Hey folks! I thought I would give you all an update on my blog and a little bit of a life update as some unwanted curveballs have been thrown our way that myself and my partner have had to contend with this past couple of months. Also from October, things change.

So, firstly I want to thank you all for your incredibly warm support for my blog and inviting me into the book community. This past year has been a bit of a whirlwind, connecting with bloggers, booktubers and authors alike on Twitter and being asked to join Before We Go, not only as a contributor but on their SPFBO judges panel too. It really has been a wonderful ride and one I intend to carry on with.

Some of you who follow me on Twitter may know that I am currently studying an Earth science degree with the Open University on a part-time basis over 6 years. I missed the opportunity to go to university when I was younger, as my father passed away slap bang in the middle of my A-Levels and changed everything.

I now have a second chance to do something, not only for myself, but for something my dad would have been immensely proud of. I have a passion and love for science that goes beyond mere interest and studying this degree opens gateways for me to change my career and prospects. My current job, to be frank, is just to pay the bills, I don’t get any satisfaction or stimulation on an intellectual or emotional level with my current job. It pays the bills and puts a roof over our head, and that’s great. I know I am privileged to be in that position. But, I now have the opportunity to work towards something that really matters to me.

So, that means that my podcasting and book blogging has to take second place to my studies. I begin my 4th year in October and things start to really heat up, the science more complex, the hours required to study increases and the focus needed becomes more intense. I need to get my head down and have a singular focus.

This means that my frequency of blogging will decrease quite a bit during term time, which is October-May with the Open University. I will propose to release two blogs a month, which will include book reviews and other book updates. My fantasy and sci-fi reading time will also be reduced, most of what I will be reading will be along the lines of the chemical composition of andesite lava or an investigation into isostatic equilibrium. I predict I will be able to read 3 or 4 books a month at the most during my studies.

My involvement with SPFBO won’t be changing as this is much more manageable to schedule with my studies and due to the fact there is a large team of people involved in BWG. Plus, its an honour to be involved and I am loving the process.

I have realised a dual announcement on my podcasts Observing The Pattern: A Fringe Podcast and Turn Of A Page, my book podcast and that lays out the plan for both of those podcasts going forward. Turn Of a Page has 3 more fantastic guests lined up then that will be taking a hiatus until June next year. The podcast was always designed to be a summer project for me in between OU term times. So for more info on the podcast schedules and info you can listen to that update here.

Basically by summer of 2023 I will have wrapped up and finished Observing the Pattern, stepped away from my hosting duties on all the Star Trek podcasts and primarily focus on my co-hosting with Baz Greenland on A Dream Given Form: A Babylon 5 podcast and One Rules Them All: A Rings Of Power podcast and then the 10-episode run of Turn Of A Page during the summer.

That’s everything I need to update you on really in terms of frequency of blogging and podcasting. Keep an eye on the final episode of Turn Of A Page coming up soon I have TWO surprise guests who are big in the twitter book community, but I shall say no more. I am currently reading Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen so expect a review of that in the coming week and also my overdue review of A Drowned Kingdom this week as well.

This August I will be doing something a little different to last year. I have spent most of the year reading self-published, indie authors, so instead of participating in #indieaugust, I will be reading The Wrong Sword by Ted Rabinowitz as part of SPFBO and also reading an ARC of Sword Of Mercy by N. C. Koussis. But I will also be doing a reread of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and The Lord Of The Rings in the run up to Amazon Prime’s The Rings Of Power. A busy month ahead!

Until next time bookworms, revel in the destruction of your TBR…