I initially started this blog when I was diagnosed with bipolar in 2007. A therapist suggested doing SOMETHING that would get me out of bed each day to drag myself out of the pity party that I had going on. All I did was read and write, so I was like I know! I will start a book blog! It wasn’t much when I started it. I don’t even want to look at my earliest reviews, but it kept me somewhat out of the abyss of hopelessness that pervades so many people that are diagnosed with mental illness. It helped me start a writing habit, and it got me out of bed most days. As I slowly got better from my psychotic break, my writing improved vastly. I kept on with the blog, and many people could see how much my writing improved from the disjointed mess that it was before. To keep myself busy I learned all I could about SEO and the internet and some graphic design and stuff such as that. Soon friends were asking me to write for their websites. Then people started paying me. I started a separate site with my name because I heard that what one was “supposed” to do. So I did. But It always felt as if I had cleaved myself in half on the internet. I mean I was writing about writing on one and book on the other, and there was so much overlap, so this year I decided to merge the two, and this is the result.
Now it is 2018, and I have never been better. I have Ghostwriting clients, and I am writing, and life is great! Initially had two blogs this one and Hillary Nicole Roberts. It was time consuming to keep up two blogs and do client work. I thought about it and writing is not just the physical act of writing, but it encompasses the whole kind of creative lifestyle. I like writing lifestyle posts now that why I put in the tagline a Bookish LifeStyle Blog. I will still have book reviews still. I love books and book reviews, but there will be other stuff on here such as my paleo journey and journey to getting healthy. I have come to see that the act of writing it just part of putting words on paper or screen. There is the act of coming up with ideas; there is the act of staying creatively inspired among other things. I know that I for one cant write well when I feel down or sick, so there is the whole self-care thing that I have going on to make sure I feel my best. These are all the ways that I live a creative lifestyle and all the ways that my lifestyle affects or impacts my writing, and I want to explore these also.
I have started taking paleo seriously. I mean the whole lifestyle. Not just bits and pieces. I am finding that it does a lot to calm my anxiety and ADHD. I may graduate to keto later this year, but I know from experience if you try to do too much your whole body and brain will rebel, and it is not pretty. So I am taking it step by step as outlined in the Keto Reset Diet. I want to write about getting healthy. Not just losing weight but being the best me that I can be.
In short, i want to expand my writing beyond books and onto other parts of life. Books are my first love yes but not my only one now. People change, and blogs change. This change will be for the better! Lets rock 2018!