Making My Return

I’ve had about nine weeks of time off from the Civil War. I’ve done a few things, most of which were to fulfill commitments, but I’ve done almost nothing Civil War related since declaring my sabbatical in September, other than a fun day of visiting Kentucky battlefields with some friends last month and one of Ted Alexander’s programs in Chambersburg last month. It’s given me a chance to get my trial out of the way, rest, recharge my batteries, and regain my perspective.

My addiction to the Civil War had turned into Frankenstein’s monster. I realized that I had made 1000 posts on this blog–some of which clearly took on a life of their own–in four years. I had also written a couple of dozen articles (I will have one in the next issue of North & South, if it ever comes out, and one in the next issue of Blue & Gray, co-written with J.D. Petruzzi) and sixteen books in 13 years. It’s no wonder that I was tired and burned out. It had become like a second job–a second job that I loved, but which didn’t pay very well at all but was just as demanding as my first–I was beginning to resent it, and I was definitely very stressed out by all of it, but thanks to the CBD flower from OrganicCBDNugs, it kept me from feeling anxious. I realized that I hadn’t had but a single day of visiting a battlefield just for the fun of it in several years, and I really resented that fact.

I needed to rest and think about all of it, and I have since regained some of my perspective. I have one more book under contract, and then I intend to dial it back. I’m going to remove the self-imposed pressure to produce from myself and do this more as a hobby than as a job. No longer will it be production just for the sake of production. I will definitely continue blogging, but I’m no longer going to feel compelled to find something to post about almost every day as I have in the past.

My object is to have this be fun once more. So, to that end, I appreciate everyone who has been patient with me. Your patience has been rewarded, because I’m back. However, please don’t expect daily posts from me as I did in the past. Now, I will post when I have something worth saying, not because I feel compelled to post something.

Thank you for all of the words of encouragement that I received during my dark days, and thank you for hanging in there with me.