Announcing a New Addition to the Blog: Book Reviews

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.

I’m so excited to announce a new section of the blog!  I will be doing book reviews in addition to writing about my family’s travel adventures.  The first review will be up Wednesday, May 2.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been on a little hiatus since December.  I love blogging and writing about my family’s adventures, but I was struggling to maintain the balance in my life required to keep all areas of my life afloat.  I often compare my life to that variety show act in which the performer is spinning several plates on sticks, trying to keep all of them spinning without any crashing to the floor.  The performer runs along the plates and devotes some energy to the plates most likely to fall next. Well, my friends, some of those plates did crash. They had to. If some hadn’t crashed, they all would have.

Many of you know I teach high school English, speech, and drama.  From October to March, I coach my school’s speech and debate team.  In December, the music director and I cast The Little Mermaid, and we jumped into rehearsals in January.  While these things, as well as being a wife and mother, kept me busy, my schedule wasn’t the whole story.  I’ve been maintaining a similar schedule for the past eleven years. Something more was happening.

Last spring, I realized that I needed a hobby outside of school to distract me from some of the emotions I had concerning teaching.  I learned about blogging, and I launched my family travel blog last year. At the time it didn’t dawn on me, but I missed writing.  Blogging reminded me of the creative outlet I once had, and although I was somewhat rusty, I jumped in.  As I began writing, I saw that I’d lost my voice. Honestly, I’m still working on finding it.

For the past eleven years my focus had been teaching students to write literary analysis and research papers.  I’d also completed a master’s degree and a specialist’s degree in educational areas. Somehow, I’d stopped writing for fun. I suppose it had something to do with all of the plates already on the sticks.  I had to address the plates about to fall before I could add another.

When November came around, I could clearly see that something wasn’t right.  I later identified what was happening with me as heartbreak.  The pain in the chest, the sadness, the reluctance to get out of bed–these are the symptoms people report when a relationship ends or someone dies.  I was struggling to feel like a made a difference as a teacher; my students seemed more interested in their cell phones. I could also see that I needed to get back into writing again.  For fun. For me.

So, you may be wondering why I went into all of the personal details.  Yes, it is the long explanation. As I get my writing muscles moving again, I want to support other authors as much as I can.  All storytellers are doing their best to keep all the plates spinning. My hope is that you’ll check out some of these books and authors; hopefully you’ll discover some new favorites!