend to increase that lead for the summer months as I know those will be difficult. But, the schedule will be flexible so I can move around events and requests etc.

I have also discovered in the moving and rebuild that I have lost a lot of old reviews – even the docs have vanished, so if I cannot track them down (there is a chance I have popped them in a random folder) I will be revisiting some old reads for rereads and reviewing them again.

AND I have plans for October…

I have updated my review policy and blog services, especially with regards to making it clear no AI will be welcome here. And I am excited to see where this goes.

I will be back later today with a review for The Chosen One Con by Trudie Skies which is out in the wild today!

Thank you for sticking with me, and here’s to the spooky months (year round now ;))