2014: Looking Ahead

Whew, two weeks into the new year, and I'm just getting around to posting about my goals/ideas/philosophies for 2014. It's been that kind of a start, y'all. Not bad, just zany.

To begin, by looking back ...
... 2013 was an amazing year for me. My official-unofficial word of 2013 was NEW, and boy did that come true! The 3rd day of the year, I was offered (and accepted) my dream job, and it kept getting better! Over the course of 365 days, I got new wheels, I found a new church - and made quite a few new friends, who I already know will be there for a time to come. There were babies born and relationships started, naturally expanding my personal circle(s). NEW was definitely a year-long theme. Of course, with all the new beginnings, there were also some endings ... Those are always tough, it's hard to say goodbye, even when you're leaving because dreams are coming true. But, in good book-speak, chapters - and books - must end at some point, so you can go on to the next. (Skipping ahead to read what's coming before you get there doesn't work so well in real life ...)

This blog maintained fairly well, until the fall, when it started to slip further and further "behind." As I was thinking about that, and starting to think about how I was going to approach 2014, I came to some conclusions ...

... I'm backing away from the "review" aspect. With a few exceptions: Nancy Kelley, Jessica Grey and Jennifer Becton will always be reviewed, because their writing kicks tail and makes me many kinds of happy. I'm also planning to continue my relationship with Peachtree and Quirk publishers, as well as Candlewick (for whom I'm dreadfully behind on reviewing, oops). These are my favorite publishing houses (teehee), and I get to pick exactly what I want to review. Outside of these parameters, I am probably not accepting "for review" titles - if I do, it will be a special exception for something I simply cannot turn down.

That said, here's what you can expect for 2014 ...
... Catching up on my backlog of books! Which, unfortunately, does feature many titles I accepted for review. I'm debating whether I will post reviews sort of "as I read them," or sprinkling them throughout the year. There are also so many books I want to read for me - and this is a big part of why I'm not doing the review thing. I want to read my books. I want to be able to check out twelve new arrivals from the library and sit down and read them all without talking myself out of it because I have other things I "need" to read. And I don't want to feel like I have to read-for-the-blog. I've always said that this blog is, first and foremost, about me - it's supposed to be fun. When I start feeling bad because I'm getting behind, or not doing as much as I could/should/would like to be doing, then it's not fun anymore. When it's not fun anymore, things have to change. (Wow, I felt a little like those anti-cable commercials there, ha).

There will still be books and posts! I'll review books I'm in love with, or have comments to make about, as well as those mentioned above. I'm also going to take part in (select) blog tours/blasts, primarily on a promo basis: I'll happily feature covers, release info, excerpts, or guest posts - but generally not reviews. Something else I'm planning to add (and excited about) are more personal-ish posts. I want to talk to you, tell you things ... Goofy stories, random reading (or writing) tangents, share giddy fangirling over new books/movies/shows. I'm toying with the idea of having these be "Friday things," but it's open for evolving and tweaking.

There's my glance into the future ... at least as regards blogging here. We'll see how it works, and go from there ...