Hail & Well Read On Hiatus || See You in August!

Hiatus is, admittedly, not my best friend.

But the fact of the matter is that I’m putting Hail & Well Read on hiatus until August 2020. It’s only for about a month and a half, but it’s a much-needed month and a half. Lately, I’ve been struggling to find the energy and heart for new content, and pushing on through that is a recipe for burnout. So today, I’m going to give you a quick rundown on what you can expect until August, and then I’m off to shove the building blocks of my life back into some kind of semi-sensible order.

Why a hiatus, Meaghan?

Because, point blank, my mental health sucks. I’m working on managing it, but some personal things I’d rather not discuss have rocked the boat, and I can’t paint a masterpiece when I’m also trying to keep my dinky, half-flooded canoe from sinking.

And admittedly, this isn’t a full hiatus. I’m not vanishing entirely from the face of the earth. I like staying in touch with folks, and I think there are a lot of causes that need attention and support right now, especially the George Floyd protests. During this hiatus, I won’t be creating new content, but I will be boosting the words of other bloggers, authors, and folks involved in the protests. I’ve got a platform to make use of, so I’m going to use it.

So, no new content at all with Hail & Well Read on hiatus?

Essentially, no. I’m not doing Top 5 Tuesdays or constant reviews or discussion posts. I just don’t have it in me right now.

That said, I will do the ARC reviews I have planned, since I consider those of extra importance. This is especially true for ARCs by marginalized authors and debut authors, who need all the support they can get. Thankfully, reviews are often the least stressful posts I can write. I take thorough notes as I read, have a template to organize my thoughts, and it’s often a matter of just pouring all of my bookish feelings onto the page after that.

Then we wait until August?

Yep, you wait until August. I feel like a month and a half allows me a fair bit of time to rest, and that I can do some content creation in that span of time. Take some photos for Instagram. Maybe set up that review directory I keep meaning to do. Write mini reviews of the things I read while on hiatus, to get all my feelings out without feeling the pressure of full reviews all the time.

(Just because reviews are the easiest kind of post for me doesn’t mean they’re not hard work sometimes, folks.)

Like I said to start, I don’t love the idea of putting Hail & Well Read on hiatus. This blog is my baby. It’s a lot of hard work and time, and I’m proud of it. Given my history of giving up on projects because I’m afraid of how they’re going to be received, I am incredibly delighted that I’m still here blogging two and some years after I started. That’s no small feat for me. It’s proof that I can follow through, and that’s valuable to me right now.

I suppose I just need the time, though. Two years blogging with very few breaks is a ton of work. More than I ever anticipated, and I need to sit back and reassess how I’m going to handle it not only in this moment, but going forward.

I hope I’ll see you when August rolls around!

I’m putting my Instagram on hiatus along with the blog, but I’ll be around on Twitter, whether in personal measure or to boost other people’s platforms. If you want to stay in touch, you’re more than welcome to DM me, and I promise I won’t bite. (I won’t promise immediate replies, though; memory of a goldfish at the moment, frankly.)

And I wish you all the good things in the world, especially while I’m gone. Things suck for a lot of reasons (to frame it on a very basic level), and I hope they suck less in the weeks to come.

Wishing you all well, and I’ll see you in August. ❤️💛