Hiatus Again, Oh the Joy

I’m taking on a hiatus again. The longest one I’ve decided on. Call it soul searching, getting my grove back or recharging the batteries. It’s not because I can’t arrange my day or chop up every task into easy to swallow bits. I am a decent juggling act, even though time is sparse. It has to do more with stress than with anything else. Having to think about what to read next, by which date to have it read and reviewed for whatever reason, see which new book is due to hit the shelves, which author/editor/blogger to interview.

This is the tiring part. Thinking up new ways to entertain and provide quality content. I admit to being a perfectionalist. When I immerse myself into something I am in love with, I feel the need to shine everywhere. Some bloggers comment on cover art. Others post insightful reviews. Others arouse discussions and there are those inquisitive people, who produce captivating interviews. I try to embody all and as you might assume the result is less than inspiring and even if it is good enough to read, it is most certainly no fun to maintain. In my attempts to achieve perfection, push through, span out, reach the stars I have discarded the allure. I have burnt completely out.

I don’t rush to complete reviews upon reading a novel. I am also not particularly fond of how I approach reviews in general. I am not as eager to read other review blogs, something which I had great pleasure in doing. Not a long while ago, James from Speculative Horizons talked on the motivation and reasoning behind starting a review blog. In his post he discussed that there is no point in starting up a review blog, if you are in for the review copies and the perks that are bound to come up. Mark Charan Newton commented on the self-inflicted pressure and the fixation on the newest releases. Last, but not least my dear friend Tyhitia from Obfuscation of Reality talked with me about how blogging is not her priority as a writer and how writing has to come before reviewing.

I have been doing exactly the opposite, although I’ve to say I never saw how the reasons that pushed me further switched places. I am now blogging at an accelerated pace, because more or less I want to be relevant, I want to be competitive, better than others, set stat records and in doing so I read and review what I have as review TBR, always pushing for the newest to be released. I want to read in other genres as well: literary fiction, the mainstream classics and vintage SFF and non-fiction, which I don’t have the time for. I want to use reading as a base for my writing and right now the situation is either reading or writing.

So, my hiatus is a way to say ‘screw the stats, the newest releases and the need to dominate’ and get back to basics, to the starting grounds. I have currently written a few reviews and after a certain anthology I want to read and review, along with interviewing several people. After I am done with those, I am leaving you all to my ever talented contributors to keep the fires on. In the mean time, I will study, work and write. Taking it easy, you know, easy on the schedule for me.

See you in September. Have fun people. It’s why we are doing it.