Losing Ground: True Confessions of an Overwhelmed Blogger

Lately, I've come to the realization that I'm drowning in my own life. I'm so bogged down keeping track of the ever-expanding list of things I should be doing that I'm not actually getting things done. It's system overload. Like the human equivalent of this familiar image:

Jessica: "See that picture? That's OUR LIVES! Where is the ctrl-alt-del?!?"

I'm telling you all this because I feel like we need full disclosure. I mean. let's be honest. You're here for a book blog, and we're not putting out. That's the bottom line, but let me explain.

Without getting into great detail, the team here has been busy with personal stuff. There's work crazy, which I know we've all had at one time or another. Adulthood, the shackles of financial security and all that stuff. I haven't touched a book in over two weeks unless it was to move it from one spot to another. That saddens me because reading is my way to wind down.

Then of course there's personal life gone mad. Demands on your time, the guilt every time you say no and the involuntary twinge of regret that comes from saying yes and putting your life off one more day to help the ones you love. We all do it, but there comes a time where you have to reclaim your life, right?

When it gets to the point that you're having some strange, out-of-body movie moment, watching yourself backslide into an overwhelmed oblivion then it's too late. You've relinquished control to the crazy. I can't speak for the rest of the team, but I'm not ready to give into the sucking vortex of grown-up obligations.

Long story short, the combined life crazy around here lately has led to the blog suffering a bit. We've all gone through recent reading slumps and posts have fallen off as well. For that I'm sorry. While talking with Jessica last weekend I quipped that we were like a bunch of sorority chicks whose cycles had synced up because the collective busyness always seemed to strike at the same time.

Convincing myself that there was something worth salvaging amidst the half-finished projects, dangling conversations and emotional and organizational wreckage was the hard part. Reclaiming what's there is easier. The only way to do that is one thing at a time. It's a matter of priorities.

Obviously, life has to come first for all of us. I'm cleaning house mentally and physically in an effort to really get back on track and come back better than ever. Our readers deserve that, which is why I'm here sharing the plan with you.

Now readers, if we were in a bad Lifetime movie relationship you could just call it quits. You could say thanks for the memories, pack up your keyboards and go home to your mother. (That's what always happens in those flicks. You know it.) But I like to think we're less drama, more epic love story. I could run down a list of examples or promise to "never let go" here, but I won't.

Basically what I'm saying is that we haven't forgotten you're out there. All we ask is that you bear with us while we get back to business both in life and blogging.

Don't hate the blogger, hate the game

Okay, I'll be very upfront. I'm blogging today because feel it. My dander's up and I need to get this off my chest. All this talk of bloggers never posting a bad review has got me hot!

A blogger friend of mine was accused of that just yesterday and I couldn't believe it. She is one of the most dedicated bloggers I know and, while she's never mean, she doesn't sugarcoat things. If she didn't like something, she will tell you. (Read her post on this topic HERE.)So you can imagine my shock at hearing that someone thought she only posted positive reviews of books, like she was some kind of publicity plant. And it's not the first time I've heard these kinds of allegations against awesome book bloggers.

Bloggers spend a lot of their time reading and reviewing to get the word out and promote great new books that are forthcoming. But you know this. What you might not know is that there are people who exist just to disagree with other people, sully their name and make that person look bad. (Well, maybe you knew that too.)

And I'm not talking about people who comment on a blog to share their opinion in an honest and meaningful way. I'm talking about people who pop up on occasion and accuse bloggers of being dishonest or a shyster - no better than the stereotypical greasy used car salesman.

Do we, as bloggers, know authors? Of course we do. Are we in their pocket? NO WAY!

Some people might assume that because we get an advance copy of a book or we know an author that we feel we should give their book a positive review. But bloggers aren't around to cater to authors or publishing houses. We don't get paid for what we do and we certainly don't blow smoke. That's what PR flacks are for.

If you want to know the truth of the matter, there are endless reasons why it seems like a blogger writes only positive reviews. Let's examine the possibilities...

(More beneath the cut.)