Why, hello there!

*waves* Hi, hello, howdy!

I've missed you and I've missed this SO MUCH.

I thought I'd restart this blog with a quick post about what's changed in my life since the blog went on a sudden hiatus. I didn't mean for the hiatus to happen, especially without notice, but life got in the way. Sadly, blogging became more like work rather than a fun hobby. I felt obligated to post all my reviews and read more new releases to remain relevant. So I decided to just stop and figured that maybe someday I'll feel like blogging again. Even if I wasn't able to return to it, I would accept that and cherish everything that I gained from the experience. Blogging led me to friends who are like family, to amazing book recommendations, to becoming an actual author. I couldn't be more grateful.

Over the summer I was thinking about how much I would love to help fellow indie authors out more. Utilizing social media only does so much to spread the word about new books. And all self-published authors rely on getting their name and book in front of potential readers to become successful in their writing career. I began considering resurrecting this blog as a possible platform to sharing books again. At first I tried to brush the thought aside, thinking I must be insane to want to go back to it after the stress it caused me years ago.

But then I really thought about it. I missed the feeling I had when I blogged on a regular basis. It felt nice connecting to fellow readers and sharing all these awesome bookish things with others. Then I thought about what I could do to make it work for me with my life now. If it's overwhelming, I won't stick with it. So, I decided that the best method of action would be to do what I want to do, not what former-blogging-Jessica thought she needed to do. So, this blog will be casual, mostly focused on bookish things (especially leaning toward self-published authors and self-publishing in general), but will also feature a sprinkling of other interesting things like stuff happening in my life.

I wanted to start off with an introductory-type post. Even though most of you will remember me and some of you followed me on social media, I thought it would be good to play a bit of catch up on changes in my life. So here's some pictures and stories!

Before and After!

I dyed my hair back to my natural color after being blonde for wayyyyyy too long. I didn't hate being blonde, it definitely was cool to be blonde, but it took far too much work and I didn't like how blech my hair looked when I went too long between getting the roots done. Plus, I like being a brunette. It looks the best on me.

Glasses!

For a few years, I had noticed my eyesight wasn't as good as it used to be. It gradually got worse and I kept pushing eye exams off because I thought I could handle it. Well, I had to get my license renewed this summer on my 33rd birthday, so it became a requirement for me to get glasses or else not qualify to drive temporarily. I actually LOVE wearing glasses now. I can see a whole lot better than before. I hadn't even realized how bad it got until I put the glasses on.

Kyle and me

The last personal post I had on here said that I was engaged... but I'm married now! Yep, Kyle and I tied the knot on January 13th 2017, over a year and a half ago. We debated on having a small ceremony with close family and friends, then went with going to the courthouse without anybody. It was a simple ceremony, we didn't take many pictures, but the memories matter most. We moved to a bigger apartment not long after getting married. And in January we'll be moving again, only into a house this time. We'll still be renting, but it'll have much more space so we can organize our lives a lot easier. Then for probably at least two or three years we'll stay there and save up to buy a house.


I'm going to end this post there for now and continue with more random tidbits of my life in other posts in the future. Don't want this one to get too long!

Anyways, I'm so happy to be here again with everyone! I hope to chat with all of you more soon!


Until next time,