Where Have I Been???

I suppose I think I can just waltz in here like I own the place and just pretend I haven’t been away for… *checks notes* …eight months? Wow. Ok.

But for real, here’s a list of things I’ve been doing:

1. Grad School

So, yes, I started grad school back in February, which if you’re paying close attention, is about when I stopped writing blog posts. The timing is uncanny.

I’m working on getting my MA in Communications with an emphasis in Marketing and New Media. I’m learning a lot, reading and writing a lot, and rethinking a lot of my online presence. My goal is to be able to create my own position through social media/marketing consulting, freelance, and independent content creation, AND/OR to join a company or nonprofit org as a marketing, communications, or social media manager. It’s a pretty eclectic field, so it’s hard to predict where I’ll land. But for now, I am so happy I’m doing this.

2. TikTok

Yes I am still on the clock app. I hit 10K followers a couple weeks ago, which feels like a big milestone. I’m basically just digging further into my carved-out niche and there’s not much different to report, except…

3. Prepping for JASNA

Last fall a TikTok mutual reached out to me about joining a panel of speakers to present at JASNA’s annual conference on Jane Austen and TikTok. We are putting our presentation together and I’m flying to Chicago in a couple weeks to present it. I will definitely write more about this later.

4. Good Society

I am nothing if not consistent and my friends I have to confess that I do indeed play an RPG and that RPG is the Jane Austen Role Playing Game, Good Society. It’s more collaborative than a lot of other role-playing games because all the players work together to write a Jane Austen-esque or Regency Romance novel featuring their original characters. My group is approaching it like we’re writing our own season of a Bridgerton-esque TV series. It’s great fun. A couple weeks ago we had a masquerade ball and all hell broke loose.

5. Pop DNA and Other Writing/Bookish Things

I am also still one half of the podcast Pop DNA. If you haven’t listened, please do. We’re talking about Shadow and Bone for October.

I also post fairly regularly on Instagram, and I have been working on some ideas for original fiction that I might try to write for NaNoWriMo. Because I don’t already have enough stuff going on.

What’s Next??

I realized that I miss blogging. I miss organizing my thoughts on various bookish topics into snarky or heartfelt or insightful posts and reading readers’ comments. In my Identity and Personal Branding class this term I made a goal to post on my blog twice per month. This isn’t a lot, it’s only about half of what I posted before grad school, but I want to get these muscles working again so I think it’s a good goal.

I’m probably not going to do blog tours or pre-release book reviews anymore unless I REALLY need an arc of the book (priorities), because those were the things that made blogging feel like too much work. Instead I’m going to write about things I find interesting–basically a lot of the same types of posts I’ve done in the past, most likely, but on my own schedule. I have a couple of posts that I’m planning for October and they are both about Jane Austen (or at least tangentially related), so buckle up!

Anyway, I also just wanted to say thanks if you are reading this post right now. Thanks for sticking around if you’ve been here awhile, and thanks for giving me a chance if you’re new. I hope you find something to amuse you here. I’m going to try to stay consistent so you know when to expect new posts, if that’s the kind of thing you care about.

How are you? What’s going on in your life that’s exciting or challenging? If you’re a blogger, is consistency tough for you? How do you find motivation to keep it up?

Have a lovely day, and as always, happy reading!