August Reveries – Happy Birthday Reverie Society!

 

Every year since 2015, my first blogoversary, I can’t help but be surprised that I’m still doing this. Not overly shocked, because I do enjoy it. Enjoyment has never been the problem. It’s everything else. That I have enjoyed this so much, enough to power through lack of energy, lack of creativy, or just plain being busy. I think that’s why we take so much pride in our little virtual spaces. The definition of labor of love.

The end of August marks 4 years of blogging for me, and I’m so grateful for the reader and blogger friends who have taken the time to comment, like and just interact with me in any way, even on social media.

 

Before I get into celebration mode, though… I haven’t done a wrap up in forever, so I guess it’s about time!

 

Book reviews

 

 

• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ★★★★½
• Seafire by Natalie C. Parker ★★★★½

 

Discussions

• Why sometimes we take too long to read books

• Is Twitter essential for book bloggers?

 

College

Some of you may know from when I talked about it a few months ago about my work on my thesis. It’s finally finished! The partner and I managed to count all the data we needed in time. At first we weren’t sure about the results but the thesis tutor told us it was alright if they didn’t match our initial expectations, since the information still has value. As it is, I’m pretty excited about we found, and now we’re just waiting for the report on our work and then we can go and do the oral presentation.

And… then it’s over. I’m trying not to think too much about what comes next, but sometimes I can’t help it. I mean, this is really it. At least after I finished high school I knew I still had four years more of studying to do. But soon that life will really be over and it’ll be time to start adulting for real.

 

Business

I had to make a pause with the writing workshops since thesis got me so busy, but I intend to go full swing again starting october.

On another note, I’m going to be participating in my city’s International Book Fair. It’s sort of like Guayaquil’s Book Expo. It’s been my dream for so long and this year thanks to some writer friends I got to meet, we could organize something and help each other out to afford a space in the program.

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It’s been a hard path

At many turns I wondered if maybe it was time to focus on other things, but… I just couldn’t leave the blog. Here are a few things that I consider have helped me keep my blogging motivation.

 

Getting involved in the community

It’s fair to say that the blog and I would be invisible if I hadn’t started putting myself out there. I’ll never get tired of saying how big of a deal connecting with others is. I’m not as active as other people because it’s exhausting as an introvert, and also, having too many projects at once stresses me out. But it’s nice to talk about books and life with other like-minded folks and what has made me keep coming back to the blog.

 

Allow the blog to evolve

Reverie Society was born as A Writer’s Tales. It has changed so much in terms of design, focus and style. And I’ve learned that it’s okay, and actually for the best. I’m not exactly the same than four years ago, and neither should the blog.

 

Cut myself some slack

I eventually also had to acknowledge that I’m not superpowered and that need to take breaks and take it easy. If I’d forced myself to be on blogger mode 24/7, I’d probably have given up long ago. I don’t currently make money from my blog, but even if I did, and perhaps even more so if that was the case, breaks are necessary.

I love the blogging community, but like it or not, sometimes we do need to disconnect and just breathe and forget about responsibilities once in a while. Even those responsibilities that are self-imposed.

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The blog is growing

The baby has been making some progress this year, and that’s the reason why I’m even happier and prouder this year. Not really because of the numbers, but the why behind them.

You see, at the beginning of this year I began publishing blog posts in spanish about writing. So far there are no more than five, but those five posts…

 

They have really made a difference. Don’t worry, my posts in english won’t stop, but I’m just happy that I found that I have a lot of things to say about writing in spanish and that people are quite willing to listen. This also validated my business ideas and obviously given me tons of motivation to go ahead and create more writing content.

 

Going bilingual wasn’t an easy choice

I’d toyed with the idea for a while, almost since the beginning, but only really began this late last year. I was afraid that I’d alienate english readers and spanish readers alike if I tried something like this. And maybe it’s been this way a little bit, but for the most part, it hasn’t been the end of the world!

So again, if you’re here, thank you for not minding the language mix!

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In the end, I guess I just want to say: Thanks so much for 4 years! It’s been so nice to have met you and you’re so awesome!

 

What’s your favorite thing about blogging? And have you ever struggled with a similar decision about languages in your blog?

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