They see Easter is a time for new life right? Well just one year ago, the tiny project that is theBOWreview was born. Yep, its official – my blog is one year old!

And here I am reflecting on the same time last year when I started my long weekend jotting down name ideas for this very blog. I purchased my domain name, chose a WordPress template, started working on an About Me post, and promised myself that this would not be like my other fads in life. This project was a keeper.

In truth though, theBOWreview has been a long time coming. The idea came about some years ago when a friend was going on holiday and she asked me what she should read on the beach. Then I found myself sending her a mini review on everything great I had recently read, and I bloody enjoyed writing it for her. I suspect she ended up just buying a Marian Keyes at the Newslink, but none-the-less, it ignited an idea.

It wasn’t until I couldn’t read every night, that I realised how important books were to me. You see, when I had my baby three years ago, we were blessed with the most adorable, clever and breathtaking night owl that ever graced the planet. We went through around nine months of sleep deprivation. The kind of tiredness only a sleep school patient would understand. Getting up eight times a night, rocking for an hour to be rewarded with a 40 minute cat-nap, when ‘Me Time’ was closing your eyes while on the toilet kind of tired. In fact, my life was such a blur that I didn’t even think about books or how much I missed them. Of course, people recommended books to me, (please god, will they just shut up about Tizzie, fucking, Save our Sleep Hall?) but I was rather tired, cranky and generally too spaced out for any meaningful action such as a library visit.

So it was actually two Easters ago that I was reminded of my love of reading, and the seed of this new baby was sewn. A holiday weekend away from home, not long after being discharged from sleep school ‘training’ (controlled crying with Temazepam for Mummy) and we all had started to get some rest. After such a long time getting by on broken sleep, a nap during the day and 7 hours uninterrupted at night, I was like a 20 year old drinking red-bull at a dance festival grinding away on my jaw.

But what to do during those daytime naps? Yes napping myself was an obvious option, and I definitely opted for it as often as I could. But on this occasion, after checking Facebook for the nineteenth time that hour, I was drawn to the iBookstore on my phone. Reading on a tiny phone screen definitely goes against the grain for me, but there was no bookstore anywhere near our holiday spot, and I was onto my second G&T anyway so couldn’t venture anywhere in a vehicle.

And there I found myself downloading my very first eBook. Now I can’t say my judgement was particularly good at that time: We need to talk about Kevin was probably not the ideal choice for a Mum whose child seemingly had an evil agenda when it came to sleep time, however I read that bastard in a day and a half. Books were back.

THAT look!

So as I write this post and reflect on why I started a blog, I think about significant events in my life and how books were intertwined with them.  I’ve always considered the characters in books my friends.  As a child, if you interrupted my reading you copped a death-stare; a look that I still demonstrate to this day if you mess with my lit.

One day I hope to write a great Australian novel, or the story of someone excellent and inspiring. But right now I don’t have the discipline, plot ideas or will-power to start working on this dream. But the commitment to writing a least a monthly post, and the thrill I get when people have read, it is sustaining me and my creativity for the time being.

And I’m proud that after just a year of fiddling about with this thing, that people are responding, and that I’ve stayed motivated, and that I’ve even worked out what the hell a widget is in WordPress.

I’d be grateful if you’d vote for me in the Best Australian Blogs competition People’s Choice round. The blogs shortlisted in last year’s comp inspired me to take part, and I’ll be honest – my artistic ego would get a huge boost knowing that you like me – even just a little bit when there’s nothing else interesting happening on the interweb.

In Short: Happy birthday to me. Thanks for reading!

Vote for me by following this link:  http://svy.mk/1jn6yQW
I’m listed as theBOWreview (about 3/4 down the page). You can also click on the Best Australian Blogs Logo, as seen in the sidebar above. #bestblogs14