Wondering Wednesday is a new weekly post started by my wonderful blogging friend Jessica over at A Baker’s Perspective. The idea is to give readers a chance to get to know the blogger behind all of the book reviews and other blog posts. I think this is a great idea and I’m glad to be a part of the fun 🙂

Question: What made you start blogging?

For many, many years I wanted to blog but didn’t think I had anything interesting enough to talk about.  A few years back when I was working at my overnight job, a friend of mine got me hooked on Goodreads. We were able to listen to audiobooks while we were working, but keeping ourselves stocked had become quite the task (we also had to be able to have them in disc form so Overdrive and Hoopla didn’t help us much). I started winning several Goodreads giveaways and that was actually what got me started on writing out reviews. Before that I would give star ratings, but that was it. When another friend of mine introduced me to the Avid Readers of Christian Fiction page on Facebook,  I heard people talking about NetGalley and was instantly excited. Confession? I initially started my blog because of NetGalley. *Runs and hides* I thought, if I was already writing reviews anyways, it couldn’t hurt if I had a blog. I honestly wasn’t sure how things were going to go. I’d tried starting blogs a few times in the past, but didn’t feel like I had anything “exciting” to talk about. Even when I started out this time, I wasn’t sure a “book blog” would be something people would be interested in following. I’d always been an avid reader, but I never had a lot of friends who were really readers either. BUT things changed very quickly. The family that I was introduced to in the CF world has been nothing short of amazing. In my first year I made several blogging friends that took me under their wing and helped me grow as a blogger and supporter of authors. A little over a year after I started blogging, I attended my first reader retreat (CFRR). When I tell you that was one of the most invaluable and priceless experiences of my life, I promise you I’m not kidding. It was at that event that I was not only able to meet some of my blogging friends in-person, but I was also able to meet multiple authors. I learned so much in that weekend and it was such a boost of encouragement that I don’t even have words to describe it. I learned that there is very real value in reviewing, and in today’s growing world of social media, there are a multitude of ways we can share about books and authors we love to get the word out about them. Yes, blogging is fun, but it’s also work. Regardless if I am reading a book “for a review” now or just for fun, I review everything I read because I understand the value in it. Sometimes they are easy to write, and others I don’t feel like I have the right words (and not just because of liking or not liking the book). I had to learn the lesson of balance just like many other bloggers before me, and I’ve watched others through it as they’ve started their blogging journeys (although let’s be honest, it’s a lesson many of us continue to learn over and over… too many amazing books but not all the time to read them haha).

The Christian fiction world (authors, bloggers, readers, editors, bookstore workers, etc) feels like family now. If you had asked me a little over two years ago (when I started this) if I thought I would be where I am today with it, I most assuredly would not have believed you. I finally have people that I can talk excitedly about books with and they actually get it. Yes, I admittedly get a lot of free books. BUT (as many of my friends can attest to) I also have no problem filling a cart in a bookstore (shout out to Baker! 🤣 ), or even online (made worse by quarantine haha). I have been amazed on multiple occasions to hear from people I know saying that they have picked up books because they saw me talking about them on my blog and/or Facebook–people I didn’t even know liked reading! At first I was more shy about talking about them because I didn’t think people were interested, but now I talk about them pretty much nonstop (sorry… haha).  I’ve also learned I can be pretty persuasive at tempting others into the world of book addiction 😉 Word of mouth really is a powerful way to share the book love, and as someone who truly loves books, I’m glad I can share some of that love <3

I think this might be a little longer than I originally intended, but there you have it. Believe it or not, this is the short version of the story  😉