*Anncmnt! Stepping down & stepping up [changes]

Can I start off by saying this has been one of the craziest (hardest) years of my life? For all of the details you can look up some of my personal posts, or just ask, but this year has been so life changing and emotional. Many times I’ve thought about throwing in the towel and shutting down shop here at Dog-Eared & Bookmarked. When your heart isn’t in it, you need to step back. In April, I decided to take a two month break from blogging before returning in June. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to recapture what I love about blogging and quite frankly it’s been really hard.

As much as I love books, reading, etc., maintaining this blog and trying to keep up with other bloggers and all of the new releases has become a huge burden. Often, I find myself not even caring about books anymore. So, back in June I decided this blog was going back to its roots: MINE! In order to do so I decided to leave this an open blog for everything. It’s no longer a blog just about books, because I can’t talk about books everyday and have it be creative. Some bloggers are truly gifted in this area, me not so much.

Since then it’s been going o-kay. I wouldn’t jump up and down and claim it to be a success; however it’s definitely freed me of some of the burden. Now that it is midway through September I’ve decided more changes need to happen on this blog.

I started university and my reading time is LIMITED. I’ve only read one and a half books in the last month, and I’ve only done that because I listen to the audiobooks on my way to/from school. As you can guess, I can’t keep up with new book releases. With this in mind, I brainstormed ways to keep Dog-Eared & Bookmarked an active blog and have made a couple big decisions.

One, Dog-Eared & Bookmarked is officially an old school book blog. Meaning, I will no longer be seeking out new releases, unless they are obtained through gift or NetGalley. I’ve also decided to step down as a reviewer for the website Night Owl Reviews. This decision was made with great sadness as I’ve been reviewing for them longer than this blog has been alive.

• I have boxes upon boxes of books in my closet that haven’t been read yet. They were new releases at one point, but I never got a chance to read them. With Dog-Eared & Bookmarked going ‘old school’ I will be reading all of those older books. I’ll still be aware of new releases and pick up the ones I really want, but they will no longer be my priority.
• Same goes for review requests, tours, events, etc. I will no longer participate. Sorry!

This decision to go old school was not made easily. I’ve thought about it for months and up until last night I was still debating what to do. However, I need to free myself of a burden that has been weighing on me for far too long. I know I may lose some followers, because a lot of you want to be up-to-date with the new, but this blog is mine and I have to blog for me before anyone else.

Some of the other changes that happened back in June:

• Monday’s Music Musette, a feature I created last year in order to share my love of music. I was studying music in school before I switched majors, so music is in my blood. It’s a given I want to talk about it and share. Every Monday I try to put up a post about one album I think people should check out. 
• Twilight Thursday, a feature I created last year to share my love of all things Twilight. A couple of months ago I switched gears and started blogging about Breaking Dawn pt. 2 [the movie] and have loved every minute of it. This feature is here to stay! 
• My Friday Favorites, is a brand new (since June) feature that I use to recapture my week. It’s a silly way to be more personable. 
• Sound Off Saturday (S.O.S.), is a brand new (since June) feature that I use for discussion purposes.

All of these features are staying on the blog!

Two, this change goes with the Twilight Thursday feature. I’ve been covering all things Breaking Dawn pt. 2 and have loved being able to share everything going on with the franchise, however we all know it will be ending in November; and I wanted to have something else to blog about [movie wise]  and decided to bring The Hunger Games officially to Dog-Eared & Bookmarked. In a feature that will be starting in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be blogging about Catching Fire and its book-to-film production. This will be blogged until next year when Mockingjay will start production.

The new feature will be called Catching Fire Friday!

Same rules will apply for this feature that I set for Twilight Thursday. This is for the movie only. For any posts about the actors themselves, you’ll have to follow the dozens of blogs who faithfully cover that stuff. Unless something pops up with the cast that directly affects the film, then I will cover it. Otherwise, the blog posts will be geared towards this awesome book being turned into a movie.

I might as well announce this: Starting next year this blog will cover both Mockingjay 1 and 2 in a feature titled: Mockingjay Monday!

                Disclaimer: I’m stating this now so the idea doesn’t get stolen, haha!

Okay, I think that about does it! Starting now, Dog-Eared & Bookmarked is going old school with books, and creating The Hunger Games related posts. More music, more personal stuff, and a lot of burden thrown to the curb! – I hope you guys stick around, but no worries if this is not for you.

Finally, the graphic for Catching Fire Friday is hopefully just a place holder. I’m trying to get one of my nephews to make the official logo. Fingers crossed!

Peace, love, and happy reading,

Cyndi

Original graphic for Catching Fire Friday can be found HERE