Fall 2020 Update! Changes are Coming!

  Hello Everyone!

2020...pretty sure most of us are feeling this...

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What a year right?

Most of us were hoping for the roaring 20s here, not the Pandemic part!

I really hope all of you had some redeeming parts to this year at least, and it wasn't all a shit show.  

So for those of you who have stuck around all these years, or even just now coming across this page (haha sorry for the lack of content recently!) first of all...THANK YOU!  The Romance Bookie is about to celebrate...

TEN YEARS!!!!!

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A WHOLE DECADE!

I really cannot believe it!  

Now, I know The Romance Bookie has been a bit dormant the last few years.  A lot has happened in my life.

When I started this blog, I was one year into community college, a single shy girl trying to figure out her way through this world, who read 115 books in a year.

As the years went on, I grew older...obviously; but also grew as a person.  I met my future husband in 2013, started university in 2015, got engaged in Spring 2016, lost my dad in fall 2016 very unexpectedly, married my husband, graduated from university with my BA finally in 2017, traveled a ton in 2018 and 2019, and then had a baby in 2020.

Oh yeah, you read that correctly...

I am a MOMMY!!!

We welcomed our little guy on September 21st at 6:49am, after a tumultuous, yet frightening 52 hour labor!  

I seriously can't believe I'm his Mama.  It is the most amazing feeling in the entire world.  I feel this is what I was meant to do...be his Mama.  My husband and I are absolutely in love with him!

As you might be able to imagine, having a newborn is a very exciting, yet stressful time in anyone's life.  So things are even more busy than they were before, because while before I was still somewhat able to change my schedule if something didn't work out, I now have someone relying on me 100%.  There is no changing his schedule.  He makes his own schedule, and we have to live with it.

So obviously reading for The Romance Bookie is just off the table at the moment.  In fact, it hasn't really been on the table for quite some time.  Life has been busy, unpredictable, and crazy for quite a few years now.  I guess that's adulthood, right?

But I really miss blogging.  And with The Romance Bookie approaching TEN YEARS next month, I've been thinking what is a better time than now to make some changes.  

These changes will be purely for my own self-care.  I'm not even sure anyone has really stuck around that was a follower years and years ago.  I don't blame them! Life goes on!  Blogger is probably not even the popular blogging site that it used to be...I don't know?  I'm so behind on everything.  And honestly, I'm okay with that.  

The Romance Bookie became a chore at one point.  I had reading deadlines, needed to have posts up by a certain point, and while I loved reading and writing the posts, it became difficult, and quite frankly just sucked the fun out of the whole blogging-for-fun experience.  The Romance Bookie was started to be my escape.  My place to write about books that I loved, and sometimes didn't love so much.  I didn't have many friends, and those I did have were not readers, so I was lonely.  Besides my family, reading was my life for quite some time.  But when that fun part gets taken away it starts to take a toll on you.  

I also got tired of the greediness of the book blogging world.  I have always loved going to events, meeting authors, and sometimes other bloggers.  But as the years went on, and book blogging became too popular, it caused people to get very greedy as they shoved, were nasty to each other, and even lied to get that ARC at an event.  

It's extremely off putting when you have waited in line for over an hour for one of the maybe hundred arcs a publisher is giving away, and people get in line with their friends after everyone else has already been waiting the entire time.  I even had another fellow blogger contact me for one of my extra ARCS because she couldn't get it and was so sad about it, and asked if I could send it to her...which I did, using my own money to send it to her, only for her to post her entire haul, which consisted of pretty much every ARC at the event, only to not even get a thank you.  I know it's such a small thing, but it bothers me to this day.  

I was done with the book blogging world for a long time.  I went to my one event a year (first time this year not getting to go, because of CoVid!), and that was it.  

That being said, I have missed blogging.  I have missed reading.  I have missed having something to write about, so I could have an outlet.   

Not because of the number of followers I have/had.  Not because of the free books I could possibly get (while I did appreciate every single person and publisher who sent me those free books!).  Not for any other reason than to have my place of escaping the reality of the world.

So what changes are to be expected?

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For one, The Romance Bookie will no longer be an exclusive Book Blog.  

I will still be posting book reviews when I have a chance to read a book, but overall I am expanding to a type of lifestyle blog.  I want my escape to be more...me.  And while The Romance Bookie, when it was a book blog, was me, ten years ago, it isn't "me" anymore.  

Second, my resume has expanded a bit.  I'm now a college graduate with a BA in Early Childhood Development.  I'm a wife.  A Mom.  Crafter.  Pinterester.  Avid Netflixer, Huluer, Disney Pluser.   An Amazon Primer (addicted much?!).  

I want to share my recipes with you.  My feelings sometimes.  And yes my opinions.  

However, one thing I won't do is bring politics into this space.  My space.  My Rules.  

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As always, I'm always excited to hear from people.  But again, this isn't about the followers.  It's about my self-care, and having my own personal space.  My escape.

So if you're still with me, I'd like to re-introduce The Romance Bookie...

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More to come soon.  I already have a review lined up of Netflix's new show Dash and Lily, which I'm very excited to share!  And coming up, I'm sure recipes, information on my life as a new mom, thoughts, and life things!

Much love and more later,

The Romance Bookie