beyond the blog | The Housework Can Wait

Today’s topic for Armchair BEA is “Beyond the Blog.” We’re supposed to talk about how we monetize our blog and how we are achieving our personal writing goals.

Um.

Okay, first of all, this is my financial goal as far as monetizing my blog:

But really, at the moment, the actual monetization of my blog is more like this:

So if any of you established bloggers have great words of wisdom on how I can get from point A to point B (or, I guess, from point B to point A, considering the order I put those GIFs up), I’m all ears. Eyes? Dang it, my colloquialisms fall apart on the Internet.

[Edit: Since several people are mentioning this in the comments, I already am an Amazon Associate. I detail that and other small ways readers can support my blog here. So far I have made enough to buy half an old paperback. Woohoo!]

As for writing outside the blog…well, like probably every other book blogger on the planet, I’ve at least flirted with the idea of writing my own book. I’ve conceptualized, outlined, and discarded two concepts for a book. I’m a really harsh critic, especially on myself, and neither concept held up once I attacked it with my brain. But who knows. Maybe someday.

But for right this minute, I’m happy cultivating my little blog. It’s still new and shiny, and I’m excited to see if it will grow into something special. I mean, I already think it’s special, but it’s my blog. I’m supposed to think that.

I think my mom thinks that too.

So instead I will share a fun aspect about my life, because that’s what we’re supposed to do if none of the day’s topics apply to us. And the most fun (and infuriating) aspects of my life are these two goobers:

My oldest is 6, and she is just starting to read beginner chapter books to herself. I’m trying to convince her to help me launch a new children’s section of my site, where I would provide a brief summary and parent reaction to a children’s book, and then she would provide the child’s perspective. If, that is, I can get her to say more than 3 words to me about the books she reads.

I think I’m winning her over, because I just received three ARCs of children’s books in the mail. Did you know they even made ARCs for children’s books? Well they do, I got them, and she read them, and one of them came with jewelry. So bribery may be swaying her to my cause.

My youngest is 3, and she is not reading yet. She also is not entirely sure of the difference between letters and numbers, and even though I consider myself an intelligent person, I’m having the hardest time explaining it to her. I know, it should be simple, but sometimes when you are dealing with a 3-year-old, simple things are not as simple as they should be. So she keeps doing things like looking at flowers and telling me they start with ‘4’. Which makes sense in her world, because ‘flower’ and ‘four’ start with the same sound, whereas when I tell her ‘flower’ actually begins with ‘F’, she retorts that can’t be true because ‘F’ starts with an ‘eh’ sound. And by the time we’re finished, she’s halfway convinced me that ‘flower’ starts with ‘4.’

Why is any of this relevant? Well.

A large part of the reason why I love to read YA books, aside from the fact that I really do personally enjoy them, is because I know that in a few years, my kids will be old enough to read them. Maybe not the more mature ones (you had better believe I’m not giving a copy of The Immortal Rules to a 10-year-old. Right now, they both claim that there are scary parts in Backyardigans), but at least the middle grade titles. And by the time they are old enough to read those books, it is my goal to have a home library full of books they will love that I have already read. And then not only will I know what they’re reading, but I will be able to talk about the books with them.

I want to be a mom my kids can talk to. I want to be able to understand what they like. Both of my kids have displayed a great love of books since they were babies. My 6-year-old takes one of her chapter books to bed with her every night. She actually cornered me in the kitchen the other night, when I thought she had been asleep for an hour, because she was upset that her book ended on a cliffhanger (who knew Rainbow Fairy books ended on cliffhangers?) and she wanted me to buy the next one. Right then.

So if she stays true to form (and if she has any of my genes…which I’m pretty sure she does…), she will be a voracious reader into her tween years and beyond. And by the time she’s old enough to realize what I’m doing with my blog, hopefully she’ll think it’s awesome. And we will be our own book club. And it will be glorious.

Hm. This post turned into something different than what I was intending when I started it. But I think I’m okay with that.