Why am I having the urge to blog? Every once in a while I remember this space, and how dedicated I was to it back in the day. I started WOAW nine years ago, posting every other day, unashamed, not caring about whether my words would be judged, or if people would think I’m nuts. It was fun.

Writing was fun and I miss that. Now it feels like work sometimes. Don’t get me wrong–I love that since I’ve started this blog, I’ve been able to publish books. I love that my stories have resonated with a few people, and mostly, I love that I’ve met so many wonderful friends through writing and publishing.

Now, though, writing feels different. Like I’m supposed to be serious now, so I can’t blog about The Love Boat, or some dumb dream I may have had about The Rock and a baguette. Like any free time I have to write must have the publishing goal in mind. No more silliness. Instead I try to market and it’s exhausting.

But looking back on these stories–especially the posts about my kids and their antics when they were little–makes me so happy. My boys are 18 and 16 now, and I love having these little vignettes about the things they did in every day life that I would have surely forgotten had it not been for WOAW.

I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. I’m on Twitter. I don’t share much there, though. Once in a while I’ll post a picture of the boys, but I don’t tell the stories that I used to tell. I don’t document my life the way I used to.

Not that my life is so exciting, because it’s not really. Finding things to blog about has been more and more of a challenge, as I put up this serious-publishing-author-person wall around me. There’s a filter on everything. But here, maybe if I tear down that wall a bit and go back to writing the nonsense of my every day life, the benefits will be twofold–first, I’ll get to write for fun, and second, I’ll continue creating something my boys can read someday .

We’ll see how it goes. There may be typos. There will definitely be grammar errors. But I’m going to try not to care and just enjoy.

Love, Jess