I’m back! (On why I left for a year-long hiatus and plans for Bellerose Reads in 2022)

Hello everyone!

Long, long time no see. I don’t want to make a really long post as I’m not sure if you guys even remember me, or if someone is even going to read this post. But it didn’t feel appropriate for me to just pop up out of nowhere after a year long hiatus without addressing why I left for so long.

I’ve written this post many times, as I’ve planned to comeback many times throughout 2021, however it wasn’t possible. I’m glad to finally have this post see the light.

Why I left…

The last post you read from me was my 2020 year wrap up. It was the year I started blogging, I did better than ever as I read over 70 books in 2020. Even when 2020 wasn’t my best year for personal reasons, I remember it dearly as it was the year Bellerose Reads was created. I’ve met amazing fellow bloggers and readers because of my blog, I’ve found the most amazing book recommendations and within this community, I felt at home.

However, towards the end of 2020 I went in a huge reader’s block. And one thing to know about me is that once I’m in a slump, it can last for months and months (same thing happens for writing -and I’ve been in a writing slump since 2019). For over a year, the only fiction works I read were those of my clients (for my Beta Reading business), and I’m glad to have spent that year working with amazing authors, diving into their amazing stories and keeping my bookworm spirit alive somehow, even when I wasn’t going to the bookstore and picking up books from the shelf myself.

You might say, how did I keep beta reading when I was in a reading slump? Well, I like to think that I’m an extremely responsible person, and once I’ve committed to do something, my mind won’t leave me alone once I do it. I owed it to the authors and I have a lot of fun helping them fix the inconsistencies and other weak points their manuscripts may have. But I couldn’t find it in myself to go and read more and more for my own once my job was done. As I put my whole energy in beta reading, I found little time and energy to read for pleasure.

I think that another thing that helped me continue in a slump was that I’m not good at multitasking and once I commit to something it consumes my entire attention.

However, I realized that I was doing something wrong in my routine and that I needed to make time in my schedule for the things I loved doing in the past and that I’m still passionate about.

In comparison to last year, I’ve been doing good with reading for pleasure this year. I’ve already read two books as of January 8th, and though it may not be much to some, it is a lot to a slow reader as I am. I’ve been making more time for myself and that finally puts me in the right mindset to be back at reading for pleasure, and be back at the blog.

What to expect from now on?

Firstly, I cannot promise you to post as regularly as I did in the past. I apologize beforehand but I have to be honest with myself and realize that I just cannot post 8 times a month as I did in the past, and even if I did so, the quality of the post won’t be one I feel comfortable with. I will try to post once a week, and remind myself that this isn’t a job but a hobby, something I created to have fun and de-stress myself.

Secondly, you can expect changes when it comes to the whole image of the blog. I have sticked to the same design since 2020 and I start to feel it a bit outdated, and that it doesn’t reflect what I want to communicate with this blog anymore. So I’ll make some changes (for the better I hope!) so the image of Bellerose Reads can connect better with the person behind the posts (moi). I’m already working on it and I can’t wait to show you!

And finally, you can expect recommendations, reviews, blogging tips, discussion posts (which are my favorite and yours too, it seemed!) and many more things I hope are helpful for you.

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I’m really glad to be back. I hope that not everyone has forgot about me and have as much fun here as I did in 2020. You can expect to see my first official post of 2022 in a few days with some of my most anticipated releases of the current year 🙂

If you’re reading this, please leave a comment! What do you want to see from the blog? Do you have some recommendations for me? (After so much time away, I definitely need some!)